Unlike spoken language, which has tone and volume to indicate changes in emotion, sign language has body and facial language. You can sign “That hurt my feelings” with a somber expression and it means something quite different than when you sign “That hurt my feelings” while frowning, angling your body away, and stomping your feet for emphasis. I’ve always heard that sign language is “so beautiful,” but it’s an empty, meaningless compliment. To me, that means “I don’t care about sign language as a language, I just want it to amuse and entertain me.” It means “I’m making no attempt to understand what’s going on here, but it sure looks cool.” (via Your Jokes About Bloomberg’s Sign Language Interpreters Aren’t Funny - National - The Atlantic Wire)
