I work at a restaurant. Like they say, its the same sh*t different day everyday, but yesterday I had a middle-aged couple walk into the restaurant. They were Caucasian, and the guy had a shaved head and a nicely trimmed goatee. I greeted them as they walk in like I greet every customer, but neither of them said anything. Caucasian, not saying anything in reply to the greeting, along with the appearance of the guy definitely made me put them in a stereotypical box right away. However, just moments later, I was ashamed of being too quick to judge when they started signing to each other in American Sign Language.
I took a course in ASL in community college and just know enough of the language to let most Deaf people know that I took a class. I started signing to them in my broken ASL. When they were about to leave, I asked them how to sign “order” and the first half of “have a good day.” Then, the guy asked me, with a smile, where I learned ASL. I replied with Community College, and then he asked me which one. The fact that I could sign seemed to have made them genuinely happy. That, in turn, made me realize that a B in ASL was worth it after all.
I really feel this is a language that everyone should know at least the basics of. We can all learn the alphabets and things like “Hi, how are you,” “have a good day,” “thank you,” etc. There are amazing resources if one wants to learn it online. Websites like this, for example, are phenomenal, and we even used this website for our class. At the end of the day, really it’s the only language the Deaf community uses, and the rest of the community’s unfamiliarity with the sign language segregates them. On a final note, ALWAYS refer to the Deaf community as Deaf with a capital D. It’s an issue of identity.