My videophone chat was with a man named Jerry Cohen, who is a realtor located in

Doylestown, Pennsylvania. While he does not have any children, he does live with
his partner named Eric who works as an IT. He feels that his white Cocker Spaniel
named Cody is his child. He described Codys personality as energetic and loyal. He
has had Cody for eight years. Jerry has a twin brother named Jeff and two younger
sisters named Julie and Jill; they are 50, 47, and 43 years old, respectively. Jeff and
his twin look alike in terms of facial appearanceslightly round, oval face and a thin
nose. He also described his younger siblings as lean and tall. His parents names are
Nat and Howard. He lost his mother at a young age, but he seemed to have fond
memories of her. Both his and Erics daily routines are similar in that they both go to
work and cook dinner when they get home in the evening.
After the first round of questions, I began to ask about his life experience prior to
our conversation. Jerry attended Columbia University in New York City and he said
that he loved NYC. Moreover, he expressed is dissatisfaction with living in
Doylestown and wished that he was in Florida because of the warm weather. He
also stated that he had met Professor Drolsbaugh around five years ago during a
work-related function. I had initially been very nervous at the start of our
conversation, but Jerry did a wonderful job ensuring that I was following him and
ultimately put my mind at ease. Also, I found that we also shared a number of
similarities because we both are originally from Chicagohowever, he could see
that I had not lived there for a substantial period of time because of the various
references he made regarding various streets that clearly went over my head.
I found that the signs that Jerry used during our chat were identical to those used in
class. While there were certainly a number of signs used that required clarification,
it was ultimately because we had never covered them in class. For instance, the
sign for CHICAGO was identical to the sign covered in class. However, the sign he
used for DOG included a slap on the thigh, which may be a regional addition. I
also found that his eyebrow placement coincided with what was taught in class. The
questions he targeted towards me were clearly indicated with the raise or lowering
of the eyebrows, so it was fairly easy for me to understand when he was expecting
an answer. Moreover, the grammar structure seemed to directly follow what was
taught in class (e.g. HOW-YOU-WHAT?). If there was a huge issue in regards to my
understanding of his signing, he would even mouth the words so that I could follow.
Overall, I felt that the conversation went well and I wish that there were more
opportunities for these sort of chats during the school year.