ASL / baby sign

[pne]

I've kind of decided to try to learn some basic ASL signs to use with babysign, since one of Stella's day-care children is 4 months and the other is 2 and just starting to speak... and since I'll be speaking English to both of them, ASL kind of makes more sense than DGS, especially since I won't be signing in complete sentences to them anyway (I expect) so it doesn't matter so much if I don't have a proper handle on the grammar. (Though that's a weak justification; based on what I speak to them, BSL would be even more appropriate, if anything. But ASL seems to have the best available Internet resources.)

So far, I've found SigningSavvy as a sign dictionary.

Amy can already recognise a few signs (at least eat, drink, cat, baby) I showed her.

I think I need a signing userpic; perhaps me fingerspelling my name or something. And I wonder whether to use "duck" as a namesign based on my Martin userpic, which I use nearly everywhere one can upload one's own avatar. (He's my Gravatar, for example, and I think also my Facebook profile picture.)

Comments

[ifeedformula.livejournal.com]

I know a little ASL. :) I know how to sign the alphabet, the signs for father and mother as well as the signs for cat and bird which is about the extent of my signing knowledge.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Many years ago, a friend had taught me the fingerspelling alphabet... I remember part of it but want to get it all back down again, too.

[ifeedformula.livejournal.com]

It's really funny, but sometimes when I"m on the phone I'll use my free hand to fingerspell words. *L*

I remember doing that also, out of nervousness, when I had my car accidents and had to talk to the police. When they were taking down my info, the officers would notice it and ask me WTF I was doing. I told them I was fingerspelling things in sign language and that it was a nervous habit.

[conuly]

When I was doing ASL with Evangeline, I kept cribbing signs from BSL and Auslan because I found their (comparatively few) dictionaries to be more comprehensive. I can give you some links if you give me a minute.

[pne.livejournal.com]

That'd be great; thanks for the offer!

[conuly]

It's not that great, I originally found them off of Google.

This one is pretty comprehensive, but a pain to navigate

This one is easier to navigate, but I always find their signing to be a little fast

This one... each sign has a description, and often step-by-step photos, which is great. Sometimes it includes alternatives, which is awesome, given how regional ASL is. But it's not as comprehensive as the others. (On the other hand, you can contact the site owner and ask for advice on one sign or another, and he'll reply pretty quickly, which has put this site as my favorite.)

Never used this one, but they look insanely dedicated.

As for BSL and Auslan, man, I can't find the linkies right now. They were two (good) subscription sites, though. FREE subscription, I should say.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks!

The commtechlab.msu.edu was one I found, too, and that pointed me to SigningSavvy -- IIRC, they said that their own material was limited and wasn't being added to and the videos fairly small, since the project was a bit older, so they suggested going to SigningSavvy if you wanted a word they didn't have or bigger images or generally a better experience.

[conuly]

It was three years ago I made these bookmarks, so that makes sense :)

[noidd.livejournal.com]

I did two "semesters" of ASL to attempt to gain some fluency in the language last year. I had orders of magnitude more success compared to any other language I tried to learn because:

a) You communicate concepts more than words.
b) There is usually some kind of link between the sign and the concept.
c) If you don't know how to express a word you can gracefully (or un-gracefully in my case) fall back to finger-spelling.

Also, frankly... the Deaf community is extremely welcoming and willing to help. Unlike attempting to use the spoken languages in their native countries, people would just not want to bother and reply to me in English.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting your experiences!

Also, frankly... the Deaf community is extremely welcoming and willing to help.

Hm, though that wouldn't help me with ASL since I imagine it's hardly spoken here in Germany. But good to know should I try learning DGS (too, or instead).