I’m taking an ASL class. I have some slight connection to deaf culture - a good friend has a deaf daughter and I’d like to communicate more fully with her than the few odd signs I currently know. I was just wondering if anyone on the board “speaks” sign. I’m finding it to be pretty darn difficult but I think I am slowly getting the hang out it.
What’s your experience with sign? Any thoughts?
I don’t know ASL, but I think one thing to note that may cause people trouble is that linguistically sign languages are complete languages. Not “kind of languages”, nor “made up languages” or any sort of “fake”, they are full fledged languages. So treat it exactly as you’d treat learning German, French, or Mandarin (except, obviously, it’s more visual).
(Which isn’t to say I’m dismissing your question, it’s valid to ask for tips for any language. I’m just trying to help and I think getting into the mindset of “I’m learning another language” rather than “I’m learning these weird hand-thingies” is useful if you’re not already doing it.)
It does have its own structure and grammar and rules. That, I think, has been why it’s been hard for me. Not that i think of it of as some fake language, but rather that I have to do mental translation as i sign (and as I voice the sentences the teacher demonstrates) - trust me, I have the utmost respect for ASL as a real language. I’m sorry if that didn’t come across in my OP. Its just difficult for me in the sense that my brain really, really seems to like English, so there’s a translation pause.
I have had similar problems when taking Spanish and Latin language classes. There’s a hitch as I translate the sentences mentally. I was just curious as to the board’s experience with ASL.
Heading out to work so I couldn’t spend a lot of time on it, but a search on keywords “Deaf” and “language” brought up a slew of threads (some of them completely unrelated to the topic at hand).
This one was from someone else starting ASL classes.
Just keep at it. I struggled at first but after a while I started to “think” in ASL. One thing that helped with finger spelling is I’d practice whenever I could: driving down the road a spell the name of the street before I passed the sign, sign the name of a song on the radio, etc.
i did the same as randmcnally, finger spell walking down the street etc. also signing along with songs helped keep a good flow and tempo.
at home signing out loud instead of thinking out loud. that sort of thing.
the best, of course, as with any language is having someone to practice with.
What with drawing the maps with the other hand, it must make it hard to drive.
I have been studying for about a year. At this point I have vocabulary to discuss almost any topic but my grammar needs improvement to develop “strong ASL”. I go to class at a private language school once a week and an ASL Meetup group every Friday - I am lucky to have five or six to choose from and I find it invaluable. We have a number of Deaf regulars, occaisionally teachers and interpreters, and students from every experience level. Its basically amazing. Also, I hope I don’t seem braggy but it seems I have some native ability at learning language. I think I’m on the high side of average.
It’s really important to spend time with fluent speakers as ASL and english have completely different word order, and you will never break out of PSE (pidgin signed English - a mash up of ASL visual grammar and English word order) without concerted effort.
Watch out for YouTube videos because a lot of the signing is terrible. If you want a good one, try the Ted Talk, “deaf in the military.” Fluent ASL user presenting to a fluent audience. There’s captioning and voice over to help you along but they are NOT repeat NOT one to one, interpreting doesn;t work that way. 
Be careful with dictionaries. ASL is considerably regional. For example NTID has a good iPhone app dictionary which matches NY style (DIG - dictionary and inflection guide- 5 thou words with sentences for 2 bucks!). If you are from Kansas or California, it won’t be what you’re used to and local deaf people might not recognize a lot of the signs. Try a dictionary put out by a locally for best results.
Anyway, it reminds me a lot of studying Russian. Not because the grammar is the same, but because each language has such a different approach to what is important in a sentence, you really have to think differently than you’re used to in English. I get “topic first” but it isn’t all that easy for an English speaker to identify the topic in “on my way to school I slipped on the ice and fell”. Is it falling? The ice? My commute? English speaker brain says, those are ALL the topic how can I choose one!? That’s normal. You gotta change your brain!! (there’s a sign for that - hold hands at temple height, rotate counter clockwise as in sign for “change” do it slowly and grimace to show its &@!? hard!!)
For fingerspelling, try practicing letter combinations that are common in English - TH, TION, ES, LY, etc - get the muscle memory really nailed down.
For receptive skills, there’s a quiz on Lifeprint.com I think. I’m actually starting a class at a local Community college which is only fingerspelling, numbers, and glossing on March 5. It’s dual enrollment for Continuing ed and Interpreting, so it should be a doozy!
I have a question–how is this guy at fluency?
Thank you everybody for the tips! I’m in community college ASL 1, and it’s been a challenge. I’m working with a tutor, and i think I’m getting the hang…sort of. Slowly. there are deaf gatherings in the area (deaf coffees) and the teacher encourages her students to go. I haven’t made it to one yet, but I am planning to. Part of the class is the lessons on lifeprint.
