Sign Language

One of the many things that a signer must learn is the alphabet. The book Gallaudet Survival guide to Signing has the signs split up by each letter in the alphabet. At the beginning of each section, it shows how to sign each letter. On some of the signs, you can initialization them; this means you can use just the first letter of the sign to sign it (Vi). The book shows the hand shape of each letter and what letter it is next to it. Like so:

As I went through the book i learned each sign but also how to sign each letter. Sign language doesn't use a lot of finger spelling, but it is very useful to know it. In Lane's introduction to the book, he states, "...when you don't know the sign for a word or concept, you can always finger spell it" (V). I have noticed that the more you practice finger spelling, the more fluent your finger spelling becomes. I have watched other people finger spell; and when it looks very stiff and jagged, you don't like it. It becomes more appealing to the eyes the as your signs get smoother. This book has helped me be able to visualize the signs a lot better and understand how they are suppose to look. 

After practicing the alphabet over and over again i feel confident in it. For me, I love practicing signing, and honestly if you finger spell a word that you aren't good at spelling it helps you remember. I often find myself finger spelling a lot of words when I keep spelling them wrong. One thing I do struggle with is that i am not very good at spelling in general. so making sure I finger spell a word right is what I truly worry about, but you have to push through and keep practicing. This is a hands on environment. :)

What is the hardest part about finger spelling to you?