Hello Everyone! This channel is mostly just videos to practice basic ASL Vocabulary. I am a hearing, College-level, ASL instructor and use these videos primarily for my ASL classes. However, if anyone else benefits from them, you are welcome to watch and learn as well! Because I am a hearing person, I do not insinuate that I know everything there is to know about ASL Linguistics and the variations on every sign. I am using mostly Southern California based signs. There are numerous variations on different words and I try to include those in my videos. However, there will be some signs that won't be consistent with what other people may sign. I am completely welcome to comments and suggestions! Let's all learn together!!
That's interesting, I'm glad it worked out. A few times up in Casper we went up the mountains, with varying amounts of adventure, mostly in car, on winding road, steeeeeeep, looking at station wagon that once fell offff, nestled into woods, near waterfall that we visited. Once we went to next mountain over, there have hanging valley, I sit near edge, 200 foot down vertical, scared, my brother climbs allll the way down, crazy. Once we went on family boat on dam water, allll the way up to the source, narrow-funnel, loooong way, look at cliff sides, rocks interesting.
That's terrible, and classes start in 7 weeks. This spring, our Deaf teacher had two class sessions, series of unfortunate events, corona hospital, not hear from since, other teacher, interpreter, have 4 classes already, adopt our class, she also have cursory hospital staff ASL class in spring, overworked, phoned-in our class, not sure how much other students learned, class-time used up guiding us through our homework, only 5 people in class, it seemed she knows how to get people through the class, to keep them on-track, but at the expense of actual learning, this is true of the CODA who teaches the non-credit class, pooled the 1 and 2 classes together to keep classes from getting cancelled, the two green-horns abandoned class, one of them, rightfully in disgust, the other one actually had more expressive understanding than the rest of the class, including me, why, her lower jaw was missing, so she, like Deaf, needed to express herself in non-verbal ways, even though she still relied on speech. I had 6 months internet learning at the time and could barely keep up, class geared for above my level, still learned things, always+++, long road. Oh, that overworked interpreter, tore into my confidence, at least tried to, my confidence is not dependent on her at all, learn from many many hands, that interpreter stuck in curriculum, as in, she's an expert at the curriculum, not ASL, could have learned sooo-much from the Deaf teacher. Anyway, imperfect circumstances, make do.
That's cool, I hope people see how important that is. My final class in fall, now I focus sign stories, expand the variety of my signing experience, hopefully increase my expressive and working memory along with it. Oh, today I was at a store and met a Deaf person working there, I tried to ask them where something was, they told me they were Deaf, so I just started signing, everything works-out~
If I could give all ASL teachers one tip to support their students, it's basically what you have here, at least a few videos of the teacher signing, so that students can prepare ahead of time, before class starts, bring up their receptive on the hands that will teach them, it makes a difference~
The most important tip for ASL learning is this: Shortening the time between knowing you need a specific sign and finding out what it is. That's a hugely tall order when learning ASL by oneself online, but extremely important. Maybe this helps, have a physical book to remind you of the signs, start with an ASL dictionary, but add to it, draw in it, write notes, expand on it, to include new things you learn, learning ASL is about constant exposure, remove any moments you are not learning ASL, pack it into every second where you can, good luck~
Hi, I am so excited about your channel. I really need to work on my receptive skills. Is there an answer sheet somewhere so I can check my understanding?
Hi! For some of my videos there are answers at the end. But not all. By all means, if you ever need clarification or have questions, I'm always linked to here so I can comment and respond at any time
Hi! That is a sign variation of HAWAII. Can be signed with H or Index finger. HANDSOME usually needs facial expression to convey the meaning of the adjective, whereas HAWAII is a noun and doesn't require a non-manual marker for meaning. Great question!
Thanks for sharing your story Rebecca. What an amazing accomplishment. Wishing you success in your next step/goal. Watching your story is fabulous practice for me. Although I did not get everything, I did understand most of it……thanks to your teaching and coaching.
