It just seemed so interesting to me so I said to myself that I was fianlly going to do it. I will learn sign language. I just got the alphabet and some words. I can make some sentences. Tip: Go to YouTube, type in your favorite song or a song you know every word to if your favorite doesn’t show up, make sure you type A.S.L. (American Sign Language), and pick the song. The person will play the song in the background and “sing” the song with his or her hands. It helped me learn a lot of what I know now.
I used to think that learning sign language was easy because if you wanted to talk to someone, all you had to do was spell out every single letter to your sentences. I was super wrong It’s quite fun once you get the hang of some words. It kind of helps if you make the picture in your mind while you think of the word because usually you make a picture with your hands or at least that’s what I’ve noticed. I looked up Fireflies ASL because that song is one I adore! I can song sing it in sign language so listening to your favorite song can also help you learn words fast because your having fun doing it and you can use those words for sentences. Tip: Try looking for a pattern to see which sings are which words.
If you listen to a few songs, pay close attention to the person signing, and try to remember other words from other songs, I feels it’s rewarding. but spelling things out making my hand cramp up so bad I’m sure I’ll get used to it. After all, nobody would be doing sign language if it hurt you.
That’s cool you’re learning sign language Jessie!
It’s useful if you know or ever meet a deaf person, and it will make you feel more confident because you have a wider understanding of what it’s like for different people.
I’ve been learning french in school since 5th grade, then a bit of german for 2 years in middle school. TBH I’m a bit fed up of learning languages, but you never know when it will come in handy
My mum’s profoundly deaf and was born so, so you’d think I’d know sign language to a certain extent. I don’t- and neither does she! She went to a boarding school as a young girl that taught all the deaf children to lip read and to improve their speech, so she’s never needed to learn sign language.
It’s great that you’re learning a bit of sign language, haijessie. As Ami said, you’ll be able to use it when you meet a deaf person and I’m sure they’ll be impressed.
I voted ‘no’ in the poll despite learning a language outside of my mother tongue for the last seven years, but it doesn’t really count as it’s a dead language- Latin. It’s not like I can actually go somewhere and use it, though it has improved my understanding of Italian and French and even the English language; when I come across words that I don’t know the meaning of, a lot of the time it’s possible to look at the root of the word and discover the Latin word it developed from and hence its meaning.
For example, the word ‘audacious’, meaning to be reckless or fearless in English, comes from the Latin word ‘audacia’, meaning courage. The exact meaning of the word has changed a little over time, but it’s easy to see its origins.
I’d love to actually start learning a modern language at some point though, and so I’ll hopefully be taking up Spanish at university.
Interesting double topic (on both language and sign language).
I voted yes, as while English is my mother tongue as well, I’ve studied a second language for some time now. Speaking of which, for anyone who likes English, Bill Bryson wrote a great book called “Mother Tongue” (it’s not a textbook; it’s a really fun read) on English and how it got the way it is today. There’s also an excellent weekly radio show on the English language from an NPR station called “A Way With Words” – and you can download the podcast and listen to it each week. Callers call in asking all kinds of questions, from local slang to where words and phrases come from (questions like "Why is the expression always ‘head over heals’ instead of 'heals over head?’ – after all in normal situations, people always have their head over their heals!) You can download and listen to the podcast at: www.waywordradio.org
On the topic of sign language, I, too, thought about learning sign language at some point – though I’d have to decide which language’s sign language, as each language’s sign language is quite different.
For instance, JSL (Japanese Sign Language) or Chinese sign language are quite different than ASL (American Sign Language). At school a friend from Taiwan had a mom who was deaf, and showed me how different Chinese sign language was from ASL. Not only that, but even in countries where the language is the same, the sign language varies. Apparently British Sign Language and American Sign Language are completely different even though the root language for each is the same (English).
It’s easy to find numerous ASL pages on the net. But for anyone interested, a quick search found these pages:
Let’s Learn Basic Japanese Sign Language (in English): kyoto-be.ne.jp/ed-center/gak … index.html
LizardGirl- I’ve tried to read lips but it’s hard to (for me) all I know is that a tongue up is an “L” sound which doesn’t really help. My brother took Latin in his first semester and he didn’t like it. He thought it was cool but he hated the fact that it was terribly hard (for him) so he dropped that class.
