I wish I could have known how to "sign"

[Bright_Star]

I had a customer who bought a brand new car battery. I rang her up, she paid, & I gave her the change from her transaction. That's when it gets interesting. She took 2 steps & all hell broke loose! She pushed the customer, who I had just started to ring up, out of the way, & started to frantically jab at her sales slip.
Now bear in mind that this customer was deaf so she really couldn't say anything. I've waited on her before & had no problems but today was different.
I started to understand that she thought that I had charged her twice for the same thing. I said..."Mam, that charge you see there is for the CORE charge...the $9.00?...You get that back when you return your old battery to customer service."
I assumed that she could read lips but that didn't work. So she gestured for me to write it down & that's what I did BUT she STILL didn't understand. I even had a customer try to make her understand & that didn't work either so the customer helped the lady over to customer service where I assumed they got it straightened out cause she stopped by my register again & gave me the "OK" sign. I was like--->
I felt bad cause I couldn't communicate with her. Knowing sign language would have helped out BIG TIME.

[Andara Bledin]

I think signing should be a "language" available in high schools, myself.

I'd have taken that over German in a heartbeat. Heck, I think I'd have taken that over Japanese or Russian, too.

^-.-^

[ContraCorriente]

I'm near-deaf myself and yes, knowing ASL comes in handy BIG time, but it really was unnecessary for her to act like that.

If she comes in again, you could at least learn fingerspelling. It may take awhile spelling every word you want to say, but it would eliminate a lot of frustration and misunderstanding. =)

Also, while it's not available in most high schools, you can definitely take it for your foreign language elsewhere. Here, e have the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind where a lot of people take it.

[FenigDurak]

I had a deaf woman today who bought a stamp (she just threw her unstamped envelope on the counter to signal what she wanted). Then she made me follow her out to my window display and pointed at our large stuffed rabbit. This thing is HUGE for a stuffed rabbit. I could easily use it as a bed husband or something (that's those pillow things with arms used to prop people up, for all your perverts. ). So I get in the window and pull it out to show her the tag. It's marked at $60.99 which is high for us, but it's a big farkin' rabbit. She flips out and grabs my notepad off the counter (the one I was using to make a new layout for our snack wall! GRR) and starts scribbling all over my notes with "Maybe I'll just go to Hallmark. They carry Russ animals there and it'll be cheaper." My response was to shrug and write "That's probably a good idea then."

I'm not lowering the prices since we don't have that high of a mark up.

I think signing should be a "language" available in high schools, myself.

It was in mine. I went to a public school that offered ASL and Russion in addition to the usual Spanish, German and Italian.

[Arcade Man D]

I went to a public school that offered ASL and Russion in addition to the usual Spanish, German and Italian.

You had German and Italian? Mine only offered Spanish, French, and Latin.


Back on the topic, aye, it can be hard, though we don't get many deaf customers at the arcade. Had a blind customer, though. And he was playing the video games. Took a little to wrap my mind around that one, tbh.

[auntiem]

My cousin has a deaf child - you can get pretty far if you just learn how to sign yes, no, the sign for write and most importantly wait. If you just learn to sign "wait" (anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, but it is right hand upright, palm facing you then you wag your hand left and right (turning at the wrist) kinda like the "beauty queen wave" only quicker) then indicate for them to write it works really well. Double check before trying it out on a deaf customer though, I had a deaf friends in high school and sometimes confuse swear words with more useful ASL.
And of course "thank-you" which is palm facing you fingers touching chin then move hand forward.

[powerboy]

You had German and Italian? Mine only offered Spanish, French, and Latin.

That was offered in my high school also. I was in Spanish and a few of us got kicked out, because too many in the class, dammit. I wanted to learn Spanish and also I want to learn Japanese & ASL

[Reyneth]

If you just learn to sign "wait" (anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, but it is right hand upright, palm facing you then you wag your hand left and right (turning at the wrist) kinda like the "beauty queen wave" only quicker)

"Wait" is more of holding arms out between mid-chest and waist, palms kinda facing you while also facing up at the same time, with one hand staggered behind the other. Spread your fingers and then wiggle them independantly.

