ex-xian

Swear words in American Sign Language are always fun!

" F*ck you" is signed by sweeping the fingers outward from the chin, like the stereotypical italian gesture (of course, this can also mean "so what" the difference is in the facial expressions and force of the gesture).

"Shit" is made by extending the thumb and pinky outward from a closed fist and sweeping the hand downward alongside the body.

"Damn" is similiar, but with "d" letter shape on the hand.

"Asshole" is like making the "ok" symbol, but making a tighter circle with the index finger and thumb.

But my favorite is "bullshit." Cross your arms in front of your chest, with the right arm on top. With the right hand, extend the index and pinky fingers from a closed fist, making a bull horn shape. With the left hand, make a closed fist and open it quickly and extend all fingers and thumb. Like the shit is blowing out of the bulls arse.

Jackalope

Hah, my friend who's an ASL translator had to explain this one to a professor because the gesture was one of his habitual ticks while lecturing:

Curl the fingers of both hands loosely. Extend your index fingers and put them together. Now extend your thumbs and let them meet. You should be making a sort of triangular shape. Now rotate this shape until the index fingers point down. This gesture means literally "cherry pie", but is most commonly used for "cunt."

Now picture the professor unawaredly signing "Cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt" while he's lecturing. The poor girl my friend was translating for kept breaking into sniggers the first class lecture.

Feather

Quite telling of human nature that even mutes (no, I don't know what the PC term for "dumb" people is, but I figured "mute" is more respectful so I used it; if ya don't like it then bite me) have swear "words."

I wonder what George "God" Carlin would have to say about that.

ex-xian

Not to get on a soapbox, but the correct term is Deaf. Capital "D" to signify the culturally identitified Deaf Community.

As for there swear words, ASL displays grammar and syntax of any other language, so it seems natural that they would have curse words too.

Feather

Er...not all deaf people are unabie to speak, right? Or did I miss a definition change somewhere? So not all deaf people will use sign language? I'm confused.

Coragyps

A friend of mine who worked in Brazil found out that the US handsign for "OK" is "Asshole!" there the hard way: he was trying to tell his customer that the job he was doing was going to work just fine without knowing Portuguese - the customer didn't know English. Another classic "failure to communicate!"

ex-xian

Well, there is a difference between deaf and Deaf. It's kind of confusing. Here's a link that explains it a bit.

Jesus Tap-Dancin' Christ

Vida bunda (or something like that, from a Brazillian I know)--Go find an ass

(anothe phoenetic)" Vufunkoola (italian)--Fuck off.

Vicar Philip

When I went to Brunei (same island as Malaysia) several years ago, I got to see one of the Sultan's television studios. My American friend who lived in Brunei and was there as a guide was across the room, so I gestured to him in the standard American way: hand pointing straight up, towards me, and moved it towards me in a "Come here" move.

Well, he rushed over and told me not to gesture like that, as that was equivalent to lifting up the middle finger! Instead, one needs to position the hand (right hand, in this case) so it's pointing to the left, then move the arm in a horizontal fashion. That was acceptable.

Learn something new every day.

ex-xian

Two accidental porn on missionary trip stories:

My former associate pastor was on a trip to an Asian country, I can't remember which one, when he was in Bible college. While standing on a crowded street waiting for something, he started doing that thing where you snap your fingers quickly then smack the top of your fist with the other open hand. Someone in the group who was from the country that they were in ran over to him and made him stop. Turns out that that series of gestures is how you call for a prostitute in that country.

Another really good friend of mine went on a trip to Russia. As Americans, the Russian Xians treated them like gods. At dinner where about 3-4 families were together, my friend began to play with a young girl, about 7 years old. He did the "I've got you nose" think and made the gesture with the thumb tucked between the index and middle fingers. The Russians looked horrified and the girl just turned red. The team leader asked my friend to stop, but he just held his hand up, waving it around, insisting it was harmless. In Russia that gesture is equivalent to the middle finger.