“They’d tell me, 'Music is a hearing thing. It’s not for deaf people'."
June 23, 2016 9:13 PM   Subscribe

Amber Galloway Gallego is an ASL-based music interpreter who has worked with Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Destiny's Child, Paul McCartney, and many more rappers, R&B stars, and rock bands. Her YouTube channel is chock full of music interpretation for deaf audiences. posted by Miko (25 comments total) 26 users marked this as a favorite
 
Her Anaconda is truly the best.
posted by effugas at 10:58 PM on June 23, 2016 [5 favorites]


Amber previously. We've got a great concert interpreter who is like the go-to in town. I haven't seen her in a while and she was great too. Not quite as rock and roll; I remember her looking like she'd probably dropped her tween off discretely beforehand and snuck on stage. But like, ubiquitous in a weird way. I think I last saw her side-stage with the Bangles at the State Fair, a good stretch of work for her as they always have a parade of faded but still enviable performers. She's probably worked with more talent in this town than anyone. Formidable.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:53 PM on June 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


I realize the audience is Deaf people, not me, but I really wish there were videos like these with subtitles below telling you what each sign means. I'm fascinated by trying to figure out how ASL works. I believe Deaf people when they say that ASL can express everything that can be expressed in any spoken language and with as much detail and subtlety.

But I also remember looking up the number of signs in ASL vs words in English and English had a lot more. Like not just a little more but way way more. And I watch Switched at Birth, partly because I am trying to figure out how ASL works, and it seems like they use the same sign to mean lots of things. Like they will have one sign that corresponds to someone speaking orally "good" "great" "fantastic" "awesome." And those are basically synonyms, so whatever. I get why someone speaking that would then be interpreted with the same sign. What I don't get is how, when the original speaker is speaking ASL, the person interpreting it into English knows which of those words to use, because they do seem to interpret the same sign into English in different ways.

If I ever were to need to learn ASL, I think I'd end up having to fingerspell everything.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:01 AM on June 24, 2016


Amber previously.

Rats, I did search, but the links were all different I suppose.

I really wish there were videos like these with subtitles below

That would actually be good for everybody - not all deaf people speak ASL, and the trend seems to have been toward "total communication," which uses written word, lip reading, ASL, body language, and facial expression to get the message across in a sort of 360-degree accessible way.
posted by Miko at 7:52 AM on June 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


What I don't get is how, when the original speaker is speaking ASL, the person interpreting it into English knows which of those words to use, because they do seem to interpret the same sign into English in different ways.

The way I've been encouraged to understand it is that ASL is a fundamentally different language than English, not just a transliteration of English. So it's more telegraphic and the meaning of a word depends on the context in which it's presented - which includes gesture and expression, etc. It's more telegraphic and poetic and succinct than English. It's the art of interpreting meaning, and for a community that has no spoken/hearing tradition, not just translating word-for-word - so the aesthetic choices make their own kind of sense that's not as obvious to a hearing-dependent community.
posted by Miko at 7:58 AM on June 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


That would actually be good for everybody - not all deaf people speak ASL,

Sure, but then what would be useful for non-ASL speakers would be the English translation in subtitles. I don't need the English translation because I can hear the song. What I want is a word for "word" translation of the signs. What do the individual signs actually mean?

Also, I think I would be really interested to see some of these translated back into English by a person who did not know and wasn't hearing the song. I don't expect you would get the exact lyrics back, rhymes and all (that wouldn't even work in two spoken languages), but I'd be curious to see how close the meaning came.

And yeah, I've heard that there's much more context dependence and facial expressions matter, etc. I just have trouble wrapping my head around it, but I'm curious, so I'd like to see it explained explicitly.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:04 AM on June 24, 2016


What I want is a word for "word" translation of the signs.

yeah, that would be cool and enlightening. I still don't think it would give us the same thing as the signs' meaning to an ASL speaker, though.

rhymes and all

I'd love to learn more about the way 'rhyme' works in ASL, because my sense is that there are rhymes, but not based on phonetics, but on gestural qualities. I know that there are puns that don't exist in English, for instance, where two signs are pretty close so you can make a joke by punning them.

I wish I knew more about the whole thing - I've worked with a school of the deaf a few times and really enjoyed it, but I don't have much depth on the topic.

