Friday, October 20, 2017

Learning American Sign Language--it's interesting, challenging, and (as with most languages) probably easier if you aren't shy



Last spring, my daughter and I (and one of her friends from school) started taking a class in American Sign Language. Since this blog is about the interesting (sometimes shiny) things that grab my attention, I thought I’d mention some of the features that make this an exciting language, and also say something about my experience trying to learn what is, to me, a very unfamiliar language.

First, some of the things I find interesting about ASL. One of the most obvious is the use of space and direction of sign. For example, if the signer wants to say that she gave something to her mother, she can indicate that she is going to use the area to her left as the space for “my mother”, and then direct the movement of the “to give” sign to show that the signer is giving something to her mother. By placing “my father” to her right, she can describe an encounter between her mother and her father, neither of whom is there, without repeatedly signing “my mother” and “my father”. (If her parents were there, she could simply point to them.)

As well as using space in interesting ways, facial expression is very important. (Our teacher keeps reminding us of this—apparently we have relatively inexpressive faces most of the time.) Expression seems to play much the role that tone of voice plays for English speakers, plus more. I say “plus more”, because I think there might be some signs aren’t really complete without the appropriate expression. I’m not sure though—I think the teacher said that if you sign “sad” without a sad face, it comes across as either sarcastic (which would equate to deliberately inappropriate tone of voice) or confusing (which suggests that you didn’t really communicate what you meant).

Then there’s the fact that there is no “is.” The verb “to be” is basically non-existent. And here I thought “to be” was such a basic, crucial verb! Apparently Russian doesn’t have it, either. Our ASL teacher, who is a CODA (Child Of Deaf Adults), knows quite a few languages.

One final thing that is really neat—ABC stories. Many signs incorporate the same hand shapes used for fingerspelling. For example, “family” uses an “f” shape on both hands, and the hands make a circle. (Isn’t that a nice sign?) In ABC stories, the signer tells a story using signs that incorporate the hand shapes from A to Z, in order. We saw a Halloween ABC story on a video in which the thumb of the “A” was Dr. Frankenstein’s surgical slicing open of his creature’s skull (to put in the brain) and the final “Z” was the terrified doctor’s mad zig-zag as he fled the scene of his creation.

I said earlier that ASL is, for me, a very unfamiliar language. The only languages I know are spoken, and I’m not used to watching movements for that level of meaning. (I’m used to gestures for simple stuff, like “Over there” or “Come here” or maybe a sarcastic playing of tiny violins.) Sometimes it feels like my brain is burning from the attempt to focus and recognize the words as they are signed—and our teacher is signing at what is surely a v-e-r-y s-l-o-w pace.

As I get more familiar with the signs, I expect I will be able to recognize them faster and the sensation of my brain burning will fade. Also, maybe I’ll be able to catch more than the first and last letter of finger-spelled words (and the “h”s—for some reason, they grab my attention.)

I neglected to mention earlier that the grammar of ASL is completely different from English. That’s another challenge—figuring out the order in which I should sign so as to get across my intended meaning. John gave Jane an apple. Is it BEFORE-APPLE-JOHN-GIVE-JANE (with appropriate direction of ‘give’)?  Still not sure.

Our teacher keeps nudging us to go to DeafChat meetings and practice our conversational skills with ASL speakers, but she seems to have gotten an entire classroom full of introverts and shy people. (We have a class of about five, now.) She tells us entertaining stories about traveling to other countries and practicing her conversational skills, laughing at her mistakes and urging us to do likewise. She’s right, of course, but I have a hard enough time talking to strangers in English, never mind when I can barely get beyond my name, the weather, and my favorite food (chocolate). It’s been a problem with every language I’ve learned (some French, some Spanish). Eventually, I hope, my vocabulary and nerve will both be sufficient to give it a try.

Anyway, American Sign Language is pretty neat and I commend it to your attention. Try it--whether because you think it is cool, or because you want to learn about Deaf culture or work with Deaf people, or because you want to be able to talk to your friends during noisy concerts. Just don’t use it to give answers across the room during exams—no matter what my ASL teacher says.

She’s just being mischievous.

A hand finger-spelling the letter H.
For some reason, "H" stands out.
 Till next post.

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