"Please" - rubbing your hand (fingers together) palm to you on your chest. That and the "thank you" are certainly good ones - even if you don't know how to sign, it kinda shows Deaf people that you know a little bit of their language and therefore respect it and, by extension, them and their culture.

http://commtechlab.msu.edu/SITES/ASLWEB/browser.htm is a *great* resource for learning individual signs, if not the grammar of ASL.

[Delphae]

My high school didn't offer it, but my college did. I actually started picking up some rudementary ASL way back in second grade. I had a customer the other day who was deaf. The thing is I was busy looking for something and told her to ring the bell for the cashier, not knowing of her deafness. Never once did she indicate that she was deaf (signing would let me know, even if I couldn't understand it). Just got huffy. She finally caught on when I jestured to ring the bell. Not once, but a dozen times. Try and comunicate please lady, don't just glare!

[auntiem]

"Wait" is more of holding arms out between mid-chest and waist, palms kinda facing you while also facing up at the same time, with one hand staggered behind the other. Spread your fingers and then wiggle them independantly.

Thank-you for correcting me - you are right. Sorry, I think I mixed up some "home sign" when I gave that advice. I think I gave the sign for "drop that right now or you're going to be sorry mister".

[Demonoid Phenomenon]

Had a blind customer, though. And he was playing the video games. Took a little to wrap my mind around that one, tbh.

But...HOW?

[tintaglia]

did he play mean pin-ball?

(sorry, but someone had to say it)

seriously though I second Demonoid's 'how?'

[Noelegy]

I took ASL as a language credit (my major was English) in college after getting tired of taking Spanish because Spanish had been just about the only language offered anywhere I'd been in school. I took three years of Spanish in high school because one year was required, and the other two because I had a fantastic Spanish teacher and had a blast in Spanish Club, but once I got to college, I didn't get so fortunate to get another teacher as wonderful as my high school Profesora.

I thoroughly enjoyed the ASL class, because the teacher also taught us about Deaf culture (we had to read "Deaf Like Me.") We were lucky enough to have a girl in our class who was deaf, who was fluent in ASL and just taking the class for an easy A and we were able to get her perspective on things.

I would have liked to take more ASL classes, but my degree plan wouldn't take them as further language credits, and I'd used up my electives. I still have my books and one day will polish up my skills and study further on my own. I found it fascinating. It was a summer mini-mester, and later that fall I traveled to the Washington DC area to visit online friends (if there are any ASCers here, it was the East Coast get-together at Woof's house). We went into DC one day and were riding on the Metro and somehow got on the topic of ASL. I was demonstrating that I had forgotten most of what I'd learned. Turned out one of my friends had mastered in linguistics and was quite good at ASL.

A deaf girl on the metro, a student at Gallaudet University, "overheard" us and asked if she could come sit and visit with us. My friend was much better at conversing with her than I was--I just sort of crippled along because I hadn't been using ASL in months--but the girl told us she was so happy to have someone to talk to, that people normally just ignored her when they found out she was deaf.

[CurlyLocks]

I learned ASL awhile ago when we had a family with a deaf son move to our Kingdom Hall. His mother signed and there was another woman in our congregation who used to work as an ASL translator but they needed to train some people to help translate the meetings, which are a total of 5 hours a week and too much for only 2 people to handle. So they held a beginners class and my husband and I were selected for the advanced class. Eventually we were able to translate at the meetings and it was very rewarding to be able to help someone in that way. The boy was a teenager and just like any kid his attention would sometimes wander (in his case he wouldn't be looking at your signing) So we would put a finger way out to the right or left (whichever direction he was looking) and slowly bring it back to our face to get his attention. Worked every time and we all got a laugh out of it.

The family moved away after several years so we don't get much chance to practice anymore and I've forgotten so much. We do occasionally meet deaf people and we always try to speak to them in ASL and have found that they really appreciate the attempts that we make to speak their language.

[repsac]

As to the blind person playing a video game, I'm suddenly reminded of "woozie" from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

For those who don't know "Woozie" is a blind man you end up becoming friends with. There's a running gag that his crew (one of the chinese Tongs) don't know he's blind save for a few select persons.

In one cut scene, Carl, your character; is playing a game against Woozie. Woozie wins, apparently by a high margin, and carl turns to him saying "HOW do you DO THAT?"

The best joke in the game with Woozie has to be when one of his men say to Carl after a mission. "Boss wanted to drive himself here. So, there's no telling where he is about now..."