There's sooo many epiphanies, I think I learned something, also, many signs based on "class": club, family, group, team, department, association, organization, workshop, twisty-donut. Oh, apparently I end up eating bus-classifiers because of my early exposure to the sign for burrito, which is essentially the same classifier. It's interesting that the political signs are minimal pairs to "Toilet", would that be the "Deaf Bluntness" I've heard about? There's also the sign for oversleeeeeep, sun classifier, coming up, keeps going around the arm. And of course, when my Deaf teacher told me about the Hearing accent, specifically syllable cadence, she used the sign for Vacation, tapping three times shows a stronger connection to the word, gives it away. Also, another Deaf youtuber said that Deaf accommodate and adjust their signs to fit their spatial circumstances, but she didn't say it that way at all, and I'm extremely spatially sensitive in the same way, lucky for my signing~
Would you show "all" the signs that use fluttery fingers? My teacher inflected "Want" with fluttery fingers as an intensifier. There is "Running-out-of(slowly)", both in general, and specifically "time-Running-out", there's all sorts of water surface-effects, flow, possibly weather conditions, "Snowing". there's "Intrigued" and "soak-up", "mull-over", "Fingerspelling", "Friendly", maybe some version of "Precious/Care", meaning hold-on-to-tight. Could it be used to make "Condense" into "Condensing?", there's "color", "talking", "cooool", "dirty", "study", "spider", "fire", "wait", "List-to-floor" I went ahead and compiled a playlist from mostly Bill Vicars signing examples, as a template.
That's amazing~ (and I could read the ASL) Class finish next week, up-to-now homework boom boom boom, head explode, summer look-forward, next fall, final class. I feel that way about ASL, it's a primary source of strength, in soooo many ways.
That's soo coool, I graduated in fine art, it was fun. For the ASL class I'm currently in, I'm gearing up to copy the song signed by Sandra Mae Frank, Pride, it's a challenge, I was drawn into it like a moth to a flame, sooooo fast, but I'm getting it down, it's a really good example of Deaf sign usage, that, I need learn that~ There's a lot to learn in songs signed by various Deaf, all the different signing choices made by different Deaf, and see which signs are used more commonly, that are also not usually taught in adult ASL classes, like "Gut-instinct", or version of "think" brushing an L off the forehead, simple common things that if we're not primed for it, we get stuck on it. Also how the hands flow through many signs one after another, things like that, make a difference in our fluency, add them all up, that~
I like the sign for "sooooo-much", it's fun and expressive, the concept of stretching something out can be modulated very precisely with the claw handshape. Also, one of the teaching videos showed some one signing "Thankyou++++" as a quick series of short pulses, expressing the same thing with movement and facial expression. My teacher also signed "Want" with twinkly fingers, like it's pulling something in, to show, "really want". Maybe that's something that could be discussed, all the signs and inflections with twinkly fingers, or however it's called. Oh, what was the sign that showed the thumb rotating forward on the palm?
Avocado was a new one for me. Having fingerspelling with the signs helps reinforce both of them. My brain picks up just enough fingerspelling and somehow puts it together just in time for the sign.
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This was great! I have a few questions: 1. At the 2:42 mark. The sign looks like "priority P" (for lack of a better expression). Are you asking "Did you prepare for the "chapter 19 (?) quizz?? 2. 3:09. Is that "year 2003"?? 3. 4:34. The movement you make with your hands looks like "traffic". Are you saying "highway" 15 south?? Thanks!
Great questions. 1. I signed a variation of REVIEW. What looks like a P is actually a V 2. I signed 2013 (for 2000-2009, the movement tends to be 2-0-0-3 rather than 20-0-3) the variation of 13 I used is an older variation. 3. The sign FREEWAY can be with the 4s palms down in front of the body, the sign FREEWAY here in Southern California is signed both ways because our freeways always have traffic haha
Haha. I used to live in Southern CA, so I know all about the traffic. This is great for me because you use a lot of signs that I just haven’t seen before.. The old sign for 13 was a good one! Had me stumped..
You had a lot of nuances in so many of the signs, and I'm learning. There are a lot more versions of Bored than I was expecting. My coworker signs it more with a closed hand, almost like two handed "Bird" in those locations and facings. I know that sometimes the parameters of a sign can be flexible, with some absolutely important and other parts anything goes, like when I sign "pick-up" with an "8" hand instead of a 9, as long as the point gets across. You showed that there are other things that I can try to express, I'm used to the open-8 twist and poke into forehead for "Sick-of", so many area-signs.
My class starts next week, and I've been studying my teacher's hand from a few youtube videos, so when class starts, I'll have a little more receptive, and I think it's working, she signs clearly, kinda fast, hopefully I can keep up without overloading too much.
What are the finer points, differences between signs like "Normal(ly)" the U hand landing on the back of the off-hand, "Usually" both hands stacked, closing while moving downwards, and "Regular(ly)" both pointer hands stacked, top hand makes circles,almost looks like "Work", also the "Normal/fine" mouth position. I kind of get it, but I don't use them "Often" enough, only some of them, "Sometimes".
