Sign Language

[SweetTea]

Inspired by the military hand signals thread, I was wondering if anyone has studied sign language for noiseless communication in an emergency. It can be hard to learn because it's kind of like chinese, where each word has a different character. However, it only takes a couple weeks to learn fingerspelling, or signing the letters of the alphabet to spell words. I like american sign language (ASL) because it's the most prevalent in my part of the world, and also because you only spell with one hand as opposed to two in some other variants. Also, there aren't any verb conjugations, you just sign the infinitive and the "reader" conjugates it in context. Once you have fingerspelling down, you could learn some important signs. I would get a good set of pronouns (I, you, he) and some basic verbs (have, want, need, like, is). Then you could combine those with nouns and adjectives specific to the PAW and make sentences like "I need first aid" or "he is dead" or "are you injured?" Have any of you done this? What do you guys think about the issue in general?

[midgetyaz]

Unfortunately, I only know most of the alphabet and the words to "The Old Woman who Swallowed a Fly" in sign language.

[Mole]

Actually, Makaton would make a good alternative. It's got a relatively limited number of signs but is easy to pick up as it's designed for children with learning difficulties.

The important thing to remember is that you're all 'speaking' the same language as some signs have different meanings depending on what system you're using.

[LtCmdLeia]

I had a few deaf friends when I was younger so I learned some ASL. I teach it to my children as their homeschool "foreign" language. I teach my kids ASL before they can talk because I think it really helps toddlers get past that language frustration age. I think it's more important to learn ASL than the languages that are usually taught in public school. (let's be serious, who ever uses the French they learned in school?) I'm not as good as I used to be or would like to be. (since I have less opportunity to have an ASL conversation) I would really like to take classes at the community college.

The kids and I find it fun to "talk" in a crowded place or in a place that you're supposed to stay quiet without most people being about to "listen" in. It's also been fun to meet new people through ASL. There's been many times we've stepped up to translate when we see a deaf person trying to communicate with an ignorant cashier or something. Word seems to spread quickly when we're at fairs that we sign, and deaf and HoH people come straight to our booth to support our business.

[Y.T.]

kir and I were both saying in the Morse Code thread that we felt sign language would be a very helpful tool. There are many times when either you can't be heard (too loud), you need to communicate silently, or you want to talk openly without others around you understanding what you're saying. Some basic signs are used by divers too (you can't exactly talk underwater).

I think that even before finger spelling you could learn some basic key signs for emergencies.

It has its limitations because the person you're communicating with needs to be pretty close to you in able to see you clearly, but every form of communication has it's restrictions. I'd love to learn it for many reasons. It just seems to keep coming up. The family of an old bf of mine were teachers of the deaf so I learned about the culture and learned a few signs (he gave me a name sign... they don't spell out each person's name). I coincidentally often moved near schools of the blind and deaf. There are some hearing impaired people on the fringe of my social circle and I'd like to be able to include them more in conversations. One of them was going over the alphabet with me and teasing me for my hearing person's spastic grasp on the hand gestures. One of my good friends is fluent in ASL, so I'd have someone to practice with.

[JibbaJabba]

I had a few deaf friends when I was younger so I learned some ASL. I teach it to my children as their homeschool "foreign" language. I teach my kids ASL before they can talk because I think it really helps toddlers get past that language frustration age. I think it's more important to learn ASL than the languages that are usually taught in public school. (let's be serious, who ever uses the French they learned in school?)

At my high school we were given the choice of French, Spanish or German. I wanted Latin. Since they didn't have it, I took Spanish (because I was living in Texas, so it's basically a required language if you want to interact with ANYONE outside of the ritzy part of Dallas). 4 years of Spanish taught me a lot of "book knowledge" - verb conjugation and so on, and dear god is conjugation a nightmare in Spanish - but it was 3 years of working fast food that gave me the practical exercise I needed. In retrospect, I probably should've learned German. It would've helped me when I ended up stationed there later. Hindsight is 20/20.

I have a deaf aunt - she's probably the nicest, funniest person in the world, you can always count on her having a funny joke to tell, and she even manages to keep up with non-sign conversations surprisingly well in most settings. I'm not sure how - maybe she's REALLY good at lip reading. I always regretted not knowing ASL, but in recent years we've kept in touch via email so that's bridged the gap somewhat.

[Y.T.]

I always regretted not knowing ASL, but in recent years we've kept in touch via email so that's bridged the gap somewhat.

When phone texting came out it I was told it suddenly opened up a whole other avenue of communication for the hearing impaired. They could communicate with hearing phone users and they could communicate on the go. I found it fascination how one culture adopted the technology. Email has also opened up communication channels, as you mentioned.

[bethanyb]

I had a fascination with ASL as a kid and learned a few words and I know the alphabet.

I don't know that it would be really helpful to know unless you are sure that people you are bugging out with know it too. Even so, you would have to be able to see each other pretty clearly. If it was dark or you were far away from one another and didn't have binoculars then you might start running into problems.

[Brash]

I'd love to learn BSL. I've been in a few situations where it would have been helpful. A friend taught me a few letters once. Maybe I should take another look at it.

[SweetTea]

As a tip if you want to learn fingerspelling, don't just run through the alphabet over and over. First, it's boring, and second, it doesn't build the ability to jump around in the alphabet and spell real words. What I do is fingerspell the word and definition on my "word of the day" calendar. It gives me good practice, and it's fun! Also, it helps if you slowly sound out the word you're spelling in your head instead of spelling it in your head, if that makes any sense. For example, your inner monologue should be "Fiiiiiinnnnnggeeeerrrr Ssssspeeeelllliiiiiinnnng" instead of "F-I-N-G-E-R S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G." By thinking of the word as a whole, you'll be able to get faster more quickly because you're saving yourself the extra step of converting all of your words to individual letters.

[Maeklos]

Also, it helps if you slowly sound out the word you're spelling in your head instead of spelling it in your head, if that makes any sense. For example, your inner monologue should be "Fiiiiiinnnnnggeeeerrrr Ssssspeeeelllliiiiiinnnng" instead of "F-I-N-G-E-R S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G." By thinking of the word as a whole, you'll be able to get faster more quickly because you're saving yourself the extra step of converting all of your words to individual letters.

This is my problem when writing in simple substitution languages. I can write them easily enough - my writing is typically about on par with standard handwriting - but reading them, I have go letter by letter. I think it has to do with how the brain works and having to train it and teach it that it's no longer stupid with a language and actually knows more than it thinks it does.

[acropolis5]

you can conjugate in ASL. Its done by positioning the hands. From experience, the best primer on ASL is "The Joy Of Signing".