Sign Language

Since the whole book Gallaudet Survival Guide To Signing is signs, it has been hard for me to come up with new things to show you that I haven't already done. So I have decided to sign all of the words in one of the lettered sections. So, since both my first and last name start with the letter E, I shall sign all the E's.

To do this I needed to first look at all of the words in the sections again and see if there were any words I didn't know. When first reading this book, I didn't know how to sign: each, early, egg, either and enough. In the sign language class I am in, we have not learned a lot of signs for different foods yet. The sign for egg really intrigued me! Lane explained it like so: "Both hands in H shape, palms facing at an angle. Strike left index finger with right middle finger, then quickly drop hands down and apart" (59). For me reading how to do a sign is harder to understand then visualizing the sign. I'm really glad that this book has a picture to go with every sign because once you read how to do the sign and see the picture it clicks in your mind.

Have both hands in A shape, palms facing in, then drag right thumb repetitively down left thumbs knuckles (Lane 62). This is how Lane described the word every/each. Like I have said in my other blogs I feel it is very important to try and describe how to sign a sign so you can understand how to do it better. If you do one thing differently it could turn into a totally different sign. Such as, correct and sister are very similar signs. The only difference between them is sister starts at the cheek while correct starts by the chest. 

So now I will sign my challenge to myself and sign all the E signs in the book: each, ear, early, easy, eat, egg, either, electric, elevator, empty, end, enjoy, enough, evening, everyday, example, excuse me, explain and eye.

What is the best way to learn and remember a sign?

Sign Language

As I go along reading the Gallaudet Survival Guide to Signing I try to find signs that I haven't learned in my year two class of sign language. I started marking the signs with sticky notes so I could go back and learn those signs. 10 of the signs I didn't know: almost, butter, catch, dictionary, disappoint, fork, long, salt, spring and vote. As I looked at how to sign disappoint Lane writes, "Right hand in ONE shape, palm in. Touch chin with index fingertip" (51). As I look at how Lane describes how to sign a sign I compare it to the picture next to it and see if I can visualize it in my mind. Reading off the book is a totally different way of learning then having a teacher teach it to you. The pictures can be hard to understand as you look at them, while a teacher can easily show you how to sign a word/phrase.

Make you dominant hand into a U hand shape, then drag it along the palm of your other by the tips of your fingers (Lane 29). This was a paraphrased version of how to sign butter. When learning ASL it is very important that you can understand how to explain signs so you can teach others. This process also lets me learn the sign better, I take in all the aspects of each sign when I find a way to re-word it. The more and more I think and practice a sign the more it gets in my head. Remembering signs isn't my biggest worry with sign language, but with others it is. With myself, I get asked a lot of questions about what a sign is, I have noticed that I remember the signs I helped others with, more then the signs I haven't been asked about.

For a challenge of my own, I have decided to try and sign the 10 words I didn't know when i first started to read this book.

Why is sign language important to you?

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?

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?

Sign Language

             Speaking hasn't always been the easiest thing for me. Ever since I heard of Sign Language I fell in love with the concept. When I was younger I had a hard time pronouncing a lot of big words, so not speaking sounded amazing. In Gallaudet survival Guide to signing it has suggestions. It talks about how you need practice a lot to become smooth with your signs and make sure you keep your hands positioned between your head and hips (vii Lane). This gives me motivation to become a better signer and understand what the deaf community is like. Having the book teach me signs is amazing, it is something I can grasp really easily and feel like there is something sturdy in my life that I can always rely on.

             "Numbers can be used in many different situations for a verity of purposes...time sign the numbers in the order you speak them. For example, you can tell someone it is 4:15 by signing 4, 15" (xi Lane). There are many dynamics in signing and numbers are one of them. The number three was different then I expected. sign language to me is like a way into the deaf world. A culture on which I feel we don't hear enough about.
What does Sign Language mean to you?