New Signers' Funny Mistakes

Ahaha I used to do that. I absolutely hated Calculus class, and my teacher was a hippie type. "Spread the love, mon, spread the love." So I would teach him random signs and tell him it meant things like PEACE and LOVE. He never once doubted me. <grin> I taught him LIMIT, RATE, CALCULUS...etc. Gave me some sort of reason to stay awake in class.
 
Oh, and I can't believe I forgot this before! At my very first deaf event, one of my classmates went with me and it was her first event too. We introduced ourselves to someone, and this is how her conversation went:

Friend (F): Hello, my name is ____

Young Deaf Man (YDF): Hello, my name is_____. Nice to meet you.

F: Nice to f*** you.

YDM (very amused): Really? Where?

F (very confused): .....Here?

YDM: When?

F: Now?

YDM: Sorry, not now, I need to meet someone. Call me later.


It was amazing. :lol:
 
when my friend and I started to learn SASL, she wanted to tell our teacher "I love my work", but instead she told her "I love my toilet"...:giggle:
 
I work at a classical school and this summer, we hired an ASL teacher (I couldn't take the position because of my school schedule.) In preparation for the Christmas program, she got the pre-K and kindergarten classes together and they were going to sign some weird holiday song called "When Love Came Down." (To give an example of her craziness, for the program, the illegally downloaded the song. Only when they were onstage and performing did she, along with the rest of the audience, realize that she had downloaded the karaoke track, so there were only backup singers!) Anyway, I don't remember the lyrics, but somewhere in the song was the word 'year.' I had had my suspicions that her ASL knowledge consisted of a pocket dictionary, but watching her class sign it, I knew immediately that I was right. Instead of signing 'YEAR' with her dominant fist circling the other fist, she put one fist on top of the other, and moved them together in a giant circle, which, if you had NO knowledge of ASL, you would think is correct.
So she took this:
year.gif

and interpreted it as this:
year2.jpg


Myself and my HoH coworker got a huge kick out of that performance.
 
mayberries,

would you mind describing the picture in your post for blind and deafblind members like myself of ad? thanks.
 
The first picture is the sign 'year' like you would normally sign it. The second picture is just like I described it - "she put one fist on top of the other, and moved them together in a giant circle."
 
Mayberries said:
The first picture is the sign 'year' like you would normally sign it. The second picture is just like I described it - "she put one fist on top of the other, and moved them together in a giant circle."
Click to expand...

thanks for the description.
 
Mayberries said:
The first picture is the sign 'year' like you would normally sign it. The second picture is just like I described it - "she put one fist on top of the other, and moved them together in a giant circle."
Click to expand...

Thanks. <smile>
 
I don't know if this counts as a "mistake", but for some reason I suck as fingerspelling my gf's name. She doesn't have a sign name yet, and my friends keep laughing at me because every time I try to mention her in a sentence they always have to stop me and figure out what I'm talking about. Makes me feel kind of lame. :lol:
 
wrong place, wrong sign

I know an interpreter who would interpret for a bible group when she first started. The leader was talking about a man who made a great living playing football, and then went on to give back to god. When she signed for the deaf members of the group, she signed orgy instead of football! Everyone was so confused at why the pastor was talking about a man making a lot of money in orgies! Eventually an interpreter with more experience came in and explained what she did wrong. She now uses a different sign for football, instead of the one where you interlock your fingers. :)
 
I tried signing "become your boyfriend?" to a deaf girl once but I ended signing "become your girlfriend?". I was really, really tired that day.
 
loldrey said:
I'm in culinary school, and in our restaurant we have a deaf waiter. He has an interpreter but a lot of times she's not around or whatever. There's this woman who always eats in the restaurant and always orders sweet tea, except she usually doesn't have him as her waiter. So on this particular day, when she was trying to order tea, she made the sign for the letter T, and shook it. The look on the waiter's face was pretty hilarious. I signed to him the correct order behind the woman's back, but I never told her she signed wrong, so now every time she orders "toilet", the waiter and I have a good laugh.
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Chris would have shown the lady where the toilet was!! Hehe..That's one of the first we learned in ASL since he was potty training at that time
 
Hear Again said:
While reviewing my weekly signs, my sign language instructor asked me to show her how to sign "work." Once I did, she immediately started laughing (which I wasn't offended by since we always found something to laugh about during my lessons) and told me I had signed "f***" instead of "work." I was so embarrassed! :Oops: Needless to say, I never made that mistake again. :)
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Isn't work signed by placing your right wrist on top of your left arm? I hope so that's the way we learned it. The lady teaching us signs she won't tell us what the bad word is if we sign it not knowing.
 
chris' mom said:
Isn't work signed by placing your right wrist on top of your left arm? I hope so that's the way we learned it. The lady teaching us signs she won't tell us what the bad word is if we sign it not knowing.
Click to expand...

Somebody better qualified than me should answer this, but I cause my hand to bounce off in order to avoid misunderstanding. If I were to just place it there, it could appear to be a suggestive motion such as a mating animal, thereby taking on the vulgar meaning we're trying to avoid. I also use facial expression to make it clear that mating is farthest from my mind at that time.
 
chris' mom said:
anyone care to tell how many different signs there are for that word (f***
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It's virtually impossible to say anything in English without making it possible for it to be misinterpreted to mean you're having sex. I assume this is because there are so many dirty-minded people in the general population. Just because some of these people are deaf doesn't mean their minds aren't just as dirty. It's my guess that these dirty minds are where the immense variety comes from.
 
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