So "Regularly" would be something like every Thursday, and "Rhythmically" I can show with classifiers, both hands spread out on surface, the ground thumping, aside from the signs for it. Overlapping meanings is kind of a rabbit-hole, and figuring out which language they overlap in.
Oh, I accidentally discovered a classifier game, one person signs things as scenery or modes of transportation, and another person constantly moves with classifiers, reacting to the new things signed. Sign "Now Frogs" and the mover becomes frogs. If the signer signs "Moon", then the frogs are now on the moon, or the moon is crashing into the earth or something, it's open to interpretation by the mover, whatever comes to mind, it's fast-paced, reactions instant. At the very least, it should show us how much we already know about how things move, and maybe could be used to teach some of the signing sensibilities that Deaf use automatically but don't think about, so it would work with Deaf and Hearing together, as the hardest thing for me in a signed conversation is figuring out the new context, but ASL has been helping me with my rigidity since I started learning.
"Just Toast", and Blushing "stop-it" were new to me. The Emphatic "stop-it" is much more commonly taught. Do you know the two-handed sign for Bored, or did I ask that already? My Deaf coworker signs it every now and then, and other ASL teachers know about it, but so far it's not taught on the internet, unless you count once in one of my stories through context, but it's unlikely to be read by those who haven't been taught, so it's still just in Deaf circles, and I find myself in a unique position knowing a "secret" sign~
Yes, people should know this sign, I found my notes, it says "two sideways birds fluttering" I remember one bird at ear and one at mouth, make motorboat-mouth, maybe some body-deflate, it's hard to tell where I improvise, but definitely the look on her face when she did it, says it all~
Interesting, I don't think about, why? my English I modify, fit ASL. 27 months I learn, new class soooooon, teacher Deaf, that's going to be the real test for me. A few months after I started, I wanted by signing to be assessed, had in-the-wild-receptive Zero, now, sooooo-much better can, in every area, still learning, always. Last two classes, sat on far right side, why, teacher thumb can see, more visual cues, needed that. Now, context often fill-in details, sooooo excited, can't wait, will be difficult, not as much as year before, hold-on by fingernails entire time, that's why I learned a lot, non-credit class was geared for advanced, two classes merged, bad idea, two absolute beginners left, they stomped out, had nothing to hold on to, I had barely enough learning, and my processing needed practice. Now have many experience, Deaf coworkers, they still sign too fast and subtly, even when they fingerspell at their face for clarity, still something gets through, still need practice, two more classes left, if no gaps, will go to end of year, otherwise, a little longer, at that point, we'll see~
Keep up the good work! I know you can do it. You're working very hard. If you ever have any suggestions on what I can add to help out learners like yourself, please let me know. I'd love to make content geared toward my followers!
I suppose the story with the spider was helpful, not knowing beforehand how it unfolds. I can see that ASL class material is geared for supporting confidence. In my learning, epiphanies often make themselves clear, and I assume the same set of epiphanies come to everyone, or many from an over-arching set, being the fundamental differences of the two languages, and things that ASL just needs us to have, by its nature, connecting our thinking and moving directly. Also, emotion pours directly into expression, which leads to confidence, so there is firmly a second path to confidence, the classroom one being a shared positive experience, lots of hits and few misses in understanding, building collectively. My focus is on the expressive. I like my Jets classifier story, it seems to fit a very specific subset, things that can be signed without attachment to words, which can be difficult for Hearing. Look up the youtube of Gallaudet Youth Programs, the two examples by Sara Gubler, they seem to also fit that format, things signed and understood, without the need for translation, or focus on words, things visual by nature.
When I first started learning ASL, not understanding all that goes into it, I focused on getting the primer, connecting words to signs, not realizing all the different kinds of nuances there were, that the hands were only part of the sign, that signs and words aren't exactly one to one, that learning itself isn't once and done, but constant exposure, and that part helps with the other parts, seeing all the varied sign usage, alternate signs, different hands signing, accents, subtlety in movement, how inflections modify signs, all of it, together, is quite overwhelming at first, but, every day we build that map in our head, and the edges of all those fine distinctions are laid out, in the space in front of us.
Thinking about signing planes, fast-planes, and rockets, the hand-shapes of the signs and classifiers are the same, making them an extremely special case, so for language learning, they're best suited for play, where everyone spontaneously flies their own around the room, interacting, what do you think of that kind of exercise? Just show the class all the ways to sign something happening with planes, and then let everyone loose.
