Pre-amble: an introduction to this introduction -
My apologies for the poor quality of videos: I am still in the learning stages of that particular skill :-)
ASL, or American Sign Language is a language all it's own. There would be no way for an instructable to do the entire language any real justice, but I would like to introduce everyone interested to enough of the language to get a feel for it. There are a few ways to sign also that vary a bit from each other: English (which includes the finger-spelling of one letter at a time), and of course, each language has some of their own signs, and the International signs that are universal. Then, there is ASL, which is what our main focus will be on, as it is looser and more open to interpretation than other forms.
In every country, the language normally employs the sentence structure generated by those that use the language, and they do come across differently from language to language. In ASL, because of not always having a complete word for word relationship in the communication using ASL, sometimes the sentence structure is not as important as how a sign is employed.
I hope to touch on just enough to pique the interest of those that occasionally come into contact with the deaf, or at least to help you feel less uneasy about being around a group that happen to be signing to one another. And maybe, I will inspire someone to take it further, if they think they may need to (or would like to) communicate with any deaf persons.
TOOLS and implements needed:
A mirror can come in quite handy, but is not absolutely necessary.
Patience, you will need lots of this if you plan on going any further with this.
Most of the times it helps to have a partner to communicate with and practice with.
And finally, more patience :-)
My apologies for the poor quality of videos: I am still in the learning stages of that particular skill :-)
ASL, or American Sign Language is a language all it's own. There would be no way for an instructable to do the entire language any real justice, but I would like to introduce everyone interested to enough of the language to get a feel for it. There are a few ways to sign also that vary a bit from each other: English (which includes the finger-spelling of one letter at a time), and of course, each language has some of their own signs, and the International signs that are universal. Then, there is ASL, which is what our main focus will be on, as it is looser and more open to interpretation than other forms.
In every country, the language normally employs the sentence structure generated by those that use the language, and they do come across differently from language to language. In ASL, because of not always having a complete word for word relationship in the communication using ASL, sometimes the sentence structure is not as important as how a sign is employed.
I hope to touch on just enough to pique the interest of those that occasionally come into contact with the deaf, or at least to help you feel less uneasy about being around a group that happen to be signing to one another. And maybe, I will inspire someone to take it further, if they think they may need to (or would like to) communicate with any deaf persons.
TOOLS and implements needed:
A mirror can come in quite handy, but is not absolutely necessary.
Patience, you will need lots of this if you plan on going any further with this.
Most of the times it helps to have a partner to communicate with and practice with.
And finally, more patience :-)
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Signing UpStep 1: Fingerspelling: the alphabet
Let's start with the alphabet, and therefor we have to see what "finger signing" is all about. I could illustrate each letter with a single still picture, except for the letters, J & Z both of which require the hand to move.
Although many of us learned our native alphabet by reciting it to a tune (and this is effective to a point) it does not really assist one in "using" the alphabet. When one gets stuck for a word sign, one can simply spell it out with their hand/fingers so it becomes important not to have to go through the alphabet to remember how to sign a letter (learning them in a specific order promotes association of one letter with the one next to it).
I have found it is better to practice with pangrams (sentences with all the letters of the alphabet in them) :
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogs back.
Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.
Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz
How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
Quick wafting zephyrs vex bold Jim
Sphinx of black quartz judge my vow.
Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex Bud
Bawds jog, flick quartz, vex nymph
Mr. Jock, TV Quiz Ph.D., bags few lynx
etc.
A Google search for Pangram will give you an almost unlimited number of them, in the event you become bored with my list. Here is one place that lists quite a few more:
http://www.rinkworks.com/words/pangrams.shtml
You will no doubt note that I have difficulty signing the letters M, & W. I have always had trouble getting my thumb to reach my little finger. To explain then, the M is signed with the first three fingers downward (pressed together) and slightly curved (palm towards the signer), the little finger tucked in and held by the thumb. The W is much the same sign, but pointing upward, fingers spread, palm away from the signer.
An excellent place to test and practice "interpreting": ASL fingerspell test / practice site
Although many of us learned our native alphabet by reciting it to a tune (and this is effective to a point) it does not really assist one in "using" the alphabet. When one gets stuck for a word sign, one can simply spell it out with their hand/fingers so it becomes important not to have to go through the alphabet to remember how to sign a letter (learning them in a specific order promotes association of one letter with the one next to it).
