Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/08/22/learn-dirty-words-in-sign-lang.html
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I think my ex-gf taught me a few. Let’s see if I remember.
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A pity the interviewer didn’t ask about swears that don’t have a good English enquivalent - I’d have liked to see some of those, with literal translations. I think it’s more fun to find out what unique curses exist in other languages than to learn more ways to say fuck and shit, but I guess I am weird.
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Viewed with video muted and close caption on. The ‘bullshit’ sign is hilarious.
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Any fans of Master Of None?
If you haven’t seen it, this is sort of an odd sample to trot out - but it’s a great show. I’d put in on par with Louie in terms of being smarter than it needs to be.
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My cousin is deaf, so his immediate family knows ASL, including his mom, brother, wife, and kids. I’m going to keep an eye out for an opportunity to deploy “bullshit” next time I see them.
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Excellent! You never truly know a language until you can cuss in it, IMO.
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Kristin was doing these 5 or so years ago, a lot of interesting phrases, a number I did not know in spoken American English.
However, not without controversy in the ASL community and she has stopped doing them as a result.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dirty+sign+language+with+kristin (includes several of the critical responses to her signing).
My last ASL class, we were trying to catch someone up on the lesson she missed. Now, the professor said he wasn’t allowed to teach us naughty words, but he was kind of forced to when the girl we were helping somehow botched the sign for “everyday” badly enough that she mistakenly signed “whore”.
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Yeah, I’d assume there are quite a few sign swears that aren’t the neat equivalents of spoken English swears. Someone was telling me about some Swedish swears that didn’t seem to have any equivalent in spoken Swedish, for example. And given the differences between spoken and written cursing in English, I’d expect at least that much difference.
Can confirm - watched video, it was flippin’ great. 9/10 Will watch again.
WHY AM I SMILING SO MUCH!!!
(oh yeah, just learned a shit ton of new swears!)
“Lunch” and “lesbian” are also similar enough to potentially cause problems.
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Every year, the Woodford Folk Festival hosts a comedy debate.
Every year, they have sign translators in attendance.
Every year, one of the comedians lets fly a two-minute stream of profanity just to watch how the signers respond. 
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