Making Things My Own...

They say that once you have used a word or phrase in original thought it has "become your own" meaning that you understand it and it has become part of your personal language/vocabulary. There are two things that have crept into my mental dictionary and they have both come out in my interpreting recently...and one of them I can blame on my Canadian friends...

1. If you like Carlos Mencia and you've ever seen his show on Comedy Central, you know about Dee-Dee-Deeeeee. This phrase refers to someone who is kinda...dumb...? There are several levels to it, and different ways for it to be used. I used that during interpreting recently, as there is a sign that means just all out stupid, which looks like this: take your hand and bend it at the wrist, then repeatedly bang that hand into the center of your chest. I was interpreting and the jist of what the deaf person said was "They must think I'm some kind of idiot to think they can put that past me, but I'm not." She used the above described sign and *I* said "They must think I'm Dee Dee Deeeeee to try to put that past me, but I'm not." The hearing person looked at me and just grinned. I wanted to die.

2. The Canadian one...just today the deaf person said said, "Yes, we're really showing him our best today, right?" I voiced almost exactly that: "Yes, we're really showing him our best today, HEY?" I don't think the hearing person noticed.

*by the way, when I say that a deaf person "said" something, I'm giving you the meaning of what was signed...it occured to me that it might look a little weird that I'm not voicing exactly what I just said the deaf person said...GAH welcome to the weirdness of my job. Dee dee deeeeeee, hey?