I Had To "Post A GIF That Describes Your Understanding Of This Topic" So I Made A Quick Gif Of The Sign

Gone

This sign is also used to mean passed away

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID: gone in American Sign Language. Hand in loose 5 handshape slips down through base hand and ends in flat O handshape. The arms are black fading into grey at the bottom. The background is white fading into grey at the bottom.

End ID]

Day 1 of @elliottnotyet's Marchirp

Chicken

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID: Chicken in American Sign Language. Dominant hand in small O handshape starts pointing out in front of signer's mouth, then pecks base hand. End ID]

Lesbian

Sources: Lifeprint, ASLDeafined, them

[Image ID:

The sign for Lesbian in American Sign Language. Index finger of L handshape taps chin. Face outline, lips, and hand have the colors of the lesbian flag (three shades of orange, one of white, and two shades of pink) as a gradient.

End ID]

Deaf owned businesses

Also look up Deaf owned businesses in your area specifically because this is not a comprehensive list. It does not include Crepe Crazy in Austin, Texas which has the best crepes in the world

Biology

Sourc

es: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID:

Both hands in B handshape alternately circle downward. Motion is similar to the sign for science or pouring beakers. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent blue, purple, and pink. Background is white.

End ID]

LGBT

Sources: them

[Image ID:

The signs for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans in American Sign Language

Lesbian: Index finger of L handshape taps chin. Face outline, lips, and hand have the colors of the lesbian flag (three shades of orange, one of white, and two shades of pink) as a gradient.

Gay: G handshape touches chin. Face, lips and hand are in pride colors (black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple) in a gradient.

Bisexual: Blue B and pink I handshapes overlapping slightly with purple in the overlap.

Trans: Hand in 5 handshape with thumb against the chest twist and closes in O handshape. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent blue and pink in different stages of the sign.

Background is white

End ID]

Star

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID:

The sign for Star in American Sign Language. Both hands in 1 handshape with palms facing away from signer point up and rub sides of index fingers. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent blue, purple, and pink in different stages of the sign. Background is transparent.

End ID]

(Im afraid to talk to people online so im using anon HOWEVER)

If you want to find some places to meet Deaf/HoH people you gotta go to Facebook groups! I found this local group to me that meet like once or twice a month who were willing to allow someone who's learning in and I've been going since. Anyways I highly recommended checking local Facebook stuff. There's also some state led websites that people put their events on but you know how that is. I've been learning ASL for about a year now and the thing that made me grow the most is being in the middle of like 30 people signing. Scary but fun! Good luck finding people to chat with 💚

Hi! Thank you so much for your advice. I don't use Facebook but any help is always appreciated.

I have been looking around for months, but it seems my town lacks many things like that. 😮‍💨

I may just get Facebook just to join a group but who knows.

Mushroom

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID:

Mushroom in American Sign Language. Clawed 5 handshape with palm down taps the fingertip of base hand in 1 handshape with the palm. Movement is illustrated by hands that are translucent green and blue in different stages of the sign.

End ID]

When I’m out with Deaf friends, I put my hearing aid in my purse. It removes any ability to hear, but far more importantly, it removes the ambiguity that often haunts me.

In a restaurant, we point to the menu and gesture with the wait staff. The servers taking the order respond with gestures too. They pantomime “drinks?” and tell us they learned a bit of signs in kindergarten. Looking a little embarrassed, they sign “Rain, rain, go away, come again another day” in the middle of asking our salad dressing choice. We smile and gently redirect them to the menu. My friends are pros at this routine and ordering is easy ― delightful even. The contrast with how it feels to be out with my hearing husband is stunning.

Once my friends and I have ordered, we sign up a storm, talking about everything and shy about nothing. What would be the point? People are staring anyway. Our language is lavish, our faces alive. My friends discuss the food, but for me, the food is unimportant. I’m feasting on the smorgasbord of communication ― the luxury of chatting in a language that I not only understand 100% but that is a pleasure in and of itself. Taking nothing for granted, I bask in it all, and everything goes swimmingly.

Until I accidentally say the word “soup” out loud.

Pointing at the menu, I let the word slip out to the server. And our delightful meal goes straight downhill. Suddenly, the wait staff’s mouths start flapping; the beautiful, reaching, visual parts of their brains go dead, as if switched off.

“Whadda payu dictorom danu?” the server’s mouth seems to say. “Buddica taluca mariney?”

“No, I’m Deaf,” I say. A friend taps the server and, pointing to her coffee, pantomimes milking a cow. But the damage is done. The server has moved to stand next to me and, with laser-focus, looks only at me. Her pen at the ready, her mouth moves like a fish. With stunning speed, the beauty of the previous interactions ― the pantomiming, the pointing, the cooperative taking of our order ― has disappeared. “Duwanaa disser wida coffee anmik? Or widabeeaw fayuh-mow?”

Austin “Awti” Andrews (who’s a child of Deaf adults, often written as CODA) describes a similar situation.

“Everything was going so well,” he says. “The waiter was gesturing, it was terrific. And then I just said one word, and pow!! It’s like a bullet of stupidity shot straight into the waiter’s head,” he explains by signing a bullet in slow motion, zipping through the air and hitting the waiter’s forehead. Powwwww.

Hearing people might be shocked by this, but Deaf people laugh uproariously, cathartically.

“Damn! All I did was say one word!” I say to my friends. “But why do you do that?” they ask, looking at me with consternation and pity. “Why don’t you just turn your voice off, for once and for all?” they say.

Hearing people would probably think I’m the lucky one ― the success story ― because I can talk. But I agree with my friends.

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