Spitz: Talking without speaking
By Julia Spitz/Daily News columnist
MetroWest Daily News
Posted Sep 20, 2008 @ 11:13 PM

Scott Shupert’s hand moved quickly, as if wind were pushing it backward, inches above his hair.

Finally, I thought. Finally he’s asked a question I can answer.

Yes. Yes, this is going way over my head.

Only it wasn’t meant as a snide question, and it wasn’t directed at me.

Shupert was asking a student if she was having trouble understanding his seemingly impertinent query: Did she have a key to her boyfriend’s house?

After going around the room and coming up with nothing but house and car keys, plus one to a storage room, which did offer a momentary challenge, Shupert was looking to introduce another new word – Motorcycle? Boyfriend? Girlfriend? – to add to what his students had learned about keys.

The key part wasn’t too tough. Not like Westborough.

The sign looks like a key going into a lock, only the palm of your hand is the lock. Westborough requires positioning your fingers in a W-like formation, moving your arm in the direction of west on a compass, then spelling out b-o-r-o so quickly it appears to be three letters instead of four.

But is it compass direction as if you’re the compass, or is it from the vantage point of the person you’re talking to? Momentary confusion on that point, and the fact that, as with writing, you use your dominant hand, led a rightie’s and leftie’s thoughts to collide when the two were seated side by side.

Which led Shupert to do what he did frequently Wednesday evening in the American Sign Language Level 1 course at Framingham’s Learning Center for the Deaf: use a light touch to correct an error. [continued. . . ]

This article was posted by Carol in category Uncategorized