Signing For Dummies (37 page)

Check out the Signs for numbers on the Cheat Sheet at the front of this book. You can then make a date for a specific day and time with the cute Deaf guy or girl you just met. The “Talking About Time” section later in this chapter gives you Signs for relative times, such as
today
and
tomorrow.

Going to the movies

Sitting around the house and watching a good TV program can be done with your Deaf friends if your TV has closed captioning (CC), which allows the text to appear on the screen. If the captioning doesn’t come on, just give it a minute. Videotapes work the same way. Many Deaf people rent videotapes to see captioned movies.

Open captioning (OC) is different. This captioning is the subtitles you usually see on foreign films. In case you were wondering, yes, Deaf people attend movies. Many Deaf people attend the movies to see the latest flicks and go to dinner afterward. Some theaters usually have an OC Night on newly released movies. This is a good place to meet Deaf people. Call your local theater to see whether it has a captioning night for the Deaf.

To sign
open captioning,
simply fingerspell O-C.

Communicating during a movie is common among Signers. They converse about everything — the movie plot, an actor, even the lack of salt on the popcorn. Table 7-2 presents some Signs to help you enjoy the show.

Are you feeling a bit like Bond, James Bond, or are you more in the mood for bonding in a romantic way? Table 7-3 shows you Signs that indicate various types of movies.

English:
The movie sold out.

Sign:
MOVIE — SOLD OUT

English:
If the movie is open-captioned, I’ll go.

Sign:
IF MOVIE O-C — ME GO

English:
The matinee was a comedy.

Sign:
AFTERNOON MOVIE — FUNNY

English:
We went to see the new mystery.

Sign:
FINISH — NEW MYSTERY — SEE US

Mystery is signed the same way as the word strange, so a good mystery is strange.

English:
There’s captioning Saturday at the movie.

Sign:
SATURDAY MOVIE — O-C