In this video, we see a clip of Jeanne Robertson, an American athlete, teacher, humorist, and motivational speaker. It is from her “Looking for Humor” DVD and in it, she tells the crowd about her experiences with sign language.

She goes on to say that learning to use sign language is the most difficult thing she has ever attempted. And she probably isn’t alone in that, as mastering another language, any language can be quite difficult.

While Jeanne is talking she is also signing so we do know that she was eventually able to pick it up. She goes on to talk about how when you are learning the signs your brain takes them in vs what it is like for someone who is hearing-impaired and uses signs all of the time. 

She then tells us a story about how since she is a communicator herself she wanted to sign her name to those who needed an interpreter at her shows. She goes up to a group of them, signs her name and they start signing back. Being that at this time Jeanne only really knew how to sign her name, she did that again only to realize she should learn sign language as a whole.

She told her husband of her plans, a man she refers to as “Left Brain” in her shows, and he decided he would learn sign language with her. She says that he then “attacked learning sign language” and that he “made 1,800 flashcards.” It seems as if “Left Brain” was able to learn the language more easily than Jeanne did.

She then tells the audience that even though he memorized it, he was never able to master the art of turning his hand in the right direction when talking with a hearing-impaired person. She acts out what this looks like and how their friends have to walk behind him to understand him. 

That gets a lot of laughs and as she wraps up the clip she tells us one more story about being stuck in a Denver airport. She decides to take the time to practice her sign language in front of a mirror in the bathroom. Two teenage girls walk in and one asks the other what she is doing. The second teenager says, “Don’t you know anything? She can’t hear. She’s talking to herself.” Then the room erupts in more laughter before the clip is over.

Jeanne uses humor to communicate to her audience. You can tell by the laughs, her content makes people very happy.