A deposition is testimony, the person deposed takes an oath under the penalty of perjury (this is the thing that screwed up Clinton, he seemingly lied under the penalty of perjury- lied about a consensual sex act between two adults- so he lied about something that was only his- and Monica's and Hilary's business...wow, I guess I'm still bitter about that after all these years ), and so it is imperative the person be able to appreciate and understand the questions posed.
The deponent is entitled to have the deposition questions interpreted to him/her in their first language (those who live at 2107 are very thankful for this little rule).
In my deaf guys case, he has never heard any sound, growing up in Mexico, and he sort of informally learned sign language in Spanish- (I have no idea what that looks like)...at some point he comes to the US and marries an hearing American (English speaking) girl who has two deaf brothers...and so his wife and her brothers teach this guy American Sign Language- but he doesn't really know English all that well, so he is speaking a sign hybrid of these two languages, along with his own gestures (Spanglish Sign/Gesture Language).
I took the depo of a very nice deaf (Gay) guy a few years back. Editors Note: It seems to me that there is a relatively large deaf/gay community, as I always see a whole group at Pride events, if .1% of the population is hearing impaired, and 10% of the population is Gay- statistically speaking-how many of those folks could be rolling around?
In the case of the "Gay Deaf " he spoke American Sign Language, and although it took a bit longer, it wasn't particularly difficult.
But this depo was another story.
I knew it was going to be tough the moment I sat down when his wife said, "You will have to go really slow, I mean, I can barely understand him most of the time."
Really?
I think Sign Language looks really cool. I mean the deaf voice is a little sobering, but if I could talk the way I do now (Gioconda tells me I speak English as if it is my second language- and if this is true what is my first language?), I honestly would not mind being deaf.
I would be one of those deaf people who talk, but sign at the same time. Even if I was talking to a hearing person and they had no idea what I was signing- I would still do it-- because that's what I think makes the deaf person look so cool.
I wouldn't do the implant - its a plug in the back of your head- or hearing aids- I would let my deaf flag wave.
I'm just not that attached to sound.
Anyway, the depo didn't go too far- - but afterward I got to talk to the interpreter and the guy's wife- they were both quite pleasant -- I just couldn't get out of my head what the wife said to me at the beginning of the depo- I needed to know more.
" So communication is difficult between you two?", I asked.
I 'm thinking -what the fuck do you have in common- if you can't communicate - what do you have?
"Oh, yes. Sometimes we will be in the middle of a conversation and I will suddenly discover we aren't talking about the same thing", she says.
Gioconda speaks English and Spanish fluently, I consider myself (although others may disagree) fluent in English and neither of us is ( although others may disagree) hearing impaired- and sometimes we will be in the middle of a conversation and I will suddenly discover- we aren't talking about the same thing...
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