The closest thing to ASL adverbs that I can understand is Homer Simpson eating foooooood. I'm watching a montage right now, and his movements are soooo-much like signing.
It's like doing a crossword puzzle all-at-once, everything in context with everything else, falls into place. In college, I worked with someone who, on break would fill out the crosswords like they were a short-form, I feel like I'm doing that now, with ASL~
This is useful to get used to how things are phrased. I got most words, and even most of the essence of the phrases, but I rode the space-bar kinda heavily, but it's better than letting so much of it slip past me like when Deaf sign to me. A lot of it's just getting used to anticipating common responses and how they're put. I thought they lost a bracelet in California. I missed the bright purple floor entirely. I didn't understand how the food tasted and thought it was lucky, or why the salt was decreased. Sometimes there's a keystone sign that just gives away the entire meaning, like the suggestion of allergies. I was puzzled with number 6, but still understood it correctly. I was confused how the vegetables were not yet grown, but still successful. Sometimes the concept being conveyed is simply foreign to my thinking. In the last two years trying to communicate with Deaf I've missed the mark soooo-much, and soooo badly, they know by now I'm trying. But, slooooow steady like the turtle, and, even if I'm racing deafness, the best thing to do is just keep moving forward.
Thank you, at three months learning, I discovered that receptive and learning signs were two different skills, that started me on that long road, 26 months now, a million tiny steps, in constant view of a mountain, I've learned not to worry about how the mountain always looks and just keep walking.
At 32 minutes and 34 seconds, what is the sign, the B handshape kicks forward twice by the side of the forehead? I'm also excited to catch fingerspelled words even if I miss the first letters, can anticipate the next sign.
Thank you, that helps a lot, I've seen it other places, it's also similar to my Deaf coworker, when she signs "You-too", as in, "take care, you too", but with a Y handshape. My class recently was told who might teach us for the next class in the Spring, so I found some of her online signing, to practice receptive from a future teacher, and that sign stood out.
Understood, still learned stuff, packed full context, flowing sign, the space-bar is my friend, can follow conversation, fingerspell, anticipate sign, all good things that~ The best part is knowing enough that the parts I don't know just get filled in correctly by my brain, and maybe I pick up the sign also~
One thing that was really cool was last year my Deaf teacher told me that Hearing Accent tend use syllable cadence in sign motion. I didn't understand at first, but 8 months later, it came to me, and I remembered her explanation, the signs/classifiers she used to describe the same thing, she tried sooo hard to tell me, and she was standing directly in front of me, she was telling me this, so I'm happy to understand, if a little later than expected.
I'm thrilled you're understanding so much and working so hard. I'm glad my videos can help out a little. You can always look at the people I subscribe to on my channel and check out what they do. There are so many wonderful content creators on RU-vid you can follow. @@thrivinginamber2642
This is really helpful, seeing everything in ASL, especially context, connect, facial expression, timing. I put it in my channel list, show ASL classmates. I tend always sign "Find" with 8-hand instead of 9.
Thank you so much. I'm glad you are benefiting from these videos. If you have any suggestions on future videos you'd like to see, I'd love to hear them!
Yeah, sooo much it's about comfort and efficiency, we all have accents based on how we naturally move, our flexibility, range, etc. Part of practicing is finding those things out and making them work for myself, within my own physical limits, and getting it to look the best it can, that's what I'm working on now, and that's a loooooong road, with a lot of discovery and experimentation, and I've become crazy-expressive lately in ASL, explode handshape both sides my ~head~
Hi, I different ASL class in, sign, "my-Turn" "your-Turn" "whose-Turn" "taking-Turns", useful classroom survival sign. Why I sign? ASL only language that you can suddenly need (without moving), and I do. My chart look like mountain, same both ears. Sign, "Racing" NDH that "my deaf", DH "ASL learn", now sign Tortoise-Hare animal story, that my life, ASL learn slow steady, 23 month up-to-now~
I completely agree - my next big project is to translate each of my practice videos into English in the description. Thank you for the reminder that I need to get on that soon!
I wonder what about the hole at your house. Any updates on that part? Wondering what was the reason that he was so angry? Maybe problem with other girls..who knows.
Roommate patched the hole, he was mad because he wanted to go alone to hook up with a girl he was talking to...he was always mad now that I think of it. As horrible his actions were, I'm glad they split. He was toxic.
