Foreign languages

A post I wrote during the conference, then forgot to publish: 

Sign language is another language, and I'm re-learning this fact the hard way: I have a headache from 2 days in the company of interpreters.

Dimensions of space

I was taken aback by the appearance of one of my interpreters at the conference I attended last week.  He looked like an young ex-Marine, like someone who would star in "Die Hard" or some other similar action-adventure flick.  He arrived wearing a black skull cap, black cargo pants, and a plain grey shirt (the better to slip in and out unnoticed, perhaps). 

True to his appearance, his signing style was very crisp, contained within a tight square of space directly in front of his torso. I'm sure if I measured the angles of the space he kept his hands within, I would have discovered sharp 90 degree angles.  All the library jargon bandied about at the conference didn't faze him (though I did catch the occasional raising of the eyebrow at the other interpreter), and I was impressed at the seamless flow of information from his ears to his hands. 

The wonders never cease.