This fall, I'm taking a college course in American Sign Language. One of the class assignments is to attend a Deaf event and write about it. So on Saturday night, Oct. 17th, I attended a screening of the ASL Films production "Gerald" at the Deaf Club in East Hartford, CT. I was nervous about being there as I feared both making a fool of myself with my severely limited ASL skills, and inadvertently offending someone through my ignorance of Deaf culture. Thankfully, neither scenario came to pass.

I got there about a half-hour before the movie started. It was the first time I had been in a room with 100 or so other people that the noise level was not cacophonous. I took an aisle seat and watched people interact. It was obvious that everyone there knew each other and was happy to be among kindred spirits. Dozens of people exchanged countless hugs and signed at a blinding pace. I had no idea what 99% of the conversation was about and wondered if I would ever be even half that fluent in ASL.

Being at the Deaf Club allowed me to experience first-hand some of what I had learned in the classroom about Deaf culture and protocol. For example, as I walked to the bathroom, I passed between three different sets of people signing to each other, not one of whom gave me a second glance. It's considered rude as hell to walk between hearing people who are having a conversation. But in Deaf culture, it's considered normal, acceptable behavior.

"Gerald" is the story of a young Deaf man in San Francisco who meets the deaf, autistic grandfather he never knew he had. The film was done completely in ASL and had no audio track. It was, however, captioned. This was a mixed blessing as the captions allowed me to follow the plot effortlessly but distracted me from watching the actors sign. It also intrigued me that the captions were not in conversational English but rather in ASL structure. For example, what in English is, “You need to be in a hospital,” appeared on screen as, “You need be in hospital.” Another example was, “You lousy cook,” instead of, “You’re a lousy cook.”

Though set against the teeming background of San Francisco, the film’s characters exist in a small, hermetically sealed community. Not surprisingly, "Gerald" teems with references to Deaf locales, historical figures and popular culture. But the hearing world plays virtually no role in this film. The only non-Deaf character with whom anybody interacts is a mime! And I can only assume that the mime is hearing as he never actually says anything. He is, after all, a mime.

After the Deaf Club, I went to a local diner for a late meal. To my surprise, I had trouble readjusting to the hearing world! For at least a half-hour, the sound of human voices somehow seemed odd to me. It was one of the most jarring sensations I had ever experienced.

One thing's for certain: I won’t get good at ASL by not practicing. So there’s a very good chance that I’ll head back to Deaf Club for other events.

I have several deaf relatives, and both my wife and I took ASL classes in order to communicate with them. My sister-in-law (not deaf, but very hard of hearing) teaches ASL in a college curriculum, and her teaching book of choice is Master ASL! by Jason Zinza. It is quite expensive, but well worth it.

We can understand about 10% of what my niece (profoundly deaf) signs, but we're working on getting better.

Sometimes we remember things, but sometimes (puts hand on side of head, closes fingers, then pulls hand away) - we forget. :)

I bet the immersion into a Deaf event was a real learning experience. Sounds like you're in for a well-taught class.

When I was growing up, my Mom was very, very hard of hearing. She could catch a few sounds here and there but not much. She taught herself to read lips somehow and got along just fine. However, as she aged and her vision became worse in the past decade or so, I became aware of just how much she depended on visual cues to alert her to the sounds around her. Now in her old age, she's totally deaf so her health care workers and I use a white eraserboard to communicate with her.

All of my Mom's siblings were very hard of hearing from a rather young age so I imagine I will be too not so many years from now. The worst thing about that is that I absolutely love listening to music. You can take away the rest of the aural dreck that most of us are subjected to in our daily lives but taking away the music is another matter entirely. I really hope that never happens. I don't think my Mom has heard music for many, many years and that's something that I just can't imagine.

Good luck in your ASL class, Stars. Please keep us updated on how it goes for you.

Do you have a deaf family member or friend?

I can imagine it was quite an experience to be in a social setting where the communications are entirely different. That must have been far more disorienting than the times when I was a young person having family meals with my Vietnamese friends' extended family and was the only person in the room who didn't understand the language. It's especially interesting that they aren't bothered by people walking through an ASL conversation. Given the effect of obliterating whole thoughts in doing so, one would expect that the rudeness factor would be even greater for the deaf than for the hearing.

No doubt these gatherings will help you a great deal besides being an apparently fascinating experience. Immersion is where its at when trying to learn a new language...

I work in a group home with seven developmentally disabled adults, two of whom are deaf.

A few nights ago, my ASL training came in handy when one of our Deaf residents gave me the sign for "pain" and motioned to her abdomen. I ascertained that the problem was menstrual cramps and that they were particularly bad this month. Now that I and my fellow staff member knew the exact nature of our client's pain, we were able to care for her accordingly.

I knew taking that course was a good idea!