I have found it is better to practice with pangrams (sentences with all the letters of the alphabet in them) :
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dogs back.
Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.
Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz
How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
Quick wafting zephyrs vex bold Jim
Sphinx of black quartz judge my vow.
Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex Bud
Bawds jog, flick quartz, vex nymph
Mr. Jock, TV Quiz Ph.D., bags few lynx
etc.
A Google search for Pangram will give you an almost unlimited number of them, in the event you become bored with my list. Here is one place that lists quite a few more:
http://www.rinkworks.com/words/pangrams.shtml
You will no doubt note that I have difficulty signing the letters M, & W. I have always had trouble getting my thumb to reach my little finger. To explain then, the M is signed with the first three fingers downward (pressed together) and slightly curved (palm towards the signer), the little finger tucked in and held by the thumb. The W is much the same sign, but pointing upward, fingers spread, palm away from the signer.
An excellent place to test and practice "interpreting": ASL fingerspell test / practice site
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You may or may not be surprised to know that almost every sign in ASL has a sensible origin. It really helps me remember all of my signs. (: It also helps if you mouth what you are saying when you sign. That helps to keep you from going too fast when signing and also helps the correspondant understand you should you sign something incorrectly or shakily. Many deaf people can read lips to an extent.
Haha, funny story... One of my teachers that's actually professed sign language at a local college was signing about her husband to a close friend of hers.. The sign for husband is boy or male and then marry. Male: Grasp the imaginary brim of a hat with four fingers and thumb. Marry: Clasp the hands, with right hand on top. The friend was terribly confused when she signed about her "boy hamburger". (: Hamburger: Cup the hands as if making a hamburger patty; reverse the position of the hands (right hand on top, then left hand on top). (:
"That book was written by a hearing person that had no knowledge of ASL."
Now weather or not the author is deaf or hearing, I can not say because I know very little about the author....HOWEVER, I used to have that book & ended up tossing it because about 80% of the signs are not used by the deaf, & the other 20% the deaf do not understand.
I have been an Interpreter for more than 15 yrs so I know at least a wee it of what I speak.
I encourage everyone, weather you know a deaf person or not, I encourage everyone to at least learn the alphabet....if just 1 life is saved using ASL, or just 1 injury is lessened because of ASL, then learning ASL is worth the while.
Check out this MIX :-)
The normal plural of person was persons, as in "two persons were present".
That wasn't creepy at all.
This is an awesome Instructable.
???
ASL (it used to be called AMSLAN) is not a foreign language, it is a different way to speak English ;-)
Goodhart wrote:
>> ASL (it used to be called AMSLAN) is not a foreign language, it is a different
>> way to speak English ;-)
But it's not! The "American" in ASL refers to its place of origin. It is a separate language, with its own grammar, syntax and semantics, idioms and colloquialisms. ASL has to be _translated_ into English, exactly the way French or Korean or even Canadian have to be translated into American (eh? :-).
Because it is a spatial language, the grammar is fundamentally different from that of spoken (temporal/linear) language. Subject and object, person and tense, are denoted by positioning signs in a volume of space in front of the speaker, as well as by the order in which signs are presented. There are indications of this in several of your Steps, though you don't really make it explicit.
There are some good books about ASL, Deaf Culture, and the evolution (and regression) of the Hearing's perception of deafness and sign over the past 150 years. I'd recommend Oliver Sacks' Hearing Voices for a great view of Deaf Culture during its own civil rights movement in the early Seventies; Thomas and James Spradley's Deaf Like Me for the effects of the destructive "lip reading" movement up to the Sixties and the efforts toward acceptance of ASL. One might also look up the Martha's Vineyard Deaf Community of the 19th Century for an outstanding example of why deafness doesn't have to be a "handicap."
Oh; no, I'm not Deaf, nor am I anywhere near fluent in ASL (I can barely finger-spell my own name, and I'm not sure sometimes whether I'm thanking someone or flipping them off :-( ). My interest and participation in the IL movement and disability rights has just led me to learn about and pay attention to this stuff.
If I travel into the deep south, I have to have many of the phrases interpreted into my English. :-)
(for example: how much ya like? = how soon are you finished
and, I ain't studying that = I am ignoring that
for reasons known only to myself I have a general dislike of the French...
You, and 65+% of most HS students I have ever spoken with ;-)