Thursday, May 14, 2020

On the Fine Signing of Executive Orders


9 comments:

The Dude said...

Being a sign language interpreter is not an easy task. They have to take spoken English and transform it, in real time, into sign and an approximation of ASL grammar. As I say, not easy.

The woman in this video does a great job - very expressive facial expressions, obviously fluid signing, and a wide range of mouth morphemes.

Of course, I would embellish any signing I did behind Bruce there, but that's why she was hired to be the terp and not me. Some of the signs I might use would be recognizable to even those who know no ASL whatsoever.

One of the casualties of this "pandemic" has been my continuing education in ASL. It is dead and gone. I try to keep up online with various resources but my visual receptiveness to ASL is slip slidin' away. So it goes. Next up, hearing aids. {shudder}

ampersand said...

Looks like Gretched's got her own mini-me.

Amartel said...

I would do stealth commentary in sign language. Like, Governor Wretched Witless invites you to kiss her fat dimpled heinie while she's getting a blowout at the spa.
If I was drunk.
If I wanted to keep the job I'd just stick to denigrating facial expressions, eye rolling and gagging, and then if someone called me on my face expression tone I'd say but that's my face! Are you insulting my FACE!?!?? That's disssablissst!

The Dude said...

I didn't even notice the resemblance - I was focused on trying to understand what she was signing. But now that you mention it...

Trooper York said...

They need to set up a guillotine in Michigan.

Mumpsimus said...

I wonder, what's the point of having an ASL interpreter for a televised speech? Anyone with a TV has access to closed-captioning. Is it on the off-chance that there is a deaf reporter in the pool? If so, setting up a monitor with the closed-captioning stream would be cheaper and simpler.

ndspinelli said...

We have a very animated signer for our feckless guv in MN. He/she is gender fluid and DEAF! It has a hearing signer signing to it and then it signs to the TV audience. Gee. I wonder if there's anything lost in translation?

ampersand said...

With the right subtitles this vid could become as popular as the Hitler parodies.

Mumpsimus have you ever had closed captioning turned on while watching a show? Either they are AI generated or typed out by someone trying (poorly) to keep up or written by someone who's first language is not English. Sometimes they're a hoot.

The Dude said...

A friend of mine is a court reporter and before this mess blew up she was working on becoming a real-time translator - listening to the spoken word and creating closed captions. She is very fast and does accurate work, but as with all spoken word transcription there are real issues - homonyms, mangled syntax, mumbling and so on. Anyway, that job is on hold for now.

I have CC on at all times and as a former proofreader I get a kick out of the AI generated gibberish - it is amazing stuff. Funny. Amusing and mostly wrong. But what are you going to do, eh? EH? SPEAK UP!!!