Her You Oughta Know is fun too.
posted by Miko at 8:08 AM on June 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


An English 'word translation' of the signs is called "signed English". It is ' dialect ' that English hearing people forced on Deaf people - so the hearing people could understand them. It is not a true language and it's use is a big part of Deaf oppression.
Here is her passionate plea about Hearing Privilege.
The Anaconda video is amazing - especially her interpretation of the slang language. And that is what is of interest to ASL interpreters: her interpretation is not in just the ASL sign she chooses - but it's in the shape and movement of the sign; the shape and movement of her face and upper body. The signs and movements she chooses is not only based on the English word equivalency, but also on her understanding the Deaf culture and the audience she is communicating to.
There are "words" in ASL that simply have no English equivalency. You need to know the culture and context to truly appreciate the sign.
Her use of space in the Beach Boys "I get around" is super fun. The best I can describe it - she's put her mind, body and emotion into being a 'hip teenage boy', in order to describe the song. Not an easy task!. The expression of her eyes, her head and mouth placements - all contributes to a single word interpretation.
And "Kodachrome" - a difficult enough song to listen to in English. This song continuously jumps from past and present tenses and her spatial interpretation is a joy.
Also appreciate that she is also interpreting the beat of the music with her movements. For me, the skill in this is like: patting my head and rubbing my stomach at the same time.
posted by what's her name at 8:57 AM on June 24, 2016 [13 favorites]


An English 'word translation' of the signs is called "signed English". It is ' dialect ' that English hearing people forced on Deaf people - so the hearing people could understand them.

I wasn't clear. I do not want to see them sign each english word. Given that my interest is in understanding how ASL works, changing how it works is the opposite of what would help. I would like to see an English word for each sign. So I guess I'm looking for "written ASL" not "signed English." Signed English wouldn't help me understand the things I'm trying to understand.

I realize that "written ASL" is not a real language either, but my purpose is not to force English speakers to speak in "written ASL" anymore than it is to force Deaf people to sign in signed English. My purpose is to better understand ASL and Deaf culture because I am a person who is generally interesting in learning about stuff. Hence the Metafilter account.

Btw, I didn't know anything about the existence of ASL rhyming until Miko's comment above, but being a person who's interesting in learning stuff, I looked it up and found this reallly interesting video. If you do not sign you have to turn the captions on by clicking the little CC (I originally thought the powerpoints in the corner were the "captions" referred to and didn't catch on that I had to click the button). Anyway, this is a really interesting example of rhyming in ASL, though I wonder how it would work in practice in the case shown (a mom reading to a small Deaf child), since it seems to require a whole lot of planning and thinking through. I guess it's essentially the equivalent of expecting a person to take a song in one language, sing it in another and preserve the tune, rhythm and rhyme. Sure people translate songs, but they don't do it off the cuff while reading bedtime stories.

It seems like there would be a big market for teaching standardized nursery rhymes and kids songs in ASL so parents and teachers wouldn't need to invent the rhymes themselves and so kids moving from one context to another would get the same song/rhyme in different contexts (home, daycare, school).
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:16 AM on June 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


The Anaconda video is amazing - especially her interpretation of the slang language. And that is what is of interest to ASL interpreters: her interpretation is not in just the ASL sign she chooses - but it's in the shape and movement of the sign; the shape and movement of her face and upper body. The signs and movements she chooses is not only based on the English word equivalency, but also on her understanding the Deaf culture and the audience she is communicating to.

Right, I would like to see this explained explicitly because I am curious to understand it better.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:17 AM on June 24, 2016


For educational value, maybe you want something more like this.
posted by RobotHero at 9:50 AM on June 24, 2016 [6 favorites]


What you ask for would be an interesting resource, but the flip side of it is that it would be a woefully incomplete translation of what's happening. As was said, there are many signs in ASL that are used as substitutions for many english words.

That's really because they're not substitutions, and that line is incorrect because it's predicated on something wrong. When someone interprets a line of spoken english into ASL they are doing the work of translation, with all the implicit and explicit alterations of the specific vocal statement that requires.

I'm not sure the sort of insight you seek this way is really achievable other than through mastery of the language, just as you'd gain it with any spoken foreign language when you grasped - through use and exposure - the subtle different ways you might express a single concept. With ASL you apply those things via facial expression and exuberance rather than volume and intonation, but it's really linguistically the same sort of thing.
posted by phearlez at 10:00 AM on June 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


That was really interesting, RoboHero, thanks. I will watch more of these. And yeah, phearlez, I guess the sign-by-sign translation into English wouldn't get me that much of what I want either. The video was closer to what I'm looking for. though it didn't explain the meaning of each sign, necessarily, it did go into decisions about how to translate things and how things get changed moving from ASL to English. Particularly interesting was the way different things were signed in different directions and how because there were only 15 stars he signed the sign for 'lots" kind of lightly.

