Barack Obama came home two weeks ago for some rest and relaxation before the you-know-what.

My KCC colleague and teacher Jan Fried was there to interpret for him:








Maybe that will be me interpreting for him someday!

I had a very exciting moment in my American Sign Language 202 class two weeks ago.

As most of you know, ASL's word order is very different from English. Some deaf people are educated in environments where sign language is signed according to English syntax (SEE - Signed Exact English).

My instructor Linda had a WONDERFUL way of explaining how word order works. For you linguists out there, ASL follows a Topic-Comment arrangement, meaning the most salient topic of the sentence is signed first, and everything else follows.

Linda wrote a sentence on the board and called a student up to sign it. The student SEE'ed it. Linda then asked - "What would be the first thing you would draw to describe this sentence?" The student thought for a moment, looked at some of us in the class, and suddenly, the lights came on. "well, of course, for sentence one, December 21!" For the second sentence, "Gallaudet University" and then, for me at least, the third sentence was the charm - omigod - the MOON!!! You mean, it's that easy to determine the topic of the sentence?!?! Now, I don't want to give ASL the short shrift here, because like any spoken language, syntax can get complex. But for the most part, if you want to know the word order of an ASL sentence, ask yourself, "How would I draw the sentence?"

Here are the sentences..


1.  The first day of winter is December 21.
ASL: December 21 - winter - first day

2.  The founder of Gallaudet University was hearing.
ASL: Gallaudet University - founder-male- hearing

3.  Armstrong is the first man who walked on the moon.
ASL:  moon - walk on - first man - Armstrong.

4.  An elephant's pregnancy lasts two years.
ASL: elephant - pregnancy - two years long

5.  The next sign language class will be cancelled.
ASL:  class sign language next (will) cancel

6.  The tap water in your area is polluted.
ASL: your area water-tap polluted

7.  Elvis Presley had two daughters.
ASL: #E-L-V-I-S P-R-E-S-L-E-Y have daughter-two
ASL: daughter two have #E-L-V-I-S P-R-E-S-L-E-Y

8.  It's alright to drink tap water in Mexico.
ASL: Mexico water-tap drink ok

9.  It's worthwhile to attend the workshop.
ASL: workshop go-to worthwhile

10. It's alright to complain to your boss.
ASL: Complain to boss - ok.

11. If you wait two weeks to buy your airline ticket, the fare will go up.
ASL: airline ticket if two weeks wait - price - increase

12. If you install a Japanese motor in an American car, you will damage the car.
ASL: car American, engine Japanese install- car damage will

13. Putting a needle over a flame will sterilize the needle.
ASL: if flame under needle put - sterilize will

14.  First Hawaiian Bank is open on Saturday.
ASL:  Bank First Hawaiian open Saturday

15.  The name Wickstrum is Swedish.
ASL:  family name #W-I-C-K-S-T-R-U-M Swedish name

16.  The play has an interpreter for deaf people.
ASL: play has interpreter people deaf come

17.  Deafness runs in the Johannson family.
ASL: family name #J-O-H-A-N-N-S-O-N deaf generations back-to-forward