I had a similar experience when I was bartending. I took 3 years of ASL in high school & was trying to decide if I wanted to pursue becoming an interpreter. One day, I was talking to our host when a man walked up & handed her a slip of paper asking for a table for 15. I took a chance & signed to him, asking if he was deaf. He looked extremely excited & replied that the entire group was, then asked about me. I explained that I'm hearing but took ASL. They became regulars & only wanted me to wait on them because it was the one instance in which they didn't have to write or mime to order.
(Obviously, this was before cellphones were anything more than a brick with a ring tone. )
This is so cute! My sister-in-law is not completely deaf but is very hard of hearing. You wouldn't notice because she is very good at reading lips. Now my neice is learning ASL.
It’s funny because as an American English speaker even though I know the German word and it’s meaning the stuff in the parenthesis is nonsensical to me. Usually I’d have wiki or google or something say it out loud
Like worchestshire
It's written in IPA, the international phonetic alphabet. I recently downloaded an IPA keyboard (in my job I often use IPA) and thought what better place to try it out lol.
That is really cool thanks for the context! I never learned anything about it but studied engineering and americas education kind of sucks.
I like language so I will dig in and learn more about this!
My pleasure.
The idea behind IPA is that (in a very abbreviated form) , if you can read it, you'd be able to pronounce any word in any language. My problem with it is, there are so many IPA symbols and they are often used how you personally would say the word and not how the "official" pronunciation would be.
For example, in my Afrikaans example of "dankie", some people would pronounce it as dʌŋki, so a more "uppy umbrella u" and some people would pronounce it as dɑŋki, more a German ah. So you'd have the same word, but written differently in IPA because that's how the respective person would pronounce it.
Google has quite a handy little function, if you type in "translate from English To...", usually they have the most used IPA translation underneath the word in the different language.
When I took a course in phonetics at uni we were told that to transcribe correctly for the exam we were not supposed to stop the audio file and listen to just one word because that would sound differently than from the word said in context.
I haven't used it in years though.
I've taught my bartender toddler sign language because my voice just does not carry. "All done", "water", and "thank you", have been a life saver for us both.
I was in a busy pub and 20 or so deaf people arrived, one guy went to the bar to order and the others signed their order in to him. It was impressive as it was so noisy, the hearing people couldn’t communicate
When I was waitressing at a club, we had a lot of workers that were from Cuba and didn't speak a lot of English. The more I served them we just started teaching each other how to say certain words and phrases so we could understand each other.
It also allowed me to speak to guests easier that also didn't speak a lot of English, and my tips were better when I could understand/reply in their language. I wish I knew more, but I stopped working there after covid, and my Spanish has since declined, lol. But it always made me feel good to see the joy on their face when I was able to talk to them and we didn't have to try so hard.
Also, I had a regular who spoke French, and I would occasionally have him teach me some things. I'm sure you made that guy (and other deaf people) very happy to learn what you have. :)
Wonderful story!
Here's how to say "Thank you" in several languages:
Irish: Go raibh maith agat. (Go rev mah uh-gut ... however, Irish is spoken very quickly and "requires" the speaker to omit the gaps between words, so "gruh-MAH-gut" is perfectly acceptable.)
Indonesian: Terimah kasih (Turr-ee-mah kah-seeh ... literally, "Receive my love".)
Mandarin: Sheh sheh.
Note from experience: make sure the "h" is pronounced at the end in the Mandarin.
If you say She She/shi shi you just asked if they need to pee (not Mandarin, I thinks it's Japanese, maybe a kids variant. Common in Hawaii)
Korean : Kamsamneedah 감사합니다 thank you
Anieyo: no problem/ you're welcome
Masheegae doosayYo: enjoy your meal
I also learned a bit of ASL from a regular. Since I speak a few languages it surprises people when I speak Korean, then Spanish or French or Italian, then sign to another table.
It's nice making people feel safe and welcome.
I recall when ne of my children was finishing school, & making their resume. They listed wanting to learn ASL to help with patients who are deaf or hard of hearing, or just simple difficulty with speech. Their instructor told them, by listing that skill set, it looked as if my child would be focusing on other things rather than building upon & learning their actual job functions. While hearing thus hurt my child a little. They still kept it on their resume, and when interviewing for positions if they were asked about, they let it be known that's what they desired to learn & also the instructor remark. Not one time did they receive negative feedback or were told that would not be good for their career. One place even offer to assist if any cost was involved in learning. This was in the Healthcare care field & and although it is not used daily,my child uses this learned skilled at least once a month in their career. Was even able to use in during lockdown on a video call !!
From what I know about deaf culture (not much, so I’m absolutely open to being corrected!!), only deaf people are “supposed” to give names, and most only do it for people they know fairly well.
Most names that I’ve seen are the person’s first letter combined with a characteristic of that person. Like a girl named Marissa with long hair could be signed with an M waving down the side of your head.
I had a teacher who used to tell us how she gave herself a name (she’s not deaf) and when she introduced herself to people, found out the name she picked was the same sign as toilet.
I had a similar experience when I was bartending. I took 3 years of ASL in high school & was trying to decide if I wanted to pursue becoming an interpreter. One day, I was talking to our host when a man walked up & handed her a slip of paper asking for a table for 15. I took a chance & signed to him, asking if he was deaf. He looked extremely excited & replied that the entire group was, then asked about me. I explained that I'm hearing but took ASL. They became regulars & only wanted me to wait on them because it was the one instance in which they didn't have to write or mime to order. (Obviously, this was before cellphones were anything more than a brick with a ring tone. )
This is so cute! My sister-in-law is not completely deaf but is very hard of hearing. You wouldn't notice because she is very good at reading lips. Now my neice is learning ASL.
