“I wish you knew sign language,” she added rather wistfully. “Barriers fall right away in sign.” (Story of B – Daniel Quinn)

I’m not sure if I can describe what happens in my mind when I use American Sign Language (ASL). It’s something that has developed gradually, as I learned more about how the language works – and hence gained deeper and deeper respect for it.

You see, ASL is so much more than symbols to replace spoken sounds. It has its own grammar, its own sentence structure – and its own ways of expressing emphasis, emotion, mood.

Communication in ASL is not just about the motion, but the hands’ placement in relation to the body, the direction they move, one’s facial expression.

I grew up surrounded by sound. Even now, music is a nearly constant companion.

But when I sign, I stop listening for the sound. I’m entirely entranced by the dance of hands. I’ve always loved dance, and been fascinated by the idea of expression through movement; ASL is a form of dance to me, and the music isn’t missing – it’s right there, in the way the hands flow; my mind becomes fluid, to match the communication through movement. I stop trying to translate, and instead I try to communicate.

I’m not sure if that can be understood unless you’re truly bilingual or multilingual. There isn’t a translation going on in my mind because something is always lost in translation. In school language class, I always did better getting the overall sentence than I did individual words; as much as individual words might make me curious, they are meaningless without the context, and there is no poetry to a single word. Just as there is no music in a single note. There is the echo or the preface or the inspiration… but the art isn’t there until the words and sounds and motion flow together, creating a rhythm that’s jagged or smooth, liltingly uplifting or seamlessly heartbreaking.

It’s the difference between a dripping tap and Niagra Falls.

For anyone interested in learning about Sign Language from a historical/academic standpoint, I highly recommend Talking Hands by Margalit Fox.