I wish I could have known how to "sign"

[ArenaBoy]

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

My high school offered Spanish, French, German, Dutch, and Japanese. I took Japanese and loved it. We never had an ASL class though. I never dealt with a deaf customer before though.

[Freemage]

The blind kid in the arcade was probably Tommy's son.

Now, you really want to see someone lose it, get the cane, glasses, beggar's tin cup and "Blind" sign--and go into a strip club. Make sure you sit in the front row.

Hm... oddly, the 'Thank you' in ASL sounds unfortunately like a common Mediterranean gesture roughly equivalent to flipping someone the bird. (There is a bit more 'flick' to the gesture I'm thinking of, but I suspect it could be mistaken, anyway.)

[Enjis]

Learning Sign is a good idea, but I don't understand why writing information on a piece of paper does not work. I can write a question, the customer can answer it...or reverse it. Either way, unless one or both of us are illiterate, it should be able to get the situation handled well enough.

[CurlyLocks]

That is often a good option, but not all ASL "speakers" are fluent in English grammar, as ASL has different grammar & syntax rules. Some may find it difficult to write in English proper, although you probably could still get your points across to each other.

[Arcade Man D]

did he play mean pin-ball?

(sorry, but someone had to say it)

You're excused. I'm a huge fan of both pinball and classic rock.

seriously though I second Demonoid's 'how?'

Actually, some games have enough auditory cues that one could play them without the benefit of sight. DDR does actually come to mind, if one memorizes the step patterns. Or skee-ball.

[Primer]

Hm... oddly, the 'Thank you' in ASL sounds unfortunately like a common Mediterranean gesture roughly equivalent to flipping someone the bird. (There is a bit more 'flick' to the gesture I'm thinking of, but I suspect it could be mistaken, anyway.)

I think the gesture you're thinking of is more of a flick from UNDER the chin, not a touch TO the chin. But yeah, kinda similar.