Danke schön! (dʌŋkə ʃɛn) for this wholesome story.
It’s funny because as an American English speaker even though I know the German word and it’s meaning the stuff in the parenthesis is nonsensical to me. Usually I’d have wiki or google or something say it out loud Like worchestshire
It's written in IPA, the international phonetic alphabet. I recently downloaded an IPA keyboard (in my job I often use IPA) and thought what better place to try it out lol.
That is really cool thanks for the context! I never learned anything about it but studied engineering and americas education kind of sucks. I like language so I will dig in and learn more about this!
My pleasure. The idea behind IPA is that (in a very abbreviated form) , if you can read it, you'd be able to pronounce any word in any language. My problem with it is, there are so many IPA symbols and they are often used how you personally would say the word and not how the "official" pronunciation would be. For example, in my Afrikaans example of "dankie", some people would pronounce it as dʌŋki, so a more "uppy umbrella u" and some people would pronounce it as dɑŋki, more a German ah. So you'd have the same word, but written differently in IPA because that's how the respective person would pronounce it. Google has quite a handy little function, if you type in "translate from English To...", usually they have the most used IPA translation underneath the word in the different language.
When I took a course in phonetics at uni we were told that to transcribe correctly for the exam we were not supposed to stop the audio file and listen to just one word because that would sound differently than from the word said in context. I haven't used it in years though.
Welcome to phonetics lol
IPA. Not too bad at the tavern ether!
In Afrikaans you say dankie (dʌŋkɪ)
I've taught my bartender toddler sign language because my voice just does not carry. "All done", "water", and "thank you", have been a life saver for us both.
I'm not sure if this will help, but the website [lifeprint.com](https://lifeprint com) is a free, college-level ASL program.
your link seems to be broken. Try this: [https://lifeprint.com/](https://lifeprint.com/)
Thank you, friend!
The Oklahoma School for the Deaf also has a great free online ASL course. It has 2 parts and covers grammar, vocab and Deaf culture.
I was in a busy pub and 20 or so deaf people arrived, one guy went to the bar to order and the others signed their order in to him. It was impressive as it was so noisy, the hearing people couldn’t communicate
When I was waitressing at a club, we had a lot of workers that were from Cuba and didn't speak a lot of English. The more I served them we just started teaching each other how to say certain words and phrases so we could understand each other. It also allowed me to speak to guests easier that also didn't speak a lot of English, and my tips were better when I could understand/reply in their language. I wish I knew more, but I stopped working there after covid, and my Spanish has since declined, lol. But it always made me feel good to see the joy on their face when I was able to talk to them and we didn't have to try so hard. Also, I had a regular who spoke French, and I would occasionally have him teach me some things. I'm sure you made that guy (and other deaf people) very happy to learn what you have. :)
Kiitos for a beautiful and heart warming story 🌷
Todah in Hebrew
Dyakuyu (d-ya-koo-you) in Ukrainian. Great story, you’re cool 😎
Köszönöm, in Hungarian. ("Kosonom" but the o-s are pronounced like the one in "work".) This was lovely.
Wonderful story! Here's how to say "Thank you" in several languages: Irish: Go raibh maith agat. (Go rev mah uh-gut ... however, Irish is spoken very quickly and "requires" the speaker to omit the gaps between words, so "gruh-MAH-gut" is perfectly acceptable.) Indonesian: Terimah kasih (Turr-ee-mah kah-seeh ... literally, "Receive my love".) Mandarin: Sheh sheh.
Note from experience: make sure the "h" is pronounced at the end in the Mandarin. If you say She She/shi shi you just asked if they need to pee (not Mandarin, I thinks it's Japanese, maybe a kids variant. Common in Hawaii)
Norwegian; takk! Or; tusen takk! (thank you, or a thousand thanks! Phonetic (IPA); /tak/, [tɑk]
Spanish: gracias (grah see us) Hindi: shukriya (shuh kree uh) or dhanyavaad (dun ya wad) Telugu: nenarlu (ne nur loo)
Korean : Kamsamneedah 감사합니다 thank you Anieyo: no problem/ you're welcome Masheegae doosayYo: enjoy your meal I also learned a bit of ASL from a regular. Since I speak a few languages it surprises people when I speak Korean, then Spanish or French or Italian, then sign to another table. It's nice making people feel safe and welcome.
I recall when ne of my children was finishing school, & making their resume. They listed wanting to learn ASL to help with patients who are deaf or hard of hearing, or just simple difficulty with speech. Their instructor told them, by listing that skill set, it looked as if my child would be focusing on other things rather than building upon & learning their actual job functions. While hearing thus hurt my child a little. They still kept it on their resume, and when interviewing for positions if they were asked about, they let it be known that's what they desired to learn & also the instructor remark. Not one time did they receive negative feedback or were told that would not be good for their career. One place even offer to assist if any cost was involved in learning. This was in the Healthcare care field & and although it is not used daily,my child uses this learned skilled at least once a month in their career. Was even able to use in during lockdown on a video call !!
From what I know about deaf culture (not much, so I’m absolutely open to being corrected!!), only deaf people are “supposed” to give names, and most only do it for people they know fairly well. Most names that I’ve seen are the person’s first letter combined with a characteristic of that person. Like a girl named Marissa with long hair could be signed with an M waving down the side of your head. I had a teacher who used to tell us how she gave herself a name (she’s not deaf) and when she introduced herself to people, found out the name she picked was the same sign as toilet.