Bad Words in Sign Language

I don't think there really is anything wrong with swearing as long as God is left out of it.

My motto is: "I don't care what you say as long as you leave God out of it." :D

One little thing is that if people don't learn what the swears are in ASL when they're learning the rest of it, it could lead to some embarrassing situations if the person signs wrong and doesn't know what they said.
 
*ponders*

i study ASL rather seriously, but i've been wanting to know some of the meaner words, too... it's part of the language. knowing what things are unacceptable and/or rude is part of fluency in any language. and i know ... maybe... two 'swears' in ASL.
unfortunately (i think), the only contact with deaf people i have is at church... not quite the proper place for things like that :P
 
I swear quite a lot.

It's just me.

But I do get tired of people asking me to show them how to swear in ASL if the swear words are the only words they care about. If they want to learn many other signs that aren't swear words, then I am happy to also teach them the swear words too and it's all good.
 
lol I see, I rarely sweared... but I only will swear if I hurt myself accidently like kicking my toe against the corner of the desk. I use lots of swearing word such as "damn."
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
But I do get tired of people asking me to show them how to swear in ASL if the swear words are the only words they care about.
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Some hearing people do that with me too, They wanted to know the swearing words in sign language first hand before other signs, some of them don't even want to know other signs. :roll:
 
LMM said:
Heath

here's a good one LMM say's translate this sentence in English,
" Before Friday go -with your boyfriend, nothing!"
LMM will wait for your relpy,

LMM {Terp}
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"Last Friday, I went out with your boyfriend but nothing happened!" :whistle:
 
I went to hearie school all the way up to high school so the firs swear word I learned was "f--k" but I didnt know what the heck that means. Years later, I asked my oldest sister about it and she explained it.

I learned all the swear words in ASL during 1st year in college..and yes, Ive had hearie friends who wanted to know the swear words in ASL. My favorite is bull...t with two hands sign and explain why--always got a big kick out of their reactions . I dont take it seriously cuz its human nature to want to know all the naughty words cuz its a big kick :D
 
In all the times I've had to interpret, I've had to use a few swear words in both ASL and English. It comes up quite often, more than it should.
 
I've just recently started 'LEARNING' sign language in the past few months... I haven't bothered learning any swear words... Plus, when I sign, I have to think of what I'm saying ahead of time, therefore I leave cursing out of it anyway.
 
gnulinuxman said:
One little thing is that if people don't learn what the swears are in ASL when they're learning the rest of it, it could lead to some embarrassing situations if the person signs wrong and doesn't know what they said.
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It's a good idea to be aware of the "swear" signs and sexual signs in order to avoid embarressment, especially for signs that are similar to "innocent" ones.

However, there's a difference between learning those signs as part of an overall education in sign language, and specifically, gleefully focusing on the "dirty" signs.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
But I do get tired of people asking me to show them how to swear in ASL if the swear words are the only words they care about. If they want to learn many other signs that aren't swear words, then I am happy to also teach them the swear words too and it's all good.
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i definitely get you on that one. either that or they try using the "learning process" to hit on me. it's the most annoying thing, enough to completely kill the conversation. i'm hearing btw. but i'm mixed-race and grew up multilingual, so i have a knack for picking up languages. currently, my languages are french, vietnamese, english, and very basic ASL at this point(i'm studying to become an interpreter). when people learn of the languages i know, they'll follow with something like "how do you say 'i wanna kiss/french you'?" or "how do you say 'i think you're hot and wanna have sex with you'?". i just wanna be taken seriously dammit :(

o, and speaking of bad words...i've read that some ASL signs for country names can be taken as offensive? like how the signs for china, korea, and japan make certain signs indicating "slanty eyes"? are there more neutral/politically correct terms such cases?
 
TeeHee said:
o, and speaking of bad words...i've read that some ASL signs for country names can be taken as offensive? like how the signs for china, korea, and japan make certain signs indicating "slanty eyes"? are there more neutral/politically correct terms such cases?
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The current trend is to use the country's own name sign for itself. In other words, to use the Japanese sign for JAPAN and so forth. A good resource for many of these "updated" country names is ASL Browser.

