Aphorism I got from Life (the real thing, not the magazine)

If the world seems bleh everywhere you look, try washing your glasses.

Today is the start of Deaf Awareness Week.

I recently discovered that the last full week in September (that is, from the last Sunday to the last Saturday) is Deaf Awareness Week. So I've been holding back on (some of) my Sign Spam until now. And now, I'm going to throw down a double on you. :-)

Both vids have English captions. Both deal with what it's like to grow up as a Deaf child.

The first vid is in American Sign Language -- and it's an ASL translation of a poem written in English (the second half of the vid is just the words on a black background, so it's easier to read through).

The second Vid is a skit performed in British Sign Language (since that's what about half my f'list is familiar with), and it was posted as a video reply to Monty Python's "Four Yorkshiremen."

Oh, and remember my post from a bit back? About whether signed languages are abstract or iconic? Well, just one of many differences I noticed between the two languages shown here: The ASL sign for "DEAF" is the BSL sign for "HEARING."* And I bet you, dollars to donuts, that if you go to a tutorial for either language, both will carefully lay out obviously iconic reasons the sign means what it does...

Um... yeah.

*"Hearing" as an adjective, not a verb. As in: "Are you a hearing person or a deaf person?"