Miafka- When you said the difference between British and American English was big I felt shocked. Because when you speak American English, it is different from British English but not so much. Like you can understand each other. Do you mean someone who signs in British can’t understand someone who signs in American? Or they can but it’s really hard?
ah, that’s awesome. sign language sounds like it would be awesome to learn.
as for me… i can understand vietnamese. but i can’t speak it. it’s a tonal language, meaning that the way you pronounce a word changes its meaning entirely. so, everyone laughs at me when i try to speak it because i think i’m talking about one thing… but to them, it’s just gibberish. it’s frustrating. so i gave up on trying to learn how to speak it unless i can find someone to teach me that won’t make fun of me while i’m learning.
and i’m getting pretty good at spanish. depending on the subject, i can sort of keep a conversation going. haha. but people in my family think that it’s stupid that i’ve been learning more spanish than vietnamese because they’re convinced that i can’t understand vietnamese at all. but little do they know… i can comprehend everything that they say about me perfectly fine… i just choose to ignore them.
Sign language is super easy to learn (so far) no one can make fun of you for knowing sign language because it’s a good thing to know.
Besides, there is no such thing as “pronouncing” but there are accents with sign language. I’m not talking about the different languages, I’m talking about american sign language itself. For example, people in the North sign faster than people in the South.
Ah, that’s true… but i had no idea about the accent thing… that’s interesting. I do know a little bit of sign language. Maybe I should try learning more some time.
I’m fluent in ASL, and I am way way way into song signing. I was picking out my interpretation on “Losing You” just this morning haha.
I started learning how to hold small conversations when I was seven so I could communicate with a friend from school. Years later I was in the ASL club in school but knew more than the teacher, and that is not saying much! I could sign colors, my name, I knew all of Brown Bear Brown Bear, and that’s about it. So don’t be impressed.
But as of 07 I’ve been working on it almost every day, and song signing definitely helped me. It motivated me to learn new words at least, and practice sentence structure. I’d never really been able to use it in real life, anyone hard of hearing that I’ve met has the implant so there’s no reason to sign when we can talk. But a few weeks ago someone walked into the restaurant I worked at who no one else could communicate with and I was able to guide her though the menu and take her order and answer questions and gave her a normal experience. Big tip So you never know when you’ll need it!
Considering the song titles you mentioned I’m guessing you’ve already stumbled on Stephen Torrence on Youtube. Not only is he totally adorable, he has a wide variety in his musical taste and he’s interrelations are beautiful. He’s super talented.
Haha, you guys just totally got me inspired to start learning ASL.
I saw that kid perform Tik Tok and had to learn it. xDDD Just from watching him and another really good girl on YT signing it, I’ve pretty much got the whole chorus down, just not very fast yet.
gazelle, thanks so much for that link to the website with all the signing videos on it! That really helped a lot!
Funny, I was watching NCIS clips on Youtube the other day and I came upon two of Abby signing to Gibbs. A commenter mentioned that Pauley Perette (the actress who plays Abby) is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adult) and she grew up learning sign language. It is well-known most of the cast members bring their own personalities to their roles, so kudos to Ms Perette!
The other instance I thought was Neytiri from Avatar doing a ‘fist’ gesture followed by an open palm while saying the line “You should not be here” but I think that’s a simplified version of the phrase, is it? xD
But yeah, I really am curious about sign language since you look cool gesturing in some secret code (although some of the signs are obvious), not to mention being able to communicate with any deaf people too!
As for languages, I can speak four, but I’m only fluent in two (English and Malay, both which I can write and speak well), decent in French (but only Elementary school level writing and speaking) and Mandarin (only speaking, and baby-level!). And maybe a couple of Hokkien and Cantonese phrases (but they’re dialects, not languages, and most of them are cuss words!).
I want to learn Spanish (since it’s a latin-based language much like English and French) and improve on my Mandarin (to connect with my roots and whatnot). I don’t think I’ll try learning to write Mandarin at the mo’ since the characters are freakin’ insane… whilst English, Malay, etc. use the standard 26 alphabets.
haijessie- Yeah, reading lips is something I’ll never be able to comprehend. It seems to be a skill that takes years to learn, and even then, most people don’t enounciate enough to make it easier!
thedriveintheatre- ‘CODA’, eh? I shall adopt that acronym for myself. Very cool videos, too.
