More Jewish silliness

[xiphias]

We went over to Mom and Dad's house for Shabbat dinner tonight. A bunch of people were there, including our friend Tobin. After bensching, she mentioned that, at the JCC summer camp she went to, they used to do a little thing in English, with hand-motions. "The LORD gives his people strength, the LORD blesses his people with peace."

And she did the hand-motions with them. They were in ASL, because, for no good reason that I can think of, there was this fad at JCC camps of doing stuff with ASL while saying stuff. It's weird. And a really bad idea, as will shortly become clear. . .

I looked at what she'd done, and asked her to repeat it. There was some sort of disconnect in my mind. I said, "I've only taken one semester of ASL, but I think you just signed, 'The LORD gives his people heroin, the LORD sneezes his people with hamburger.'"

This by the way, is why I, personally, am against JCC camps using ASL hand motions.

Naturally, for the rest of the evening, my mother and Tobin were dancing around chanting, "The LORD gives his people heroin, the LORD sneezes his people with hamburger!"

They seemed to appriciate the sentiment.

Comments

[copperpoint.livejournal.com]

That's some LORD you've got there.

[rmjwell.livejournal.com]

Nice to know we finally have an answer to that annoying question of "What Would Jesus Do?"

China White.

Speaking of translational silliness, if you haven't seen the BBC comedy "Coupling" track down the DVD of the first season (you should be able to rent it at your local vidstore) and watch the episode titled "THe Girl With Two Breasts". Not as bad as your heroin and hamburger LORD, but its a keeper.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

Nice to know we finally have an answer to that annoying question of "What Would Jesus Do?"

China White.

*hysterical laughter*

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

That's absolutely fantastic. :)

The Christian cult I grew up in also had a fad of signing songs and sermons, etc, for a while, even though in many congregations there were no hearing-impaired people who knew ASL. There was some fairly specialized vocabulary, and so at regional gatherings (all the little churches often went to a big city for holy days, so that there wouldn't need to be as many "special speakers") and at the Feast, there would be classes to teach the volunteer signers all the special words they needed, like the eighteen words for god, etc. I often wondered how well that did in the larger signing community. I mean...wouldn't some of those "special" words be co-opted from normal ASL vocabulary?

"I need to take a crap" says the non-cult person.

"I need to embrace the Lord" sees the cult signer.

Something like that.

*falls over*

[tendyl.livejournal.com]

Oh my I can so see that. *much laughter* Kinda wish I could've been there for Sedar, but I'm glad you had fun and oh my that must've been very amusing.

Yep, yep, i know this!

[agocza.livejournal.com]

As an LDS missionary I was helping out with the ASL program a bit. I am nothing near fluent, but I do remember a strange prayer in sacrament meeting that addressed our cute Heavenly Father. In the same prayer I found out that God was not only cute but old, Hungarian and Jewish.

Re: Yep, yep, i know this!

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

In the same prayer I found out that God was not only cute but old, Hungarian and Jewish.

I coulda told you that.

Although there is a minority opinion that G-d is Lithuanian.

Re: Yep, yep, i know this!

[agocza.livejournal.com]

Well, The joke after that was that Heavenly Father is my great-great-grandpa as He was old, handsome, Hungarian and Jewish. The wonders of ASL let one get to know more about Him....

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I got here via a link from rmjwell and am amused.

My cousins' synagogue did the signing thing in the 70s, and in 1990 I worked for a month at a place where, because we had a deaf programmer, they gave us optional ASL classes.

I now know how to say "Have a nice day" while signing "Eat sh*t and die." :-)

[lysana.livejournal.com]

Talk to blackfyr some time about how to say "Thank you very much, sir" in English while saying, "Fuck off and die, bastard" in ASL.

(BTW, xiphias, I found this via RJ as well. I am also very amused. Thank you for sharing that story.)

LOL!

[goljerp]

Very funny!

Do you think the original mis-translation was done on purpose (the "gives his people heroin" would seem to indicate that) or accidentally ("sneezes his people with hamburger" could be a mistake...)?

Heroin?

[red-frog.livejournal.com]

That was quite a vocabulary you picked up during your first sememster of ASL.

(Also got here from rmjwell'd LJ)

Re: Heroin?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

We covered "common signing mistakes." Plus, I picked up a dictionary of slang and other useful phrases which taught me a lot.

I know how to say "mutual masturbation" in ASL.

And it's pretty close to the sign for "hot dog."

After all, ASL was a language developed in secret, in dorm rooms in boarding schools by horny high school and college students. Much of the vocabulary reflects that heritage. The vocabulary for sex, dating, alcohol, and drugs is colorful and expressive, and expresses nuances of meaning hard to evoke in other languages -- it's probably among the best languages in the world in which to discuss such matters.