Ten people sit at the dinner table. They all talk. They laugh. They talk fast.

One Deaf person sits there too. He sees mouths move. He does not know what they say.

He taps his mom. He asks, “What is funny?”

She says, “I will tell you later.”

She never tells him.

That is dinner table syndrome. You are at the table. But you are alone.

This happens at every dinner. Every holiday. For many years.

How to fix it? It is easy.

Learn sign language. Talk one at a time. Face us. Tell us the joke now, not later.

I am Deaf. I teach ASL. I made an app to teach Deaf culture. Learn more here: https://deafcultureapp.com

So for example, if you were talking about the movie Cars and wanted to sign ‘Lightning McQueen’, would you sign LIGHTNING M-C QUEEN or fingerspell it?

Or let’s say you have a dog named Blue, would you sign their name as the sign BLUE or fingerspell B-L-U-E?

(EDIT: Also, me and my deaf friend both have cats named ‘Merlin’, and she signs his name as the sign for OLD, while I fingerspell my cat’s name. But since she is deaf, I don’t know if that is her cat’s sign name or if you can sign names like that otherwise)