Recently a friend and I were working on some or our interpreting coursework in an open computer lab and we had a gentleman ask us how to say something in ASL. This is such a complicated question and one of the phrases used endlessly throughout our journey has been, "It depends."

I know that this sounds like a cop out and that we are trying to avoid the question. However, the question itself assumes that there is a one to one interpretation for every English word or phrase. When you think about the word love, the meaning changes depending on whether you're talking to a friend, a spouse, a parent, a child, or if you're talking about a thing. Also, how many different types of happy are there? You could be ecstatic, elated, excited, content, joyful, glad, delighted, or any other synonym for delighted. Some of those may be signed similarly to each other and some may not. Some may also have a slightly different body position or facial expression that effect the meaning.

So much meaning depends on the circumstances and the people involved as well as how a word is being used in a sentence. So if you ask me how to say something and I reply, "it depends," know that it's normal and I appreciate that you want to learn. Plus, if you pause long enough I'm sure that I'll dive into why it depends and give you a whole lot more information on American Sign Language than you thought you wanted to know.