Gospel Sign Language: Courtesy

Lesson Goals: 

Help students develop the vocabulary and cultural awareness necessary to be courteous to Deaf members and investigators.
 

Vocabulary: 
hello
goodbye
thank-you
welcome/invite
nice meet-you
good-morning (afternoon) (evening)
"How (are) you?"
Name you?  ("What is your name?")
I HAPPY SEE YOU ("I'm happy to see you.")
WHERE FROM YOU?  ("Where are you from?")
SEE LATER ("See you later.")
 

Culture notes: 
* Visually Oriented:  Deaf people experience the world through their eyes.  They are "visually oriented."  In all your interactions with Deaf people you need to remember the influence of light, background movement, background colors, distance, size, and other visual distractions or enhancements.  For example, if you are interpreting for a Deaf person, do you have long fingernails that are painted "bright red?"  That is distracting from the message.  Suppose you are signing to a Deaf person, is there a bright light behind you?  That makes it hard to see your signs.

* ASL based:  The Cultural American Deaf community, (and a growing number of other Deaf communities) use American Sign Language as their preferred method of communication.  Hearing people sometimes mistakenly believe they are using ASL when in fact they are just signing "English" on their hands.  Hearing people sometimes use ASL signs but put them in English word order.  Most Deaf people will still understand you but it isn't the same as ASL.

* More direct:  In the Deaf world people are often more "blunt."  Hearing people are sometimes offended by this bluntness because they see it as being rude.  While there are indeed some "rude" Deaf people, it is important for newcomers to the community to realize that many Deaf are simply being very straightforward in their communication when they tell you things bluntly.  This isn't rudeness in the Deaf world, it is simply efficient communication.