I have my own way of seeing it and I thought I would show that thinking it would be unique.
Silly me.
I should have known it would already be done. But I had no idea how popular this song is to be shown in ASL, there a million versions on YouTube. Possibly twenty or so. (I told myself a trillion times to stop exaggerating.)
All of the interpreters make several various adjustments to suit their conceptualizations of the lyrics. Most form their signs fairly poorly, loosely and wildly. They each decide what is important to show, which words are important to change, and which English words need sign embellishment. Most omit specific English words and stick to the essence, thus sacrificing the poem which is, after all, in English. Others add signs to be even more specific.
"If tomorrow" is a serendipitous combination. "If" is little finger placed at the corner of the right eye while "tomorrow" is the thumb cranking forward at the cheek. They're both at the same spot on the face. Another form of "if" is the same as "judge," two platters of a balancing scale being weighed except very tight and tiny, almost like the sign for "interpret," two "F" configurations made to look like knitting.
"Things" and "children" are similar signs. "Things" is like holding two pieces of paper, and both hands move apart in stages boink, boink, boink, for thing, thing, thing. While children is the same thing except palms downward like patting their little heads, different heights, moving from center outward. If you want to show "growing up" then put your hand on their little invisible head and lift upward to show your invisible child growing. I use this all the time to answer the question, "Where did you learn sign?" My answer is "grow up." And that usually satisfies that line of inquiry. Sometimes they'll ask further, "Mother? Father? Brother? What?"
Most show a poorly formed "wife." The sign is fingertips to chin, the lower portion of the face + clasping both hands for "marriage." One interpreter cannot decide if the word is wife or husband, she puts her fingertips at her cheek, halfway between female and male areas of the face, then both hands clasping for "marriage." Husband is fingertips at the forehead then marriage. While "belief" or "believe" is index finger at the forehead, for "think" or "thought" then hand clasping for "wedded." So "husband" is very close to "belief." The way the girl formed "wife" actually looks like "cousin (female)" + "belief." It is a very unclear "wife."
The phrase "And I'll gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today. 'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land. God bless the USA" is shown with near endless variation.
Many omit "gladly."
"Stand up next to you." Stand is like dance except no movement, two fingers for legs on the palm of the opposite hand. I show "stand up" emphatically, the two legs beginning sideways then emphatically standing up at attention forward. "Next" is both hands indicating the side of my body, then point forward to "you." Again, it is an emphatic and graphic phrase. None of the other several dozen or so interpreters do that. One interpreter shows both his forearms set erect in front his torso next to each other, but not emphatically, they could be two pillars for all we know. Other interpreters do two parallel karate chops for "next." If you look at, say, five of the videos then you'll see five versions of this phrase.
"Can't take that away" is shown various ways. Nobody shows "take" then "away." Some strip off the layer of one upright arm and toss the invisible surface, one interpreter does that with both arms. Others show a scooping sign such as "win" or "victory." Most others do a scraping off the surface sign.
Soph's "stars" shoot forward in front of her instead of shooting upward above her. Some interpreter's stars are scattered wildly across the universe, and other interpreter's stars are shot into a single constellation above their heads. Some stars are awesome. Some look upward dazzled by lucky stars, some show cursory half-hearted stars. Some omit "lucky" Most omit "my," so "I thank my lucky stars" becomes "thank (perfunctory) stars."
"Bless" is like a Catholic priest doing the sign of the cross." Most interpreters show "peace" and "quiet" instead. There is confusion about the sign for "God." You'll see all kind of forms for this sign.
And so on with every phrase in the song.
"'Cause the flag still stands for freedom." There's the word "stand" again. Some flags are waving right off their poles. It's not clear that waving thing is even a flag. "Stands for" is changed to "mean" a sign that is very similar to "stand" except sideways, and it is two-parts. It flicks. It reverses. It is the "stand" sign with legs sideways facing up and the floor a wall, then flicks to face downward, but interpreters omit the double movement and give only one stand sideways for half the sign for "mean" when the lyrics are "stand" the same sign except standing upward so that "mean" looks like a sloppy "stand." "Mean" vs "stand." Mean as cruel is shown differently, and "stand" as endure is shown as "continue." "Stand for" is shown as 'indicate. "Stand up" as "audience arise" is shown as "lift up."
The interpreters know in this case the English word "stand" means the idea "means." "The flag means freedom."
Interpreters including Soph spell "up", superfluous, as the sign for "stand up" involves the action of standing up. "Up is inherent in the sign for "stand." It's that kind of double, extra specificity that marks English as first language and appears as supercilious serif when you're drawing a picture in the air. The "up" is already there in the sign for "stand up" So then, Soph signs "stand up up."
One of the boys in a group signs "country" where the word does not appear. He's making sure the receiver understands "and defend her still today" is understood as defend the country. And I must say it is delightful to see the boy make sure we understand that "her" means "country."
Soph shows "this land" properly as "dirt + flat expanse." Most others omit the dirt.
It's all details. But when you work on your own version to keep the English poetry and hit the corresponding signs on the musical beat then every omission, interpretation, alteration and addition sticks out like throbbing red sore aching thumbs. You go, "I see what you did there, but why did you do it?" They did it because they thought it was necessary, they thought that's how to show the essence. They did it to keep up with the tempo.
I adore these little kids.
"Free" is the same as "save," "safe," "liberty," "liberate," "freedom." Arms crossed then dramatically broken free. Interesting to see so many interpreters us "F" hand configuration to specify either "free" or "freedom" as they would use "L" to specify "liberty" or "liberate."
This teacher shows her class of young students a sensibly abbreviated version.
Minn, Tenn, Tx in 2-line outline of Texas, T straight across, X curved downward, a big sign for a big state.
This man does a competent interpretation
Soph, excellent as always.
All of the children are adorable.
I'm not sure they get the connection between "life," "live" and "pride." I'm not sure they understand both thumbs drawn up the torso and puffing out the chest indicates being filled with pride, probably having never actually felt that yet, and that "live" and "life" are shown with "L" hand configurations to distinguish them from other "being," "existing," and "human" "brave" "courage" concepts that are all related.
There are dozens and dozens of videos for this song. It is a delightful discovery, and an excellent chance to see a whole array of approaches. And here the vexing problem is answered, "no wonder I can never understand exactly what you are saying." As receiver you have no concept of what is a noun or a verb, which is the subject and object, what is a main or auxiliary phrase, what is a preposition and what is an adjective, no idea about who's doing what to whom and who is feeling what about what or why. The pictures that are painted are splashes and splotches and random lines of modern art, mostly poorly formed. Most of the videos attempt to convey emotion dramatically or they're just showing off. Only a few give the sense of someone trying to convey to deaf the sense of this extraordinary song, its meaning, its poetry, its rhythm, its build, and its heart-felt emotion of real pride.
Youtube:
Several show up on both.
1 comment:
Again though not this time franknofeedback you sir Chip are wit personified.
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