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Heynen, Turpin, and other regulars give
me a few lessons about ASL. For one,
everyone who signs has a dierent accent.
Each person inserts personality into their
signs, especially facial expressions, which
is why people get to know someone faster
through signing than speaking.
“It’s impossible to learn sign from just
one deaf person. Everyone has a dier-
ent accent in sign, everyone has dier-
ent ways of expressing dierent words,”
Turpin says. “You need a group.”
Another lesson is that hearing people
can spell out their names with the ASL
alphabet, but they must wait to have a
unique sign bestowed on them by a deaf
person. It’s honoric, earned. Oen, a
sign for a name incorporates the rst ini-
tial of that name and a movement related
to that person’s interests, personality, or a
physical feature.
DESIRÉE FRASCA began learning sign at
Common Market even before Heynen
started Wine ‘n’ Sign. About three years
ago, she came to grab a coee during a
bad day and a worse mood. A man stood
in her way. “Excuse me,” she said. He
didn’t move. “Excuuuse me,” she repeated.
Again, nothing. So she tapped his back
and again said, “EXCUSE ME.”
That man was Fortner. He smiled and
motioned that he was deaf, and then
moved to allow her to pass.
Frasca felt awful. She began to learn
signs so that each time she saw Fortner in
Common Market, she could talk to him.
Soon, Fortner was helping her learn more.
Fortner doesn’t remember their awkward
rst meeting, but she still shakes her head
at the memory. That moment changed a
lot for Frasca: It introduced her to a new
friend and a new career: She’s now in
CPCC’s interpreter program. She’s even
adopted a deaf dog and trains her with
ASL commands.
“One of the things we talk about (at
CPCC) is: ‘Are you there to help deaf peo-
ple as an interpreter?’ No, you’re not there
to help the poor deaf person, you’re actu-
ally there to help the poor hearing person
who can’t sign,” Frasca says. “Deaf people
can’t learn to hear. Hearing people can
learn to sign.”When people come to learn sign,
Heynen says, they come with a compel-
ling reason. In story aer story I hear dur-
ing Wine ‘n’ Sign, that reason is friendship.
Someone met someone deaf at school, at
church, in line at Common Market, and
they needed to learn ASL to be a friend.
So they did.
Aer hours of conversation and cheeks
hurting from laughter, I close my note-
book and begin to head out. Turpin stops
me. “I have your name,” she tells me. She
begins to sign a J, a st with an extended
pinkie that does a little J-shaped swoosh,
but instead of the swoosh, her pinkie
moves as if it’s a pen writing on paper.
I’m honored, and sign “thank you” to
Turpin. The table around her is full of
people—hearing and deaf, speaking and
signing—who refused to allow language
to interfere with community.JEN TOTA McGIVNEY is a writer in Charlotte. Reach
her at [email protected] or on Twitter:
@jen_mcgivney.