**BrassyPhrase **- my teacher told us that CaptainValor was great and told us to check him out. I can’t speak to his fluency since I still suck, but she seems to think highly of his skill.
Hard of Hearing here… I’ve been signing for about 30 years, and still run into Deaf people with ASL that I can barely follow… and I consider myself a good signer…
It’s funny you mention Keith’s TedTalk about wanting to join the military… He’s a friend of mine… We worked together for a few years - he’s a brilliant guy and a great signer who is able to code switch between ASL, Pidgin and English depending on the situation. In that video he’s signing more Pidgin Sign Language than ASL.
He’s definitely a fluent ASL user, but he’s presenting to a Hearing audience using an interpreter and he wants to make sure the interpreters “get” him… although if I remember the talk, the interpreter bungled it a bit a couple of times… but considering the topic, it would be tough to voice for Keith.
And yep, there’s a LOT of bad signing online… If you want to become fluent, you HAVE to hang out with Deaf ASL users… but if you do, your signing will improve dramatically.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask…
Thanks for chiming in Daffyd – shows what I know! I am still a beginner on this road myself, I hope I don’t sound all bigheaded.
That reminds me, that the vocalized interpretation and the captioning on the video are not the same. Personally I’m way too slow to catch specific errors, but I’m curious - did the captioning fix them?
It’s neat that you know Keith. Obviously, I don’t know him but he seems like a cool guy to talk with over a beer. I hope he is successful.
Deaf members of my meetup really are amazing. They are always setting me straight and getting me fired up to get better. And here’s a funny story from the annals of language acquisition:
I was chatting with a Deaf member of my meetup group
He: How’s class going? You’re really -----
I: ? Again?
He: -------
I: don’t know. fingerspell?
He: (way too fast)
I: ?Again? Slow?
He: I-M-P-R-O-V-I-N-G
I: :smack: thank you.
I actually never noticed a difference between the captioning and the interpreting… I just remember thinking, “that’s not what he said”… and to be honest I didn’t even remember there was captioning… I’m so used to his signing that I can read him like the back of my hand… not much help on that… sorry.
He’s a nice guy.. He’s sort of like family at this point… and I can tell ya, if anyone is successful changing the policy, it’s him… He’s tenacious…
As an aside, his dad was the first Deaf city councilor in the US a LONG time ago… think it was the 70’s(?) He’s a great guy too… like father, like son… or, like son, like father? 
Hi Everyone!
I took two years of ASL in community college many MANY years ago. The first year was taught by a deaf instructor, which was quite an experience! What I think would have been* a really great improvement was the summer school class entitled, “Total Immersion in ASL.” There was to be NO speaking and NO hearing. If you need to ask a question that you couldn’t sign, you finger-spelled it out. The instructor (only half-jokingly) came prepared with duct tape for mouths that couldn’t keep from talking, and cotton for ears that insisted on listening. It’s amazing how much more you can learn when you don’t have that comfort zone to fall back on.
I taught a High School Sign class years ago sort of like that… I didn’t talk from September until the last day of school before Christmas… The kids of course, were certain I was Deaf, but couldn’t figure out how I kept catching them talking…
The last day of class, I used my voice, and said, “Have a good holiday”… I’ve never seen so many shocked kids in my life… They were saying things like, “It’s almost like he’s talking!”, or “Where’s that voice coming from?”… But the best response was one kid saying over and over, “My God, I think I’m having a heart attack - he can talk!”
When they came back to school in January, they told me they couldn’t get used to me talking, and go back to just Signing… but they didn’t talk in class as much once they realized I could (sort of) hear what they were saying… 
And most of them did amazingly well, and became excellent signers - kids (teens?) pick up Sign really quickly…
I don’t normally watch the show - but tonight’s (3/4/13) episode of “Switched at Birth” is reportedly in all (or mostly) ASL. The reviews are saying it will be a good episode.
I took a few in ASL many years ago. It’s a very interesting language.
There is also signing on “Jericho,” which is newly available on Netflix & Amazon streaming. Soshanna Stern was on it (hot Deaf Jew, represent!). There’s at least one unvoiced scene of signing, which was a big deal at the time.
So, I had my first fingerspelling/numbers/gloss class. There were 4 students whose parents are Deaf – and none of them were any better at numbers than any of us – we all completely suck. So that was a relief. I suck averagely, not worse than everyone in the universe.
For some reason numbers are really hard for me right now. It may be a question of context - if I pick up a few songs in a sentence I may be able to figure out some of the rest. But context doesn’t give me any help in figuring out if 22 or 17 in a lot of sentences. I’m getting a bit better though.