Signing my Way to Longer Sentences

This is week 6 of my Genius Hour Project, and this week I tried to communicate in longer sentences, the keyword being tried. It was a nice goal to have for this week, but sadly a goal that I was not able to complete. I feel like I still need to learn more words in sign language and learn how to construct the sentences when signing before I can properly communicate in longer sentences. 
All the new words that I learned in sign language this week

Forgetfulness

I've noticed that the signs I have previously learned are signs that I am now forgetting as I am not using them. To counter this I will try to watch more than one Bill Vicar video in a week. He repeats a lot of the previously learned signs, which can help with the memorization process. I will also try to use signs when I am speaking, so far to date I have said I will do this, but haven't. 


This week I learned that all yes or no questions require the eyebrows to be raised. This is similar to all WH- questions that require the eyebrows to be furrowed. This is definitely something that will take time to get used to, as now I am used to lowering my eyebrows when I am asking a question. This results with my eyebrows going all over the place. The only way I can see myself getting the eyebrows correct is with practice, which I will definitely start to do. I will just have to start practicing these questions on my family members :)

Source: Bill Vicars

Favourite sign of the week

My favourite word this week to sign was (finger) "spell" (see below). It's fun to sign and to me it feels like I am signing something magical :)


More favourites

Branching off from last week, this week I learned how to sign "man", "woman", "husband" and "wife". Wow! I am so happy that they are all similar and like an extension of "mom", "dad" and "marriage", this makes the learning process a lot more simpler.  Signs that build off one another are definitely my favourites. 
                                     
Above:
The sign for "man" is on the left and the sign for "woman" on the right
Below:
The sign for "husband" is on the left and the sign for "wife" on the right
             
  

Sentence structures

Sentence structures are one area where I have been having difficulty. Sentence structures in ASL are different from English, I found a general formula from ASL defined, the word order follows:

"Subject" + "Verb" + "Object"
"Time" + "Subject" + "Verb" + "Object" (+ "Time")
(Time can also be at the end)

Another way to visualize this formula is:
"Topic" + "Comment" + "Referent"
"Time" + "Topic" + "Comment" + "Referent"
Here:
Time = Tense
Topic = Subject
Comment = What is being said about the subject
Referent = Refers to the subject you are talking about

Example:
Sentence: I am going on vacation tomorrow
Sign: Tomorrow vacation go I

Source: Take Lessons

Researching songs

I started researching songs that would be easy to sign, and in the process of searching for this "song" I discovered some information about the deaf community and signing songs.

Signing songs is not linguistically appropriate, combine this with the fact that I am a beginner in sign language, I will have a very difficult time interpreting the English in a song to a language that I have barely scratched the surface. To a deaf person, me signing a song as a beginner is equivalent to an individual who is singing but is tone deaf. Songs can have double or many meanings which can be very difficult to translate when signing a song. Signing songs can also be insensitive as it can excludes the deaf, which is the ultimate goal of learning sign language. 

Some advice that I received in picking a song:

  • Slow song
  • Easy
  • Short
  • Simple lyrics
  • Repetition
  • Do not perform the song in public :)
  • Translate the meaning of the song
  • Do not do my own translations (respect the work of deaf people)
Source: Quora

Next week

For week 7, I will continue with learning new words in sign language and continue practicing with shorter sentences. I will definitely try watching more than one Bill Vicar video so I can start to get that repetition in for the words I have already learned. Now that I've learned the sign for "and" I feel like I am one step closer to signing longer sentences! 

Check this out

This (video below) is one of my biggest worries when it comes to me signing longer sentences. That I am either signing incorrectly or it seems like complete gibberish to someone who is well versed or communicates in sign language. On a side note, I would never disrespect the deaf community by signing gibberish. My go to would be to finger spell the words that I am unsure of how to sign :) 

 

Till next week!!

Resources:

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