Originally Posted by
ArizonaGuy
Ok. I'm learning ASL through my local community college so I'm aware of the origins of ASL with LSF as well as what the names Gallaudet, Clerc and Epee mean. Good to know that Auslan and BSL are similar.
I seem to recall seeing an Irish sign language book last spring in Galway which had ASL style one-handed alphabet. I would have thought this would be more closely aligned with BSL. Then again,there's that hate-hate relationship with the British so perhaps not?
Not deaf, but love this interesting thread. I took ASL at Mesa CC in AZ to "keep my calendar year" at ASU when I needed to take some time off to help my family. The class was fun and I got an anecdote from the experience published in Reader's Digest.
For an exam in our sign-language class, we had to attend a group lunch and conduct ourselves as if we were deaf. We could use only sign language and had to pretend we could not hear. We were so persuasive that our two waitresses fell for the charade and began talking freely. Discussing the attractiveness of a certain young man in our class, one waitress suggested the other should ask him for a date. "Don't worry," she pressed. "You can overcome the 'language barrier.'" "Oh, I'm not bothered by that," the other young woman replied. "It's those quick hands that worry me."