Crazy Ideas about Sign Language Discovered at the Library

Being an ASL nut I get so excited when there are other people who share my passion. One day I was working and a man came in asking about some books on signing. I tried to explain that in some regards DVDs work better since it is a visual language but he insisted that he would learn best from a book. Off we went to find some books. (Which will be in the 419 section of your local library... did I mention that I am a totally nut?) So while we were there I found out that he is a priest... pastor... preacher... something that goes into prisons to teach. He wanted to learn ASL so that he could converse with deaf inmates. I thought this was a really admirable trait! That was until I discovered he thought he could look at one ASL book and know ASL fluently. In fact he would be so good at ASL that he would be an interpreter. I tried to explain that there is testing that has to happen for one to become a certified interpreter and that ASL is like any other language and takes time to master. I told him that if he tried to pass himself off as an interpreter and wasn't certified that he could get in a lot of trouble. By the end of our conversation this man was afraid to ever talk to a Deaf person! I tried to explain that one can sign to whoever they want but they can't do it in a professional manner without being certified. He still was terrified but was convinced still that one book would do the trick.... whatever!

The next guy I met about a week later. I was helping him on his laptop and he kept signing thank you to me in ASL. I finally asked him if he had studied the language? He said he had and we swapped stories as to why we started studying the language. I said that I studied because my husband was born deaf and there is a chance our children could be as well. If I can talk to them in English I should be able to talk to them in ASL. He said that he started studying ASL so that he could talk to other planets. Apparently there are other people or creatures that use ASL to converse on other planets. If we ever get invaded then he wanted to be able to converse with these creatures. The part that worried me is that he was dead serious about the whole matter! Hmmm.... I guess that is one reason to learn ASL.