This seems to be pretty well accepted among younger signers but at least in my area, there is a feeling among older ASL users that there is no need or use for such political correctness, since ASL is about visuals and the "slanty eyes" sign is merely a visual description, not a racial slur. It's a pretty good example of American hearing and American Deaf culture clash. I guess I'm too HEARING-MIND because it does bother me to use the older signs.
 
Good morning, Terpretator! Where ya been? Anyway, when the older ASLers convey to you that there's no racial slur, what do you think about that, that is, after you've put your hearing-mindedness in the closet till after ya respond here, lol!
 
Tousi said:
Good morning, Terpretator! Where ya been? Anyway, when the older ASLers convey to you that there's no racial slur, what do you think about that, that is, after you've put your hearing-mindedness in the closet till after ya respond here, lol!
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Heh...real life has gotten a bit more complex lately...I'm still around even if I don't post as much, :ily:

Anyway. I almost invariably (can never say never) follow the terminology that the Deaf person uses. It doesn't do anyone any good if they're signing the old sign for JAPANESE and I keep using ASIAN or the new sign for JAPANESE and they have no idea what I'm saying. Context is key, though.

For example: my grandmother used to refer to black people as "schvartzes." This is a Yiddish word that in translation simply means "black," but the connotation is definitely that of a mild-to-strong racial slur, depending on how it's used. My grandmother was not a racist in the traditional sense, but she grew up in a community that saw black people as "those other people," and that's how she used the word. One time I tried to tell her "Grandma, that's not a very nice word," but she couldn't really grasp it since she wasn't using it as, say, a Yiddish version of "n-----r." So while I never used the word myself with her, I did stop trying to change her deeply ingrained cultural views.

If I were in an interpreting setting where the deaf client used the old signs, my guess is most likely I would as well. But I haven't been in that situation so I don't know for sure.
 
Interpretrator said:
The current trend is to use the country's own name sign for itself. In other words, to use the Japanese sign for JAPAN and so forth. A good resource for many of these "updated" country names is ASL Browser.

This seems to be pretty well accepted among younger signers but at least in my area, there is a feeling among older ASL users that there is no need or use for such political correctness, since ASL is about visuals and the "slanty eyes" sign is merely a visual description, not a racial slur. It's a pretty good example of American hearing and American Deaf culture clash. I guess I'm too HEARING-MIND because it does bother me to use the older signs.
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My girlfriend taught me both signs, the older sign for japanese and the newer sign. Everytime I make the older sign it reminds me of that silly elementry school song "chinese japanese dirty knees look at these" and im probably the only person in the world over the age of 8 that actually remembers that.
 
Interpretrator said:
Anyway. I almost invariably (can never say never) follow the terminology that the Deaf person uses. It doesn't do anyone any good if they're signing the old sign for JAPANESE and I keep using ASIAN or the new sign for JAPANESE and they have no idea what I'm saying. Context is key, though.
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As a child I only knew the old signs for Chinese and Japanese. Then in middle school we were learning about asian cultures and it was included in our spelling tests. The teacher always used the old signs for those countries. Then on the day of the spelling test, the teacher never bothered to tell us that that there were now new signs for these countries, and that she would be using those new signs. She did not even demostrate. So, when she was signing the words to us using those new signs for the spelling test, the whole class (including me, a good speller) was COMPLETELY LOST. We had no idea what the hell she was saying. We were going WTF the whole time, and teacher would NOT use the old signs to let us know what she meant...she just simply used the new signs without any explanation! As a result, I think all of us failed the damn test! We were all pissed when we found out later from someone else what those new signs meant! I do like the new signs better but she should have at least TOLD US what those signs meant BEFORE THE DAMN TEST!:pissed:
 
bad words

Actually, I'm just learning how to finger spell and the one sign I don't forget is the "e" as it is used as the "F" word in Mexicok!
 
ideafspy said:
I start signed a "flip off" to my mom when i was 4 years old. I learned from movie, Children of a Lesser God. My mom was full suprised and asked where did I learn. I replied, "HA HA, its Deaf secret sign." So on my mom ground me for good.
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ohh :rofl: hahahaha

I have my own video tape of Children of a Lesser God. yah saw that lady flip the word said fuck lol
 
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