'Is anybody else mesmerized?' ASL interpreter steals the show during Irma press conference [TR]

Daily Mail ^ | 23:09 EDT, 9 September 2017 | UPDATED: 00:09 EDT, 10 September 2017 | KAILEEN GAUL

[COBOL2Java]

I'm an interpreter for the deaf, and I thought this guy was terrific! I wish my expressive abilities were half as good as his!

For those who don't know, in sign language you need to communicate with signs, expressions, and body language - which he did in spades.

[lee martell]

You just answered my question before I asked it.
I was going to ask if this guy was being a bit of a ‘showboat’ here, or at very least, an inappropriate distraction. Maybe that’s all a part of communicating via ASL.

[Nifster]

Must have learned from the phony was it Russian sign language guy

[americas.best.days...]

It was not the time nor place. Extremely unprofessional.

[Falcon4.0]

Yea I noticed that too,
The Officials doing the talking have serious and somber faces,
and the clown doing the sign language is acting like he's doing stand-up at a comedy club.
It reminded me of an episode of "Spin City" with Michael J Fox where he hired a "Signer" who didn't know signing and was riffing during a press conference and MJF ran out and tackled him on set. It was a funny bit.

[BenLurkin]

They all look goofy.

[COBOL2Java]

Well he certainly was better than Obama's interpreter...

[CGASMIA68]

Not being impaired you are not supposed to see the interpreter.
As in ignore him.
let those dependent on him critique him, right or wrong.

[Larry Lucido]

I've heard that those 3-D pictures are mesmerizing.

[COBOL2Java]

They all look goofy.

Thanks! As an ASL interpreter I'll assume you intended that for me as well. I hope you don't mean all deaf people, because that would include my wife (deaf from birth) and the deaf worshippers I interpret for every Sunday...

[Drew68]

It was not the time nor place. Extremely unprofessional.

Actually, exactly the opposite.

[Jamestown1630]

It is. A great part of their communication is via facial expression which others might consider exaggerated. I used to work with deaf people, and they have the most expressive faces of all.

[COBOL2Java]

Actually, exactly the opposite.

Some people are quite bigoted, whether they know it or not. I see it against the deaf from time to time. I've been approached at church by people who want the deaf worshippers moved to another spot, because their signing is a "distraction". Maybe they'd want the disabled put in a closet with a little CCTV so they wouldn't have to look at them...

[gaijin]

I thought he was fantastic..!

A little like that New Zealand HAKA recitation:

Verrrrry expressive.

[GnuThere]

Trump tweeted if he ever needed a “sign guy”, this guy would be it.

[COBOL2Java]

It is. A great part of their communication is via facial expression which others might consider exaggerated. I used to work with deaf people, and they have the most expressive faces of all.

Facial expressions and body language (movements, direction, etc.) are approximately 2/3 of the ASL language. Hand signals and fingerspelling take up the rest - a minority of the Total Communication. You are correct that the deaf are extremely expressive in their faces - which corresponds to what goes into a good ASL interpreter.

[DoughtyOne]

10% of tbe general populace is hearing impaired. Of those a good percentage are helped with hearing devices. To bolster the number of people who are hearing impaired, some folks like to address those who are elderly who are 25-50% impaired at some point. They also have hearing device help, many of them. Those that don’t, many are new-comers to being hearing impaired, and don’t know sign language anyway.

While I don’t necessarily have a problem with signing, sometimes the signers are distracting.

In that one angle shot provided here, the signer stood between the guy with the camera and the governor.

I’d hate to think the signer called so much attention to himself, that folks were distracted and not concentrating on the important information the governor was presenting.

Even being distracted for a few moments might cause someone to miss dire information specific to their location, so this isn’t something to be dismissed as a problem.

It can be a problem.

[avenir]

[gaijin]

It was Donald Trump Jr. who originally focused on this guy:

After he tweeted a link to the vid clip, EVERYONE started watching it.

And was right; the guy is awesome.

Jim Carrey doing the NZ Haka Dance

[COBOL2Java]

Trump tweeted if he ever needed a “sign guy”, this guy would be it.

He gets it - unlike some detractors...