Sign Language

In the book Gallaudet Survival Guide To Signing, it goes through the basic signs you need to know. They have a very good way of explaining how to do the signs by having a picture and explanation about the sign. For the sign 'new' it explains it as, "Both hands open, palms up. Brush back of right hand across left palm from right to left" (Lane 118). This really helps the reader understand what the picture is trying to show. As I read the ways the book explains the signs it helps me become a better signer on how to explain it to other people how to sing. Being in a sign language class, many people get questions on how to sign certain signs and I could show them easily but explaining was the hard part. So reading the books explanations is helping think of ideas on how to explain it to other people as well.

Remembering what a sign is what is half the battle in sign language. As I practiced the signs in the book one thing that I have noticed has helped me is if I say the sign out loud as I sign it. Another way to remember signs is if you come come up with weird ways to remember them. One thing I noticed was how Beautiful and Pretty were two very similar signs. So a saying I made off of the two sings: beautiful is pretty with an extra splash. Beautiful is explain by having your 5 shape hand near the right side of your face and move your hand around your face as you close your hand and end at your chin with your hand closed; then move your hand away from your face and open your hand back up (what I call the splash) (Lane 16). Pretty is later on explained: start at your chin with fingers closed then open them as you move around your face to close them again as you get back to your chin (Lane 135). Let me now show you those two signs so you can get a visual on what the explanations mean. I will first sign pretty and then beautiful.
                               
What are some ways you have remembered different signs?