Die or go drifting and languages change

[sovay]

I need to learn some ASL.

I was on the Green Line to Kenmore this afternoon when a small child sitting next to me tried to talk to me. She looked a little older than my niece, so maybe five or six; she was sitting with an adult who looked like a parent to me, but since I have at different times been mistaken for the parent of my niece, my godchild, and my first cousin once removed, I try not to assume. They were signing to one another. I was reading and keeping an eye on the stops. But I looked over at one point and made eye contact with the kid and she started signing to me.

I have no idea what she was saying. More to the point, I couldn't say anything back. My knowledge of American Sign Language is confined to the alphabet and "I love you," of which the first seemed tedious and the second inappropriate. I don't even know how to say, as I do in a variety of spoken languages, "I'm sorry, I don't really speak this language." I have been shown various signs over the years and they are difficult for me to learn in the same way that dance is difficult for me to learn, but I felt really bad not being able to respond to a small child on a train who was probably asking me what I was reading. Or even if she was telling me a story about her day, or that we were on a train, or that she likes blue, that is the kind of reaching out that I always feel should be rewarded. I smiled apologetically and turned my hands out in an abbreviated I-got-nothing shrug and waved so that at least I was making a friendly gesture and she smiled and signed something else I couldn't understand and the adult with her looked over and nodded to me and I went back to my book. I felt that I had not been helpful.

(I know ASL is not the only sign language. I just assume it is the likeliest to be in use around here. Obviously if it was another sign language or some kind of home sign I would have been hosed even if I knew rudimentary ASL.)

Suggestions appreciated.

Comments

[yhlee]

In your position I would have tried the hand alphabet (which I memorized in 3rd grade at random) to say "Sorry," but I don't know if that's considered appropriate. I'm curious what the preferred approach is here too.

I wouldn't mind learning ASL, but have never had the opportunity...

[sovay]

In your position I would have tried the hand alphabet (which I memorized in 3rd grade at random) to say "Sorry," but I don't know if that's considered appropriate.

I worried it might be weird, but it might still have been better than just looking awkward. I have no idea how much fingerspelling is actually used in Deaf communities. I assume some amount for names, but I'm not sure about vocabulary/concepts in general.

I wouldn't mind learning ASL, but have never had the opportunity...

rosefox has linked some suggestions and videos below!

[yhlee]

I'll bookmark them, but I'm buried in revisions right now. I'd probably do better in a formal classroom setting anyway because I have concentration issues. Thanks!

[rosefox]

If you don't mind starting literally at the baby level, signingtime.tv has excellent programs. Perhaps Fox would enjoy watching them with you. Kit loves them passionately; it took them a few months to catch on but now they sign all over the place.

Some useful phrases:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWCk3WqtVi4

[rosefox]

Also, since you asked:

Sorry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siQnKSRRg_c
I https://www.handspeak.com/word/search/index.php?id=1086
Don't know https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh24tOx4OYc
Sign language https://www.handspeak.com/word/search/index.php?id=3278

[sovay]

Also, since you asked

Thank you! This is exactly the kind of physical patterning I find difficult, but I should at least be able to memorize "Sorry" or "Don't know."

[rosefox]

Those are both pretty easy. It may help, as a mnemonic, that for "sorry" your hand makes the S sign.

Baby Signing Time is nonstop catchy music and lots of slow repetition, so it's really good for drilling.

[sovay]

Perhaps Fox would enjoy watching them with you. Kit loves them passionately; it took them a few months to catch on but now they sign all over the place.

Thank you! My niece was taught baby sign and used it enthusiastically for some time overlapping with spoken language, but now seems to have dropped it entirely. I assume it will give her an edge if she ever decides to pick a sign language back up as an older child or an adult.

I learned fingerspelling in elementary school, and my mother used the sign for "I love you" as far back as I can remember, but I can't remember being taught any other signs formally.

[rosefox]

We're planning to take proper ASL classes as a family when Kit's old enough, to get them as close to bilingual as we can manage. X is hard of hearing and has auditory sensory processing issues, and I have a chronic inner ear condition, so this is partly planning for the future.

[sovay]

X is hard of hearing and has auditory sensory processing issues, and I have a chronic inner ear condition, so this is partly planning for the future.

That makes sense. And in the meantime Kit will be able to converse with kids on subways.

[thistleingrey]

Thank you--these are useful to me as well. I learned the alphabet a few years ago from curiosity, but it'd be good to learn some words! (My child retains only "more" from daycare/preschool-era baby sign, though I've relayed the alphabet and it seems to have stuck. Clearly, watching together is in order.)

[rosefox]

We like Baby Signing Time a lot more than the plain old Signing Time, which is aimed at slightly older kids. If your child is still young enough not to mind signing along with babies and toddlers, I recommend starting there.

As with all children's media, the earworms are DEADLY.

[alexxkay]

The folks at Central Square Theatre who do the Christmas shows have, for the last several years, made a point of including a deaf actor and some ASL content. I don't *know* that they're doing that again this year, but that's their track record.

[sovay]

The folks at Central Square Theatre who do the Christmas shows have, for the last several years, made a point of including a deaf actor and some ASL content.

That is really neat.

[selidor]

I was interested to learn recently that ASL derives from the French Sign Language language family, while British, Auslan, and NZSL are all closely related but a completely separate family. I don't know nearly enough about sign language linguistics.

[sovay]

I was interested to learn recently that ASL derives from the French Sign Language language family, while British, Auslan, and NZSL are all closely related but a completely separate family.

I did not know that! I also know very little about sign language linguistics, except that Hawaiʻi Sign Language is unrelated to ASL and in danger of dying out.

[cmcmck]

I know a bit of Makaton from my work with disabled kids, but much less BSL.

It's a useful skill.

[sovay]

I know a bit of Makaton from my work with disabled kids, but much less BSL.

I've never heard of Makaton. I don't know if that means it isn't common in the U.S. or isn't common around here or I just haven't interacted with a population that uses it.

[cmcmck]

It's a simplified signing system for use with seriously disabled kids and can be very useful in gaining contact especially in a job like mine when I was still working.

It's used alongside standard speech unlike BSL.

[pameladean]

I have had a lot of trouble with attempts to learn ASL too. It happens in three dimensions and my brain doesn't want to go there. I'm really intrigued by the links above about baby signing, though, and I hope they are useful to you. Being unable to return the well-meant communications of a small child is vexatious.

P.

[sovay]

I'm really intrigued by the links above about baby signing, though, and I hope they are useful to you. Being unable to return the well-meant communications of a small child is vexatious.

Thank you. I figure even if I can apologize in a person's own language, it's better than nothing.

[alexxkay]

I've just been reading through the webcomic Girls With Slingshots, and there is (starting around volume 6 or 7) a minor supporting character who is deaf, and the artist includes some ASL for some of her scenes.

[sovay]

and there is (starting around volume 6 or 7) a minor supporting character who is deaf, and the artist includes some ASL for some of her scenes.

Nice!

[alexxkay]

And, further on, found a link to another webcomic by That Deaf Guy.