Terping on words that you're stumped with.

Jolie77

Jolie77

New Member
Premium Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2005
Messages
8,727
Reaction score
9
Oftentimes, Whenever I go to anyplace that has terps there (whether it's rally, meeting, doctor appointment, dentist appt, so and on) I always have seen terps fingerspelling the words when they don't know the signs for it.

This came to an idea of creating this thread because I was talking with a very good friend of mine who happens to be an 'terp. She was telling me about her experience terping a word that she had no idea what to sign with.

I asked her for permission to post her story in AllDeaf and she was fine with it. :)

Anyway, She was terping for an high school assembly. The assembly was about these canines coming to school to sniff around to find narcotics. The slang "Hot Box" came up in the issue as the speaker was talking about the canines, etc. At that point, She didn't know what to sign for "Hot Box" slang. So, instead, she had to fingerspell h-o-t b-o-x. For those who wondered what the slang meant, It means smoking in your car.

This also came to mind because some situations are funny but sometime, the situations aren't funny. I'd like to hear some of AllDeaf terps experiences on encountering the situation and How do you make it when you're trying not to stumble on a word that you have no idea what to sign with? :)
 
I am glad the terp fingerspelled it instead of signing "hot" "box" cuz that would have sent a wrong message or concept to the deaf students. It is VERY important that the terps understands things like this.
 
shel90 said:
I am glad the terp fingerspelled it instead of signing "hot" "box" cuz that would have sent a wrong message or concept to the deaf students. It is VERY important that the terps understands things like this.
Click to expand...

I agree. Some of the time, I'd see some un-skilled 'terps come up with making up their signs on their own when they're stumped with a word and I'm like "Uh, What??"
 
I can tell you if my tactile terp signed "hot" "box" I wouldn't have had any idea what he/she meant, so I agree with the others that it's best to fingerspell that term.
 
shel90 said:
I am glad the terp fingerspelled it instead of signing "hot" "box" cuz that would have sent a wrong message or concept to the deaf students. It is VERY important that the terps understands things like this.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree. If I couldn't have signed it conceptually (like "smoking in car"), I would have fingerspelled.
 
Either that or a really good terp would quickly get everyone to concensus of a sign for that word.
 
Tousi said:
Either that or a really good terp would quickly get everyone to concensus of a sign for that word.
Click to expand...

Yep, that too. Then if it recurred in the interpretation, the sign was available and recognized.
 
The interpreter at my church will fingerspell if she doesn't know a word, or if she is unsure of the sign, she will sign it, fingerspell it, and ask me if it's right. On long words ('Revelation,' 'propitiation,' etc,) she will fingerspell it and then designate it an abbreviation for the purpose of the sermon, usually just the first letter of the word shaking slightly in the air (as in INSURANCE and EMERGENCY.)
 
Mayberries said:
The interpreter at my church will fingerspell if she doesn't know a word, or if she is unsure of the sign, she will sign it, fingerspell it, and ask me if it's right. On long words ('Revelation,' 'propitiation,' etc,) she will fingerspell it and then designate it an abbreviation for the purpose of the sermon, usually just the first letter of the word shaking slightly in the air (as in INSURANCE and EMERGENCY.)
Click to expand...

THAT's what I think Jolie was concerned about. Unskilled terps (not necessarily unexperienced terps, as I've seen "terps" with 20+ years experience do this-- rarely thank God,-- always a few bad seeds, eh?) often do this but really need to realize that especially for ASL users, that often doesn't make sense, and it definitely doesn't respect how ASL rules work.

Even for people that don't use ASL, it can still lead to some misunderstanding or wrong concepts. A terp in one of my history classes does what that church terp did, and it's led to some trouble. She signed her "sign" for Theodore Roosevelt with the shaky hands and it, no joke, looked like BATHROOM, RESTROOM. My friend and I both couldn't concentrate for the rest of the lecture, especially my friend, as she didn't know what the terp was talking about at first! (The terp didn't even fingerspell the name first once, she just mouthed really big and made up the sign)

Really though, that's wrong. I think terps get so afraid of "spelling" that they are overzealous with creating signs. Fluent signers naturally do end up reducing the spelling to the simple shape, which is much more effective than creating signs every 5 seconds. I don't mean it can never be done, we just need to be more careful!
 
