As an American Sign Language Learner (aka SL2), you cannnnotttt tell me that your signing has not influenced your communication in English- in the Hearing world. Sometimes, when ASL just seems more appropriate (natural?), it just comes out. At that bar where it seems like wherever you stand, you are next to a speaker... At the museum where you just can't bring yourself to break the silence... At the coffee shop where you see that cute guy you want to talk about... And it just seeps into life where no one has any ASL competence! Just seeps it's way right on through, so that if there is any misunderstanding, I somehow resort to ASL (or what I know of it). For example, there was an Ethiopian girl in the building (someone's daughter) who knows no English. Why was I trying to sign "I'll be right back"?? Beyond this, you will see your whole gestural system start to be replace as your ASL knowledge increases. I find myself signing to myself, the way other hearing people might speak to themselves. I find my self signing when I think, for some reason, it has meaning to others, when really, it only has meaning to myself (Deaf people will tell you that too, haha!)
Anyway, there was this funny short story that my professor told us...
A man is out to lunch and he is reading the menu.... the waiter approaches and asks for his order, "What can I get you for lunch?" and he says, "Oh, tuna" as he signs FISH. Insert ::weird look:: from all parties. Himself included. "How did that get there," I find myself thinking when that happens to me. It just slips right out.
