The idea of asking someone who's choking whether or not they're choking was always a comical idea to me when we learned that first step rule in school.
Until recently. When my wife, during dinner, began to choke.
I sympathetically responded with, "Ugh! What are you doing? Go over the sink!"
I had thought she was trying to spit something out she didn't want to eat. She was merely trying to breathe.
So friends, make the sign. And public education, I apologize.