I'm far from fluent in ASL, but (as you know, Bob) I *am* a linguist, and I did my doctoral work on that language.
There's ASL, and then there are various formalized ways of signing English, and then there's a whole continuum in between. (In the US, of course. But I'm pretty sure it's a similar situation in most countries, at least in developed ones.) Most hearies' signing is somewhere on that continuum, and most signing Deaf people are familiar with at least part of it. This man must be at least competent in English to be holding his job, and he would be well able to communicate with a hearie who knows enough to "muddle through".
You're certainly not fully English/ASL bilingual, but you know that. Nor are you fluent in ASL. But you are able to communicate adequately in sign: in this case with a signer whose English is good, and probably also, with more difficulty and perhaps less success, with less well English-educated signers.
And *I'm* glad that you've learned some ASL and are ready, willing, and able to use it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
"no dictionaries read my LJ, but there are linguists and people fluent in ASL who do"
Date: 2012-05-26 05:22 am (UTC)There's ASL, and then there are various formalized ways of signing English, and then there's a whole continuum in between. (In the US, of course. But I'm pretty sure it's a similar situation in most countries, at least in developed ones.) Most hearies' signing is somewhere on that continuum, and most signing Deaf people are familiar with at least part of it. This man must be at least competent in English to be holding his job, and he would be well able to communicate with a hearie who knows enough to "muddle through".
You're certainly not fully English/ASL bilingual, but you know that. Nor are you fluent in ASL. But you are able to communicate adequately in sign: in this case with a signer whose English is good, and probably also, with more difficulty and perhaps less success, with less well English-educated signers.
And *I'm* glad that you've learned some ASL and are ready, willing, and able to use it.
And there's my 2/3 ยข.