Frank Talk

**This post might be gross to some readers.  I apologize if you are offended or disgusted by it and hope you won’t hold it against me!

I don’t have my ASL class this week because of Memorial Day, so I’m going to share a story from last week’s class.  We started learning about ailments and medical conditions, like HEADACHE, ITCHY, VOMIT, DIZZY, etc.  [a gloss is basically the English translation of an ASL sign, and is written in ALL-CAPS.  So when I write a word in ALL-CAPS, that means it represents a sign in ASL.]

A big part of Deaf Culture is frank talk.  Deaf people don’t sugar-coat things, they give their opinions openly and honestly.  It isn’t meant to be insulting, it is just a facet of their culture’s communication.  If a Deaf person is late, they are expected to give a lengthy description of why.  You can’t just say, “Sorry I’m late,” you need to give a better excuse.  If a Deaf person has to leave early, the same goes—give details.  And when Deaf people excuse themselves, oftentimes they don’t say “I’m going to the bathroom,” they say they’re going to go PEE.  Details.

So when our teacher Mary was going over the lesson, she had to make sure that we understood the difference between the signs POOP, DIARRHEA, and CONSTIPATED.  There was a lot of uncomfortable giggling and several red faces, which intensified when she and Tom, a local interpreter who had stopped by to visit our class, disagreed over the correct sign for FART.

As she dismissed us at the end of class, Mary asked,

“So is everyone good with their POOP now?” 

And on that note, here’s a comic from my new favorite comic strip, That Deaf Guy, by Deaf artist Matt Daigle: