American Sign Language

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Hoogstwaarschijnlijk
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Re: American Sign Language

Postby Hoogstwaarschijnlijk » 2014-10-14, 17:49

Is someone still learning a sign language here? I recently saw two television programmes with/about deaf people and this really made me want to learn NGT, so I looked up several videos. I think it's very interesting!

The only thing I'm worried about is that it seems physically impossible to me to do some signs, like the 'w' with finger spelling (look here: http://www.helenkeller.nl/doofblindheid ... erspellen/ it's a different one than in ASL). And it's still unclear to me if it's obliged to do this with your right hand (way more difficult to me...).
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Re: American Sign Language

Postby Lauren » 2014-10-14, 20:20

Hoogstwaarschijnlijk wrote:Is someone still learning a sign language here? I recently saw two television programmes with/about deaf people and this really made me want to learn NGT, so I looked up several videos. I think it's very interesting!

The only thing I'm worried about is that it seems physically impossible to me to do some signs, like the 'w' with finger spelling (look here: http://www.helenkeller.nl/doofblindheid ... erspellen/ it's a different one than in ASL). And it's still unclear to me if it's obliged to do this with your right hand (way more difficult to me...).

I am not currently learning any sign language, but I am missing learning ASL more and more. I've been thinking about finding a group nearby I could go to and practice at. I don't know why, but I find ASL really easy to learn and picked it up very quickly. I've forgotten most of it, but I've found that a lot of what I learned seems to be "latent" knowledge now, so I think I could pick it up again quite easily. :) The idea and action of speaking with my hands is really appealing to me. I find it a great way to express myself physically, since in the past I always hated my body.

As for being able to make the NGT 'w', I can with my either hand just fine. If I extend my middle finger all the way while doing that it's a bit uncomfortable, but I'm sure it would still be understood just fine.

On the topic of other sign languages, I find LIBRAS (Brazilian Sign Language), DGS (German Sign Language), and Japanese Sign Language all very interesting. :D
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Re: American Sign Language

Postby Hoogstwaarschijnlijk » 2014-10-15, 17:31

The idea and action of speaking with my hands is really appealing to me. I find it a great way to express myself physically, since in the past I always hated my body.


Yes, I agree! I think I could really learn from it too, because I'm pretty insecure and uncomfortable with my body but with NGT you need to be expressive.
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Re: American Sign Language

Postby Lauren » 2014-10-15, 17:50

Hoogstwaarschijnlijk wrote:
The idea and action of speaking with my hands is really appealing to me. I find it a great way to express myself physically, since in the past I always hated my body.


Yes, I agree! I think I could really learn from it too, because I'm pretty insecure and uncomfortable with my body but with NGT you need to be expressive.

Exactly! When I was learning it about 2 years ago I found it a good way to combat those feelings. I was still self-conscious about it, but it was at least doable, as dancing was out of the question (although now I really want to learn to dance).
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Re: American Sign Language

Postby Hoogstwaarschijnlijk » 2014-10-16, 17:36

You should, dancing is fun! I have had dancing lessons (ballroom and latin) and at first it was so difficult, also because we were the first homosexual couple (they didn't even want to admit us at first), but later on I enjoyed to do something positively with my body. I wasn't really good at it but it made me feel calmer when I was stressed, you're focussing on something else with full attention.

Still learning NGT, found a nice app and a nice website and am now able to sign simple sentences like: 'I cycle home' and ' You eat an apple'.
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Re: American Sign Language

Postby Lauren » 2014-10-16, 21:13

Hoogstwaarschijnlijk wrote:You should, dancing is fun! I have had dancing lessons (ballroom and latin) and at first it was so difficult, also because we were the first homosexual couple (they didn't even want to admit us at first), but later on I enjoyed to do something positively with my body. I wasn't really good at it but it made me feel calmer when I was stressed, you're focussing on something else with full attention.

Still learning NGT, found a nice app and a nice website and am now able to sign simple sentences like: 'I cycle home' and ' You eat an apple'.

Ugh, I'm sorry you had such problems trying to get into the class... :? A friend of mine and I are considering going dancing together since she loves dancing and no one wants to go with her and I want to go but not alone, but with dances like tango where they are traditionally done with a cis man and cis woman, she is concerned with places that don't specifically mix things up for LGBT people. I really want to learn swing dancing. It looks super fun and I like music and dancing and stuff from that area, but there's the problem of heteronormative dance lessons. :(

Have you looked into any groups in the area that you could practice NGT with? If there are any, surely they welcome people of all skill levels. Even if you know only a hundred signs you could have limited conversations with others and learn and have fun while you're there. :D There's a group kind of near me (in Seattle, but it takes an hour ans a half or more to get there by bus) that meets every week, but they meet at like 10am, so I would have to wake up really freakin' early to get there. :doggy:
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Re: American Sign Language

Postby vijayjohn » 2014-11-26, 10:02

Hoogstwaarschijnlijk wrote:Is someone still learning a sign language here?

Yes. :) I'm using this; that's what I used in order to learn what little I know, aside from the alphabet and 'I love you', I guess. :)

So I guess now, if I know how to say 'how are you?' I should learn how to say 'fine, thanks,' so I learned that. I've also learned the numbers 1-20. I've kind of looked at 21-30, too, but don't remember them too well. I've learned how to say 'nice to meet you', 'yes', 'no', 'what's your name', 'cool', 'polite', and '(s)he told me no'. (Well, OK, I keep forgetting some of them, but at least I've seen these signs and can practice them :)).

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Re: American Sign Language

Postby Lauren » 2014-11-26, 17:04

That's a good site, vijay. 8-) I made it through all 30 lessons and even some of his pay-to-use course, but sadly I forgot almost everything. :(
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Re: American Sign Language

Postby vijayjohn » 2015-08-23, 4:09

I know this is really late (close to a year!), and I'm sorry to hear that, but thanks! :)

I just learned the basic handshapes from LifePrint. Oh gosh, I also tried to review what I'd already learned, but I hope I got it right! Well, okay, I'm still learning, and I still haven't practiced any of this with an actual Deaf person. I also tried to learn how to sign 'hearing', 'Deaf', and 'are you Deaf?'. I also learned about how to say 'good', 'night', and 'good night'. :)

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Re: American Sign Language

Postby vijayjohn » 2016-04-01, 6:10

All right, I guess this time, I'll try to start learning 'student' and 'teacher'! Looking at the video in Lesson 1, it looks a bit daunting, but let's see!

Aha! Both of these are compounds of the word for 'person' combined with 'learn' (in the case of 'student', literally 'learn-person') or 'teach' (in the case of 'teacher': 'teach-person'). So time to learn 'person'!

Well, and also 'learn' and 'teach'.

OK. I think I sort of got that now. :P And now I can also say 'I'm learning', I guess. And 'I'm teaching'! :D Lol.

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Re: American Sign Language

Postby dEhiN » 2016-04-03, 4:22

vijayjohn wrote:All right, I guess this time, I'll try to start learning 'student' and 'teacher'! Looking at the video in Lesson 1, it looks a bit daunting, but let's see!

Aha! Both of these are compounds of the word for 'person' combined with 'learn' (in the case of 'student', literally 'learn-person') or 'teach' (in the case of 'teacher': 'teach-person'). So time to learn 'person'!

Well, and also 'learn' and 'teach'.

OK. I think I sort of got that now. :P And now I can also say 'I'm learning', I guess. And 'I'm teaching'! :D Lol.

Yay for progress! E é muito legal do caso de "estudante" e "professor" em Língua de Sinais Americana. And that's very cool about how you say "student" and "teacher" in ASL.
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Re: American Sign Language

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-03-21, 7:37

Thanks! :)

I think now I've learned all the signs necessary for "Story 1" here (a video showing how to introduce yourself in ASL). I've also learned how to sign "don't understand" and tried to learn the numbers from 21 to 30 (inclusive).

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Re: American Sign Language

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-10-13, 2:39

And now it looks like I've managed to learn all of Lesson 1 at last! (Or at least understand the signs - I've tried to learn to produce them myself, too, but I'm not sure how successfully I'm remembering how to produce all of them). I've also learned how to say 'little'.

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Re: American Sign Language

Postby Hoogstwaarschijnlijk » 2017-11-17, 18:44

So funny to see my old posts here, I don't even remember that I was ever into learning sign language before I got a baby. We're doing 'baby signs' now and it's so much fun. It's very easy to learn because it's just supporting the spoken language, so it's without grammar, just words. But I know quite a lot of them that are useful for little children and what's even nicer is that ny daughter is learning them too. She knows no, mama, eating (though she uses the sign breastfeeding for that), teeth brushing, fish.

The coolest of all is that she made her own sign to express happiness <3
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Re: American Sign Language

Postby dEhiN » 2017-11-18, 3:34

Hoogstwaarschijnlijk wrote:So funny to see my old posts here, I don't even remember that I was ever into learning sign language before I got a baby. We're doing 'baby signs' now and it's so much fun. It's very easy to learn because it's just supporting the spoken language, so it's without grammar, just words. But I know quite a lot of them that are useful for little children and what's even nicer is that ny daughter is learning them too. She knows no, mama, eating (though she uses the sign breastfeeding for that), teeth brushing, fish.

The coolest of all is that she made her own sign to express happiness <3

Are you doing baby signs based off Dutch Sign Language?
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Re: American Sign Language

Postby Hoogstwaarschijnlijk » 2017-11-18, 7:15

dEhiN wrote:
Hoogstwaarschijnlijk wrote:So funny to see my old posts here, I don't even remember that I was ever into learning sign language before I got a baby. We're doing 'baby signs' now and it's so much fun. It's very easy to learn because it's just supporting the spoken language, so it's without grammar, just words. But I know quite a lot of them that are useful for little children and what's even nicer is that ny daughter is learning them too. She knows no, mama, eating (though she uses the sign breastfeeding for that), teeth brushing, fish.

The coolest of all is that she made her own sign to express happiness <3

Are you doing baby signs based off Dutch Sign Language?


Yes! They are exactly the same signs actually.
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Re: American Sign Language

Postby vijayjohn » 2018-02-06, 4:25

I've moved on to Lesson 2 in LifePrint by now and started learning all of the words and some of the phrases.

EDIT: Wow, I might need more practice reading fingerspelling. I couldn't make out the first child's name at all in the sample story for this lesson. :o

Also, my brother and sister-in-law taught my niece a few ASL signs, too, since apparently, they're recommended to parents these days. They say she would say what they meant while doing them.

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Re: American Sign Language

Postby vijayjohn » 2020-05-17, 4:22

I think I feel relatively comfortable with Lesson 2 by now and have started on the words for Lesson 3.


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