|
 |
Sign Languages | ||
Tags: Sign Language | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6648 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 9 of 20 12 September 2007 at 8:28pm | IP Logged | ||
This is a good place to start: http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/lessons/lesson1.htm And there are tons of dictionaries out there to boost vocabulary. I like trying to learn it because it's a break from the usual language work. It gets you thinking conceptually, rather than stressing on the exact word. I don't know, I can see how it can be frustrating to people who like written languages. Maybe y'all would like to learn Braille! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6766 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 10 of 20 13 September 2007 at 2:38am | IP Logged | ||
I know SignWriting exists, but I've never heard of it being used, or books being published in it. I'd rather learn to read Egyptian hieroglyphs. I am also aware that deaf people have distinct cultures, but there is nowhere on earth where deaf people are the majority, or sign language is the primary mode of communication. Edited by Captain Haddock on 13 September 2007 at 2:39am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Marie Diglot Newbie France Joined 6174 days ago 30 posts - 35 votes Speaks: French*, English | Message 11 of 20 04 January 2008 at 12:17pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Capitaine Haddock, according to wikipedia: "On occasion, where the prevalence of deaf people is high enough, a deaf sign language has been taken up by an entire local community. Famous examples of this include Martha's Vineyard Sign Language in the USA, Kata Kolok in a village in Bali, Adamorobe Sign Language in Ghana and Yucatec Maya sign language in Mexico. In such communities deaf people are not socially disadvantaged.
Many Australian Aboriginal sign languages arose in a context of extensive speech taboos, such as during mourning and initiation rites. They are or were especially highly developed among the Warlpiri, Warumungu, Dieri, Kaytetye, Arrernte, Warlmanpa. A pidgin sign language arose among tribes of American Indians in the Great Plains region of North America (see Plains Indian Sign Language). It was used to communicate among tribes with different spoken languages. There are especially users today among the Crow, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. Unlike other sign languages developed by hearing people, it shares the spatial grammar of deaf sign languages." There are also many spoken languages with no writing system. Dizzycloud, about baby sign : it's often using the vocabulary but not the syntax. Georgi87, there is the Gestuno equivalent of the Esperanto. I see that you're learning japonese : in order to talk to anyone you could meet on earth? There are many sign languages: what about oral languages?? It will take about two days to a deaf from UK to be able to communicate quite easily with another deaf from Japan, USA, France.... (mostly because the structure is the same) But I agree that you don't have many occasion to use it. Unless you kid is born deaf, anyone in your family or friend is deaf. (most of deaf babies are born in earing family (about 90% in France)) Well, just think that with time people tend to turn deaf.... ;) Then it could be useful to know it! (or young people at shows,...) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| unzum Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom soyouwanttolearnalan Joined 6912 days ago 371 posts - 478 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 12 of 20 05 January 2008 at 8:21am | IP Logged | ||
|
Don't a lot of deaf people who are adults read lips? Or learn to speak the language that is spoken around them (e.g. English, French etc)? Please correct me if I'm wrong.
I have to admit when I first heard about sign language actually being sign languages I was a bit disappointed. I wanted a language that would let me communicate with deaf people all around the world! On reflection, this is pretty unrealistic, like people thinking Australia has just one Aboriginal language. The world's a pretty big place, it's not really possible for deaf people to be taught one sign language and expect the language to stay the same across the world. I have thought about learning BSL but I don't really know anyone who speaks it. I think it is an important language in Britain, the same way Bengali is, but to learn it properly you need to have some contact with native speakers. (They call languages like Bengali, Punjabi, BSL etc 'community' languages) I can see how people could be put off, as there is no way to hear a sign language, and not much written stuff but if you think about it, sign languages are probably the most exotic languages any of us will ever learn. Mandarin Chinese, Lithuanian, Djabugay ... they're all spoken languages. Whereas any sign language is entirely a visual language. I can barely imagine what it would be like to think in BSL, as I normally think using speech. Also, did anyone know that in the UK we have a lot of BSL programs on in the day? There's even a BSL soap opera! :) If you look in the foreign language section in bookstores here there're normally three or four books for learning BSL P.S. Marie, do you speak a sign language? You seem to know a lot about them, do you know someone who is deaf? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Marie Diglot Newbie France Joined 6174 days ago 30 posts - 35 votes Speaks: French*, English | Message 13 of 20 05 January 2008 at 2:25pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Unzum, I speak a sign language (French) but I wouldn't say I fluent yet. I've been interested in languages for years, including that one. to make it short: because no one in my family, friends or neighbors is deaf, and because I think that it was useless to start learning when I will have no one with whom I could use it, I just read (over and over!) a FSL dictionary. And books about deaf people, culture..... So when I finally had a better context (money, opportunity...)I started to learn. My vocabulary was a bit old fashioned (my dictionary is now 17 years old) but now it's corrected.
