Saturday, 21 June 2008

The ugly duckling

Omigod, the first session of the BSL class was really funny. We had to go round the group and say why we'd enrolled. This red-head said she was doing voluntary work in a deaf school. A girl with a very tight denim skirt said she was taking a year out to do missionary work.

A boy-man said he worked with a deaf guy and wants to be able to chat. That's more like it, not this 'helping the unfortunates' crap! I said, 'I'm here because my boyfriend's deaf.' Somebody actually gasped. Can you believe it? 'And because I think everybody should learn'.

The tutor's called Clive but he has a sign name, which is like a nickname in BSL. It's the sign for C moved across the top of his fingers because he always wears lots of rings. That's his thing. Clive gave me a sign name - swan - and I thought, here we go, it's just like what the Russells said, because I've got really long neck or something freakish.

Then he spelt G.R.A.C.E.F.U.L. and I could have cried.

Hey, why don't you think about giving yourself a sign name? You can tell me what it is if you like. I promise I won't laugh.

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NEXT POST BY MONDAY 30TH JUNE 2008

3 comments:

Amy Linder said...

OMG! It's been a busy week and I totally forgot to check in on you, Liz! Good luck with the class. Love your BSL name! Let's see - if I had to choose one for myself, I think it would be the sign for giraffe - which is hilarious since I'm so short! But I love giraffes and their silent, unique beauty.

Anonymous said...

Cool, my sign name is a heart signed on my chest as I wear a heart shaped locket! x

The Reluctant Pedant said...

I've just discovered this blog, and enjoyed what I've read so far. Go Liz - or should I say "Swan" - get stuck in learning BSL. It's a great language. Doug seems like a really nice bloke, lucky you!

My sign name is "engineer", given to me by a friend a long time ago as a sort of joke. All my signing friends use it now, but most of them probably have forgotten the reason for it - if they ever knew.