Excerpt from Hotchkiss' video about Laurent Clerc for the NAD Motion Picture Project

[trouble]

It would be childish to just post this and assume that all the Hearing people will just wait patiently for someone to come along and provide a transcript for them, right?


Transcript, as provided by pdurr on YouTube:

Excerpt of Hotchkiss discussing memories of old hartford from the NAD Motion Picture Project
translation of excerpt by P. Durr - NOTE translation's accuracy is not confirmed.

"Another time Clerc called a boy who had passed by his house asking, "Please tell (name sign of bent L handshape going downward from top of lips to bottom of chin indicating a beard) S-T-E-W-A-R-D to please have wood delivered to me." "My pleasure," the boy replied and went on his way. But this boy completely forgot about this message as his mind was set on playing. Thus, it totally slipped his mind to inform Steward (name sign) of Clerc's message of his need for wood and Clerc never received any.

A few days passed and again Clerc approached this boy, tapping him with his walking stick and holding him by the shoulders. "I told YOU to PLEASE tell Steward to bring me wood and you said, 'Ah huh, Yes, Yes, Yes' but instead you went off and completely forgot. Darn you for forgetting." and he went off in a huff. As days went by, Clerc would continue to bump into this boy and would always say "Darn, you're the boy who forgot" (hand at mouth) and stomp off.

The boy was embarrassed and became weary of Clerc's insults so he decided to go to him and asking his forgiveness for having forgotten to deliver the message to which Clerc let out a joyful laugh and said "alright, you are forgiven, you are forgiven, be on your way." And with that they departed.

Comments

[polemista]

It would be childish to just post this and assume that all the Hearing people will just wait patiently for someone to come along and provide a transcript for them, right?

Hehehehehehe!!!!!!!
You win the Internets with that one!

(Edited typo)

[capriuni]

It would be childish, yes. But it would also be amusing.

Also: Yay! I read PDurr's transcript (I'd trust her translation; she's a native ASL user), and then I watched the vid. And I understood which sign was which well enough to figure out new signs I hadn't learned yet.

Go me!

[jesse_the_k]

Probably old signs you hadn't learned yet.

*shit eating grin*

See these old NAD films brings home just how important cheap ubiquitous video tech is for Deaf community.

[capriuni]

*Checks the newly-learned sign for "wood" in the modern online dictionary at signingsavvy.com*

Hmm... Basically the same sign, except that the location of the active hand has moved up from the back of the passive hand to the forearm.

In the book I bought last summer, Signing the Body Poetic, video technology is compared to the printing press, in terms of impact on the culture, in terms of creating a shift from a shared "oral" culture(sic, for want of a better term) to a "literate" one -- in that cheap video cameras allow individuals to record and edit their own works, and thereby claim individual authorship.

[jesse_the_k]

re: sign changes. I remember a linguistics text which claimed there was a consistent pattern in sign change. I can't lay my hands on the reference, but the general drift was "signs move closer to the centerline & head; dominant hand tends to 1, 5, B, baby 0; non-dominant mirrors dominant." The initial example was "home," which the author claimed began as eat + sleep (baby 0 at mouth, shifting to rest inclined head on B at ear). I learned it as double-touch of baby 0 one handswidth away from mouth. But of course that's a compound ...

re: "oral" to "literate" culture.
That makes a lot of sense. Some of my Deaf teachers (who'd gone to Deaf school in the 1960s and earlier) would recall how thrilling it had been to see the NAD movies, and begin to understand that sign wasn't a local, personal phenomenon; that there was a notional Deaf Nation. The sparse visual record reinforces the message (and its transmission) of the very few who had been filmed.

(gott put that book on hold, now!)

[ladylakira.livejournal.com]

Oh! That brings up a question: Who would I go to if I wanted a transcript for something done in sign language? A quick google gives me some apps and sites for English to ASL but I'm not sure what would be the most efficient way to find someone who could do transcripts for ASL to English. On the other hand, I get the feeling that ASL to English is not usually a necessary direction. I really don't know....

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

Do you mean in Edmonton, or on the internet?

[ladylakira.livejournal.com]

Er. I guess on the internet? If I wanted something done locally, I could... *googles*... check out the Alberta School for the Deaf or the Alberta Association of the Deaf to start. Maybe check out the U of A services to see if they have any advice/ideas.

My thinking is that I'm priviledged enough that I'm unlikely to ever need an ASL to English translation IRL except when dealing with a specific person and then I can figure something out with that person (or that person will already have it covered). I'm more likely to need an ASL to English transcript/translation for media when on the tubes. If that makes any sense.

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

I actually just ask friends I know who are fluent. I have no idea how one would get an automated translation. Too much of it is subtle gesture and even facial expression.