A deaf girl came into the shop where I work today, but she didn’t seem to want to talk to anyone aside from her mother, as friendly as I tried to be. It’s understandable though- it must be like living in a whole different world when you’re deaf.
Like little_chef I’m inspired myself too! (Although, that’s partly because I’m also inspired by the West Wing’s deaf character Joey Lucas.)
I’ve kinda learnt the alphabet in ASL, but I’m thinking of learning the Australian sign language standard, Auslan. Does anyone know if different sign languages are close to each other. Say, if I know Auslan and I talk to someone that only knows ASL, will they still be bewildered with what I’m saying?
I actually don’t have any friends or aquaintances that is deaf, but there is a school for the deaf that is around my area, and hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to volunteer.
As for another different languages, I learnt the basics of Japanese for when I was hosting a foreign exchange student from Nagasaki, and I also have “learnt” Spanish for 6 years. Even after all those years, I’m still unable to comprehend Spanish. I can’t understand it for the most part.
x3haijessiex3 Keep at the song signing, it’s really how I learned a lot of my words, because it’s ten times more fun than going through that ASLPro dictionary word by word memorizing, even though I try to do that too. It’s also fun to impress people, a lot more than just spelling their name for them or saying random phrases when they ask for a show after hearing you’re learning sign language. For example, thanks to Stephen who I linked you, I impress a lot of my students by signing Party In The USA hahaha they love it.
It’s really great, the less barriers you have between you and your fellow man. Especially when there’s something like this that’s out of our control that we can’t communicate with people. Like someone else said, it’s like they’re in another world.
If I may share another experience; A while back when I was a park character performer I was greeting the guests after the dance show and there was a young boy who signed to his father that he wanted to tell Daffy Duck something. I waved at the father and told him that he could tell me, I would understand. The boy seemed much more excited telling his hero directly how much he loved Duck Dodgers than having to have his father translate for him.
Little Chef Isn’t he fantastic??? I’ve been enjoying his live shows on his channel of his performances. But I’m a big fan of his videos, have you seen I Gotta Feeling? INSANE!
TDIT LOL <3 Definitely not sign language, she’s just VERY very super distinct with that movement, so it always LOOKS important. But it’s just interesting to watch lol
Phileas There’s a lot of different ways to sign, it varies from area to area but most things are very small differences. I’ve signed with people from West Sussex in England and even though there are a few differences we’ve never had trouble understanding each other. For example I know 5 ways, off the top of my head, to say ‘life/live’ and the changes are super tiny. Like one hand, two hands, finger out, etc…
I’m so glad I found this topic!
ASL is my second language.
When I first started gloss confused me a whole lot. Now I’ve pretty much got it down. The language has so much expression in it! Sometimes I feel silly when I’m signing around people that know nothing about ASL. They think I’m a spaz, but it’s ASL’s grammar.
Oh, and Stephen Torrence! He’s amazing!
I’m thinking about doing the ASL program at Texas Tech like he did. I already know I’m going to Texas Tech for their Pixar program. I’m just not sure if I want to keep signing.
I am in the process of learning Latin. And I can put together a few simple sentences. Such as:
Ecce! Ille Mos Anas!
Non! Elle canis in via non possum dormis!
Simple silliness XD . I’m a little rusty from being out of school, though
It’s quite fun once you get the hang of some words. It kind of helps if you make the picture in your mind while you think of the word because usually you make a picture with your hands or at least that’s what I’ve noticed. I looked up Fireflies ASL because that song is one I adore! I can song sing it in sign language 
so listening to your favorite song can also help you learn words fast because your having fun doing it and you can use those words for sentences. Tip: Try looking for a pattern to see which sings are which words.
but spelling things out making my hand cramp up so bad 
I’m sure I’ll get used to it. After all, nobody would be doing sign language if it hurt you. 
I’m not talking about the different languages, I’m talking about american sign language itself. For example, people in the North sign faster than people in the South.
Do you have any more tips for me? 