I've seen interpreters all to many times finger spell things there are signs for. Like, for example, if, suppose, complex, etc.
 
Mayberries said:
The interpreter at my church will fingerspell if she doesn't know a word, or if she is unsure of the sign, she will sign it, fingerspell it, and ask me if it's right. On long words ('Revelation,' 'propitiation,' etc,) she will fingerspell it and then designate it an abbreviation for the purpose of the sermon, usually just the first letter of the word shaking slightly in the air (as in INSURANCE and EMERGENCY.)
Click to expand...

There are 3 signs for "revelation". I am very, very surprised your interpreter does not know them.
 
jasin said:
There are 3 signs for "revelation". I am very, very surprised your interpreter does not know them.
Click to expand...
Well I sure don't. Do you mean that a church interpreter should know them, or that all interpreters should? There's a reason I will not interpret for church services...I know the limits of my own knowledge and abilities!
 
Even if you do know a word and use it every day sometimes the mind loses it for a few minutes -- Terps are human, I'm sure it happens to them too.

Fingerspell sounds like a good way out.
 
I think it would be best to fingerpsell a word that an interpreter doesn't know a sign for it, rather than making up a sign and I would like, eh? what?
 
I've had interpreters stumped with some words. So, they spell it out. During break or after class, they will ask me if I had a sign for it or if I could recommend a sign. After we worked it out, she used that sign for the rest of the quarter. :)
 
Etoile said:
Well I sure don't. Do you mean that a church interpreter should know them, or that all interpreters should? There's a reason I will not interpret for church services...I know the limits of my own knowledge and abilities!
Click to expand...
It's not so much that there are three signs for one concept but there are different meanings for the one word "revelation."

The last book in the Bible, called "The Revelation of Jesus Christ to St. John," or commonly referred to as "the book of Revelation" is usually spelled the first time, and then abbreviated "R-E-V" for subsequent references. That concept is a proper noun used in a book title.

The concept for "revelation" in that book is "the unveiling." That means, the future events are hidden from us but God has allowed the apostle John a view of those future events, and he has written them down in order to allow us a view. It's like God presents the future events on a huge heavenly stage, and the revelation is the pulling back of the stage curtains to allow us a view. In that sense, God "reveals" or SHOWS-US future events.

Bible individuals also had personal revelations from God, sometimes referred to as "dreams" or "visions." Depending on the context, the sign "VISION" (not eye vision but mind vision) is sometimes used.

The word can also be used in a non-theological way. Anything that was previously hidden or unknown that it suddenly "revealed" is also a revelation. "The boy's musical talent was a revelation to his parents who thought he had no performing skills at all". So it's a word not limited to church terps.

I used to fret that if I didn't know a sign for something in church until I had the revelation (ha, ha) that not all the hearing people understood the concept for every single word in the Bible or theological terms. Therefore, the deaf congregation and the hearing congregation were in the same boat. Happily, in our church, when the pastor preaches, he explains the meaning of each name and term in his message, so when he does that I get the concept/definition at that time and use it.

For example, if he was preaching out of "Revelation", he would start out with, "We will look at the revelation or the unveiling of the future by Jesus to John, starting with chapter one, verse one." (Revelation concept is defined.)

Or, "We will study the way out that God made for his chosen people--that way out is called the 'Exodus'." (Exodus concept is defined.)

Or, "Our study will focus on biblical eschatology" That means we will be studying end times events such as the end of this world and final judgment." (Eschatology concept is defined.)

If I spell the word first, and wait a few seconds, the definition or concept is soon apparent. So the deaf and hearing congregation all get the meaning at the same time. No one is left in the dark. :)
 
Anyone's help here!!!!

Ok, I got stuck on this "market yourself" as in selling yourself for a job and making resumes. :hmm:
 
Oceanblue7 said:
Ok, I got stuck on this "market yourself" as in selling yourself for a job and making resumes. :hmm:
Click to expand...

I would sign it "Show who you are, show your skills" (in ASL of course, not English). That is the concept the way I see it!
 
JennyB said:
I would sign it "Show who you are, show your skills" (in ASL of course, not English). That is the concept the way I see it!
Click to expand...

And why couldn't one also literally ASL, "Sell yourself"?
 
Back
Top