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Insults
There’s something that strikes me as really passive aggresive about the behaviour of people that will switch to foreign languange in order to say something offensive or insulting in the presense of another person (and no, I’m not suggesting that everytime, or even most of the time people switch to another language they are doing this, but this situation does occasionally happen).
On the one hand, if we are intending to hurt someone’s feelings or let them know our displeasure, we would just say what’s on our minds to their face. If we don’t want to rock the boat, very often we’ll wait until they’ve left to complain about them. No, it’s not very nice behaviour to speak ill of someone behind their back, but hey, I’ll admit that I’ve done it.
So is switching to another language to make those comments while the person is still there, listening, and not understanding a word they’re saying the same as making those same comments behind their backs? Personally, I don’t think so. There seems to be someone thing really smug and self-satisfied about the whole thing that really rubs me the wrong way.
And so what happens when you actually understand what thev’re said because you randomly happen to understand the language that they’re speaking? Do you say something? Do you mentally note that they’re assholes, and say nothing? And if you do say something, do you directly address the insult, or do you switch to their language and politely say good-bye, leaving them to die of embarrassment as they realize you’ve just understood every word?
On the one hand, if we are intending to hurt someone’s feelings or let them know our displeasure, we would just say what’s on our minds to their face. If we don’t want to rock the boat, very often we’ll wait until they’ve left to complain about them. No, it’s not very nice behaviour to speak ill of someone behind their back, but hey, I’ll admit that I’ve done it.
So is switching to another language to make those comments while the person is still there, listening, and not understanding a word they’re saying the same as making those same comments behind their backs? Personally, I don’t think so. There seems to be someone thing really smug and self-satisfied about the whole thing that really rubs me the wrong way.
And so what happens when you actually understand what thev’re said because you randomly happen to understand the language that they’re speaking? Do you say something? Do you mentally note that they’re assholes, and say nothing? And if you do say something, do you directly address the insult, or do you switch to their language and politely say good-bye, leaving them to die of embarrassment as they realize you’ve just understood every word?
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AMEN!
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My very tall, very skinny uncle was in Germany as a youth, touring around and seeing the sights. On a bus one day, he sat beside a couple who began speaking Croatian to each other, his native tongue.
"Get a load of this beanpole beside us!" says the wife. "He'll have a hard time finding a wife. Do you think he got caught in an elevator when it was on it's way up?"
He didn't say anything.
A little while later, they leaned over to him, polite as you please, and asked in German, "Excuse me, what time is it?"
He smiled and answered in Croatian. "4:30."
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I agree that letting them know you understood without directly addressing the insult is the best way to go.
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Of course, my husband then signs "he said, 'don't interpret this bit'" to the client, then continues interpreting whatever the doctor is saying. When the doctor notices, and gets shirty, and asks, "What are you doing?" my husband simply says, "My job."
He then explains that if they want to discuss something in private, then they pay his client the same courtesy as any other patient, and leave the room. Which amuses my husband no end (he loves telling off doctors) and irritates arrogant doctors immensely (also a source of enjoyment for my husband).
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I think ASL is related to ISL. They both use a one-handed alphabet, which isn't used in BSL. However, due to the influence of ISL in Australia, although Auslan uses a two handed alphabet, it also uses one-handed letter signs to develop other signs. Partly because of this, and partly because the US has a highly developed Deaf culture (including a Deaf University: many Australian and other foreign students study there if they can, it's just such a great institution), Auslan has absorbed some ASL signs and conventions.
In general, sign languages are different languages. They take on some aspects of their 'host' language (the spoken language of the country), but they have many similarities with other sign languages. They tend to have similar grammatical structures, and some signs are obviously symbolic. So, while the sign for "spoon" will be different between sign languages, in a lot of languages the sign will be representative in some way of using a spoon.
So the inherent similarities between sign languages mean that native signers can often become conversational very quickly in other sign languages - much more quickly than learning a spoken language. According to one of my Auslan teachers, reasonably good communication between signers in different languages can occur within a conversation - it has its limits, of course, but she says it doesn't take long to 'click' into another mode of signing.
Does that make sense?
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