Language barrier

I spent an hour at work yesterday wearing the wrong name tag. Instead of it saying "BENJAMIN," it said "GREG."

That, in and of itself, is really boring. But something funny happened in the middle of it, something I didn't realize was funny at the time.

I had a new customer come into the music department, and he was hearing impaired. So I said hello. And he spoke to me in sign language, saying that he was just looking around and said thank you.

He appeared to be able to lip read.

Well, I know a little sign language from college, so I tried using some of it.

"Hi," I said in sign language. "I ... speak ... so-so ... I ... am ... B ... E ... N ... J ... I ... E ..."

He shook his head and pointed at my name tag, and I said aloud, without looking at it, "You're right. I shouldn't spell my name because it's already written on my name tag. I just know so little sign language."

And he pointed at my name tag again.

And I asked, "I'm sorry?" because I didn't understand him, and I thought I could go get a pad or something.

So I let him browse, and he's sorta nice.

So I go over, and I talk to him some more about how he's finding everything. I've been able to help other hearing impaired customers before through my limited sign language. I've also used my German and my French since I've worked there.

So I ask him what his name is, and he spells out "D ... A ... N ..."

And he's going faster than I can comprehend, so I ask, "Did you spell out Jeff?" Like I'm some moron.

So he looks around for something to write with, and I point at his phone.

So he uses the teletype on his phone to spell "DAN," and I felt like an idiot.

And he browsed a bit more and left, and I said "Thank you" in sign language to him.

It took 45 minutes before someone told me that I was wearing the wrong name tag.

"Oh," I said. "That's why that deaf guy kept pointing at my name tag and looking confused!"

I must've seemed like a complete idiot.