How difficult is learning sign language (for the deaf)?

Factual Questions
1

Here’s an odd question. I know a guy who works in the kitchen of a very well known fast food chain store. About a couple weeks ago they hired a deaf woman, and have her working in the kitchen. Nobody in the store knows sign language, and she can’t read lips well. Basically management taught her to cook some things, and the idea is that someone points at her when they need more stuff cooked. At all other times she just stands there and does nothing.

According to this guy, she seemed to him to be depressed and lonely about the situation. She is apparently quite intelligent. This guy has even communicated with her by written notes, and she is quite literate. The problem is in the kitchen things are very fast paced. The hearing employees communicate verbally by telling each other what needs to be done, and they have to hustle quick to do it. This store does a lot of business. No time to stop and exchange written notes.

This woman most definitely knows sign language. One day someone drove to the store to pick up this woman, and he saw the to of them quickly communicating using sign language. This guy I know speculated that if he could somehow learn sign language, things could go a whole lot quicker when working with her in the kitchen. Rather then her just stand there half the time doing nothing, he could tell her to do something useful. And if she needed him to do something, she could just communicate this via sign language.

Thus this guy asked me if I knew any resources where he could learn some sign language? Being an Internet rat, I replied that since just about anything you can imagine can be found on the Internet, surely there must be sites about sign language. I told him I’d look around, and get back to him.

I did some digging around on the Net. Apparently sign language isn’t so simple. I found there are 2 main types of sign language, American Sign Language, and signed English. The former is basically a natural language, while the latter is just translating English to sign language. I guessed she probably knew ASL, and managed to find a website where you could click on a word or term, and it would show a .gif of someone doing the sign for that. I used that site to learn myself the most basic dozen or so signs. Such as “yes”, “no”, “do this”, “don’t do that”, etc. Including the sign for “what is the sign for this?” The latter seemed to me very important. If dealing face to face with a deaf person, if they wanted they could teach someone who could hear on the fly.

The next day I met this guy. I taught him the sign langauge I had learned from this website, and suggested he try this at work with this woman. I pointed out she might not want to communicate with him at all. But if she did, surely she’d respond and try to teach him some more sign langauge.

I talked to him yesterday. She was receptive to the fact he wanted to communicate, and even taught him a number of new sign language terms. They now regularly communicate via sign language, to the confusion of other employees. The managers just ignore them. Last thing on their mind is interefering with an employee who is increasing productivity. No customer will complain if they get exactly what they ordered faster.

I just talked to this guy earlier today, and he asked me for the URL of the site I learned this sign language from. He seemed particularly interested in the possibility of learning more about sign langauge beyond orders. He was thinking about the possibility communicating with this woman on a higher level of understanding. I e-mailed him the URL, with the comment that sign language is so complex, learning it probably can’t be done from a website. Then again, he is not limited to just websites. This woman can be a teacher.

Thus back to the topic of this post. Is learning sign language that difficult?

2

I took ASL several years ago. The basics are pretty simple. Like all other languages, ASL has its own syntax.

I picked up on it pretty quickly. Practice is the key. Unless things have changed in the past 15 years, not every word has a specific sign, but you should be able to express any idea.

3

But what if you can’t take a course to learn ASL? You just know English very well, and are confronted with a deaf woman who knows ASL. Could she teach a guy who is willing to learn the syntax?

4

I don’t see why not. I learned quite a few signs from the kids I worked with.

Can’t hurt to ask.

5

In general, it’s the difference between the grammar/syntax of English and the grammar/syntax of ASL that’s the hard part. Native English speakers who learn sign language as an adult often choose Signed Exact English (SEE), which is essentially ASL signs set to spoken English syntax. Kind of a sign/oral pidgin. I’ve never had the opportunity to learn it, so I can’t really help beyond mentioning it as a possibility that will probably be easier for both of them than for the woman in question to try to teach your friend full-fledged ASL.

6

Yes, it can. This guy had to talk with the managers because a former Iranian co-worker mentioned she thought he was sexually harassing her because at times he bumped into her is a very crowded kitchen. His response was “I never even thought of her that way. I have no interest in her at all.” He challenged these managers asking “have you ever seen me acting in a sexually harassing manner?” Their response was “no, we have never seen anything of that nature.” His response was of the nature “OK, let’s move on.”

This guy is afraid that to get the attention of this deaf woman, he often has to tap her on the shoulder. It’s not like yelling at her will work. But if he intentionally touches her on the shoulder, isn’t this proof of sexual harassment? This deaf woman doesn’t seem to care. His attitude is damn the torpedos, and just do what he thinks is the right thing. There are other fast food joints he can work at.

In the US, it has come down to this. Fear acting normally. Just ignore that sad looking deaf co-worker, and do your job. Do anything else, and it is sexual harassment. Yeah, this is all kinds of stupid fearing a deaf woman. But such is modern reality. :frowning:

7

IANAL, but I don’t think harassment charges can be leveled at the guy if the only way to communicate with the woman is to tap her on the shoulder. Especially if it’s recorded in the employee’s record (and it should be, IMHO).

The boss should get all parties together and work something out.

8

This woman is totally fluent in written English. From what this guy says, from written notes he has exchanged with her the knowledge of written English is superior. Whatever this woman is communicating with him must be some sort of pidgin. He doesn’t know what it is, other than the fact it is adequate for communicaton. If she is fluent in written English and ASL, I presume she could handle SEE. I should perhaps suggest to him that they spend a few hours out of work about the language issue. As she is receptive, certainly they could figure things out.

9

I’ll try to answer your question more fully sometime within the next couple of days. For now, I think your friend would enjoy lurking around at this message board in order to gain some insight as to how Deaf people view their world. In particular, he should see this thread.

Also, your friend can learn the ASL manual alphabet as a quick and dirty means of communicating with his coworker. It’s very cumbersome and tedious to spell out everything, but it works in a pinch.

I wouldn’t sweat the harassment thing. Deaf people are notoriously ‘touchy-feely’ people, and I guarantee you that she has been tapped on the shoulder tens of thousands of times in her life. Deaf people frequently get each other’s attention by stomping on the floor, but this won’t work while standing on a poured concrete foundation.

10

Very helpful answer.

But I do have to say that I got an eerie feeling reading a post knowledgeable about ASL from someone with your username! :eek:

11

Probably the case here, but the way things are today the tendency is toward paranoia. The problem with a deaf person is touching them is the about the only way to get their attention if they are facing the other way. I guess he could throw something at her, but obviously that surely would be seen as offensive.

12

I (a man) worked with a deaf woman, and there was no problem in establishing a mutually acceptable “Hey You!” touch (as I recall, it was a hand on the top of the shoulder.)

Since all three of my kids taught themselves chunks of ASL before they were 12 (they didn’t need it, they just found it interesting) I don’t think there’d be much difficulty in figuring out the language a few signs at a time. Perhaps start with the signs for “cook now” and “danger!” (always a good thing to know in a fast-food kitchen) and then work out to more conversational phrases like “how are you?”

13

Again, I say don’t worry about it. My wife is profoundly deaf, and she has always encouraged her coworkers to tap her on the shoulder if they required her attention. As you just stated, it is the only way to get a deaf person’s attention when their back is turned. No jury in their right mind is going to award her damages because somebody tapped her on the shoulder.