For things like anthems are there standardized signings, just like in English there are standard lyrics? If I walked into two Deaf schools in different parts of the US would they be signing the anthem the same way?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:09 AM on June 24, 2016


Here's her cover of Purple Rain. Really cool explanation at the beginning about how she decided to interpret the meaning of "purple rain." First I was bummed that she had to drop the sound (copyright), but then though, welp, maybe more appropriate?
posted by smirkette at 10:22 AM on June 24, 2016


Signed languages are languages, they are not versions of spoken languages, and you shouldn't be asking for transliterations that you wouldn't also expect between spoken languages. Signed languages are complete and fully expressive, just like any other natural human language. You cannot count words in languages to compare their expressiveness, that is a deeply invalid and uninformed notion (though sadly common) and this fact applies to signed languages just as much as it does to spoken languages.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 11:55 AM on June 24, 2016


If I wanted to understand how the grammar or of another spoken language worked or understand some idiomatic aspects of that language, I would absolutely be interested in word for word transliterations. And I believe the very first thing I said was that I already believe that ASL can be as expressive as spoken languages. I don't think I've said anything to imply that signed languages are versions of spoken languages. I feel like a few people here are determined to see my comments as disparaging ASL or Deaf culture when I've said nothing to do that.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:04 PM on June 24, 2016 [3 favorites]


If only I had a penguin..., if you turn on the closed captions on her Fight Song video I think you'll find it's close to what you're looking for.
posted by somedaycatlady at 12:23 PM on June 24, 2016


thanks, that was great. I'm going to see if any others have captions.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:31 PM on June 24, 2016


I think you are mistaking "this is not going to tell you anything the way you imagine it will" for some sort of accusation.
posted by phearlez at 12:46 PM on June 24, 2016


You're right. I'm sorry for being defensive.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 2:30 PM on June 24, 2016


For things like anthems are there standardized signings, just like in English there are standard lyrics? If I walked into two Deaf schools in different parts of the US would they be signing the anthem the same way?

But just like in English, there are many different pronunciations for words, depending on where you were raised and live. As well, the anthem 'sound' could change by the age, gender or the voice quality of the singer.

It's the same in ASL - as it would be for any language. The signs (words) would be recognizable from coast to coast, but with it's own "accent".

As this is about interpretation - the interpreter is expected to reflect the voice and tone of the person he/she is interpreting. A baritone singer may have very bold and wide sweeping signs versus an alto singer, might have more gentler movements. It's all a matter of interpretation.
posted by what's her name at 7:29 PM on June 24, 2016 [3 favorites]



Sure, but then what would be useful for non-ASL speakers would be the English translation in subtitles. I don't need the English translation because I can hear the song. What I want is a word for "word" translation of the signs. What do the individual signs actually mean?


I'm not actually taking a shot at you here - I would also think this has some value for learners even if its approximate - but putting all your questions together shouldn't you be asking "what are some good resources to get started learning ASL?"
posted by atoxyl at 1:32 PM on June 25, 2016


It's not like there's gonna be a test!
posted by atoxyl at 1:37 PM on June 25, 2016


but putting all your questions together shouldn't you be asking "what are some good resources to get started learning ASL?"

Sort of...but not exactly. I don't think i could learn ASL... i mean I would have no one to practice, and I'm well past the developmental stage where learning languages is easy, and ASL is a language fundamentally different from any I already speak, so it's not like just learning another latin languages. I was really impressed to learn, reading some background on Amber Galloway Gallego that she learned ASL as an adult. Also, I just couldn't commit the time necessary to learn ASL.

What I want is not so much to learn ASL as to understand better how ASL works. like yes, I get that it doesn't express deeper thoughts or more specificity or subtletly by having more words, but I would like to more fully grok how it does. I mean I get that i invovles facial expressions and other stuff, but I wish I could watch someone signing and think "oh the way they just bent their fingers somehow means they're upset about this." or "It's a question because of that eyebrow thing they just did" or "they used these signs that strictly speaking correspond to words x, and Y to convey thought Z" (ok that last one I couldn't get without speaking ASL, but I'd like to see things like that explained enough to get a sense of them). Same for puns.

Maybe I should blow an ask me on this rather than clogging up a post on the Blue.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:50 PM on June 25, 2016


I'd be interested in reading that Ask!
posted by Miko at 7:41 PM on June 25, 2016


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