I'm using it at work now because there is a deaf employee who doesn't use oral French and I've been asked to help for meetings for example. There are also other deaf employees. It's very interesting to exchange with all of them (including sign language teachers who are deaf too). So I learn what I know through books, internet, and conversations with deaf people, parents of a deaf child, people working with deaf (in a school with deaf class....) There are different sign languages because there are different cultures. For example a word like school is - in FSL - related to the uniform children use to wear there. For the toilets, there is a sign related to a badge the schoolboys and schoolgirls have to wear when they left the classroom to go to the toilets.... and so on. But if you want to say "to est" you'll just have to use the international sign you'd use yourself with someone who can't understand any of the languages you know! In France, there's just one program in LSF. Deaf community is asking for more programs subtitled and/or with interpreters. (you have to know to read for subtitles! And it's not easy to learn a language without hearing it, and think about the French spelling!) Yes, deaf people - adults and children - read lips, but it's not that easy. The sounds m, p and b look the same, just as v and f. k, g ,r (at least the French R: definitely an awful thing!) are not visible. Some can hide others (flou/fou(/vous)) Just think about "pantalon" and "menthe à l'eau" they look exactly the same. So you have to be concentrated to read lips: you have to guess a lot. A large vocabulary helps too. It's not easy to read if a man wears a mustache, mumbles, or turn his head... and so on. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| magic9man2 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6627 days ago 149 posts - 153 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Arabic (Written), Mandarin, French, Cantonese, Russian, Korean, Taiwanese, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 14 of 20 06 January 2008 at 5:28am | IP Logged | ||
|
I dont know anybody I could sign to, but if I felt I could use a sign language, I'd probably try to learn one.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Torbyrne Super Polyglot Senior Member Macedonia SpeakingFluently.com Joined 6093 days ago 126 posts - 721 votes Speaks: French, English*, German, Spanish, Dutch, Macedonian, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Czech, Catalan, Welsh, Serbo-Croatian Studies: Sign Language, Toki Pona, Albanian, Polish, Bulgarian, TurkishA1, Esperanto, Romanian, Danish, Mandarin, Icelandic, Modern Hebrew, Greek, Latvian, Estonian | Message 15 of 20 10 April 2009 at 12:18am | IP Logged | ||
|
I just wanted to share a great British Sign Language link with anyone interested in the language: http://www.signstation.org
The site is free to use. They ask people to register to get full use of the facilities, but the information you provide is to help determine numbers of people learning the language as far as I am aware. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| global_gizzy Senior Member United States maxcollege.blogspot. Joined 5701 days ago 275 posts - 310 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 16 of 20 14 April 2009 at 9:26pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Wow, Signstation is amazing!
Does anyone know of such a site for ASL (American Sign Language) I'm not even in the UK so BSL wont do me much good, however I did join. It wont kill me to learn BSL at some point in life. I'd like to learn ASL first though. I'm using LifePrint.com right now and I think its great but I'd like to be able to learn from a site as well-put together as SignStation too. Anyone know of one? I haven't been able to find one. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
