While some of their peers continue to protest the new D.C. City Noise Ordinance, a group of AU students is learning to live around the late-night law by learning American Sign Language.
Kean Kapur, a junior in CAS, is the president of the Silent Socialites, a new club dedicated to teaching party enthusiasts how to sign. Kapur argues that students won’t accidentally break the law or be accused of being too loud if they refuse to speak in the first place.
“Without guidelines or set decibel levels, I could be written up for breathing too loudly,” Kapur said.
Kapur said the idea for Silent Socialites came to him when he and some of his friends were returning home from a late night in Dupont Circle. “This lady started yelling at us from her window, saying we were ‘causing a ruckus’ and she was calling the police,” Kapur said.
“We weren’t even being that loud, but we lowered our voices anyway to appease her,” Kapur said. However, the neighbor continued to complain, no matter how quietly the group spoke.
Kapur finally became so irate that he stopped speaking entirely, using only hand gestures to communicate with his friends and offer a curt message to the nosy neighbor.
“Being drunk, my friends found this hilarious, so we ended up miming the entire walk home,” he said. Although the gestures started out as a joke, they gave Kapur an idea.
“The next morning I woke up and realized that if enough students were to learn actual American Sign Language, we could communicate on our way back from parties without having to worry about waking up the neighbors or attracting the police,” Kapur said.
Silent Socialites have attended multiple social events together since the club’s inception in late February, but Kapur said that communicating in ASL to members of what is essentially a drinking club has its limitations.
“You ever get a drunk text from someone?” Kapur said. “Signing is kind of like texting, and if you don’t move your hands the right way, you’re going to get a garbled mess.”
“Last week, this girl kept slurring her signs, and we had no idea what she was talking about,” Kapur said. “We finally realized she was just swinging her arms around for balance.”
For those who have difficulty walking in a straight line while under the influence, ASL provides new challenges and opportunities for confusion.
For example, the word for “urinate” involves tapping one’s nose with the right index and middle fingers, which sometimes causes problems for the heavier drinkers in the group.
“We’ve had more than one occasion in which someone was totally smashed and either couldn’t direct his fingers to his nose, or accidentally slapped his own face,” Kapur said.
Kapur noted that the sign for “vomit” conveniently looks exactly as it should.
