To say the least, the TED talk was nerve-wracking. Coming into the presentation, I felt fairly confident because I had completely memorized and refined my speech and visuals. On the other hand, being tat my presentation was one of the last ones, I was intimidated by how amazing some of the previous presentations had been. Anyway, I was a a very in-between place mentally before this TED talk, and the fact that the clicker wouldn't work with my presentation ruined my confidence and serenity somewhat.
Now on to the actual critiquing of the presentation. I had a clean, not very complicated or flashy Prezi which I felt got my point across and didn't lead my presentation. I felt that I mostly drove the presentation, but at some points the slides may have been the focal point; but I did not look over at them too much so they weren't the center of the presentation. The inspiration was okay, but I drove more than one message, which somewhat clashed with each other. Like body language is incredibly important, your actions do dictate who you are, and also to learn the valuable skill of sign language.
The process was definitely shown with the pictures of each individual section that I focused on during the course of the project. I also incorporated the difficulties and thoughts that I had during the process, which gave a better perspective on how smoothly the 7 weeks went. Also, the product was shown fairly well with the live signing incorporated into the middle of the speech, even though I messed up the first time. As I said before, I think the multiple purposes were shown quite clearly and the audience will take away many things about communication, body language, and sign language.
Organization: The hook was not the best, but not the worst hook. I believe that I made the audience think and I got them involved as well as making them laugh at the end of my hook. The transitions weren't awkward, but the speech may have been somewhat run-on and I could have taken a break to add an obvious transition. The order was logical, and the ending was effective because I brought the topic back to the application, the world, and the audience and made my point clear.
Delivery: Overall, it could have been better. I felt like I may have rushed the speech a little and sounded nervous. On the other hand, I think I was very enthusiastic about my topic and about the application into the world.
We have reached the final week: the week of the TED talks. Along with this comes large amounts of nerves, frustration, and especially confusion. I am trying to avoid all these things, but of course small amounts are even making their way into my head. The confusion is coming in where I am not exactly sure if I am supposed to be making this blog post, but even if it is not required, it is fun to make.
This week was again very open-ended, where research was definitely my first step unless I wanted tobe at a loss for words, literally, in the middle of my project. I again used my favorite website, lifeprint.com, which has different ASL lessons planned with many phrases and questions, as well as the history of ASL. So, as suggested by the site, I decided to learn how to say:
Yes, this is the sign for single
Nice to meet you
Are you deaf? (A very important one)
Is this yours?
Where do you live?
Dad
Mom
Sister
Brother
And last but not least, "Are you single?"
During crunchtime, I decided to make up for my lack of learning least week and refine my knowledge for the TED talk just incase someone puts me on the spot. Overall, most of the learning was very straightforward and I could have figured them out with my knowledge of question words and some vocabulary. This pleasantly surprised me, and I think it will make it much easier for me to progress in the future and learn even harder phrases. Also, I found these phrases and vocab to be the most practical for daily use especially if I just meet someone who is deaf.
My strategy for learning has become very similar as I have progressed through the past 3-4 weeks. I just watched the videos on lifeprint multiple times, practiced, and put the phrases in to likely situations. I mean, asking a random person in sign language if they are single is the most likely situation in the entire world. Anyway, I found that this strategy is continuing to help me learn at this very high pace. The only better strategy for learning would be to find someone who is fluent in ASL, and being that I do not know one, I am doing the best that I can.
"Keep cal and sign BSL"
Again, I learned that sign language becomes increasingly more difficult as I delve further into grammar and things that I do not even know in English. But, all the signs are very practical, and the way that sentences are phrased is similar to the way primitive man spoke or how a toddler might speak, so I am already in the right frame of mind for that. The sign for live is literally just taking both hands on opposite sides of your torso and moving them upwards along your body. If you think about it, that is the part of the body that makes you live, so it makes a lot of sense.
If I were to branch off of sign language after this project or for a similar project I would definitely take a class on were certain signs came from, why they were created, how they have changed, and the difference between, say, American and British sign language. I have always wanted to take one of those language studies classes where you investigate how certain words or languages changed over time and I think that doing this in sign language would be so much more entertaining.
Rambling aside, I feel very accomplished upon the culmination of this project. I started out very strong, had good techniques, built a strong base of knowledge, and truly realized how much I liked sign language. I faltered somewhat towards the middle when I dove into statements and not just letters, words, or numbers, but I learned that research is key and used that to my advantage, which put me back on track. Finally, I can declare that if I were to be approached or if I were to approach someone who is deaf or knows sign language, I would be able to have a basic conversation with them. That was the goal, and although I was apprehensive about reaching it, I have finally got there and I feel amazing.
Well, this week was just... this week. With spring break upon us my original goal was to sleep, eat, enjoy myself, and work hard on this project as well as my upcoming TED talk. But, with spring break comes procrastination and I feel somewhat short on this weeks learning. I may have wanted to learn too much originally, but nevertheless I did not exactly meet my goal even though I didn't really have one. Anyway, I decided to focus my energy this week on question words and common questions to build up the basic knowledge I gained last week. In order to figure out what I was going to pursue these seven days, I honesty just thought to myself when learning another language, what would I learn next? And it came to me: what would a language be without questions. So, I give you the spring break edition of my genius project (no drinking or profanity included).
What I learned:
How
What
When
Where
Which
Who
Why
My usual technique of watching multiple Youtube videos demonstrating the different phrases and words was again the most important and helpful step in my learning. I watched each video a few times, then tried to recall the different signs and what they mean on my own, and eventually I had the knowledge of some important question words and questions under my belt. Additionally, I thought of some situation in real life where the phrases and questions would come up, and I tried to form a conversation with myself just thinking on my feet and really learning to use all the signs that I know.
This week I also read from my sources like signingsavvy and lifeprint, and I learned multiple things about the sigs themselves and the grammar they utilize. First, I learned and noticed that these signs also have a logical meaning behind them. For example, when signing,"where", you move your pointer finger around in a circle with a questioning look on your face. Logically, when you are looking to see where something is, you would turn in circles and look around you. Also, the sign for, "question", is just drawing a question mark in the air. These things especially help me remember the specific signs and also to figure out some signs that I don't know. On lifeprint, I started to delve into the complication that is grammar. Considering that I dont even understand grammar in English, I only decided to read into ASL grammar a little. I learned that statements in ASL are formed in a very logical and straightforward manner. Like english, sentences are structured with a subject and predicate. But, once you get into things like the future, it is structured with things like, "My car, I wash week-past." It seems somewhat underdeveloped and childlike to structure a sentence like this in English, which is posing a problem for me, but I am starting to get the hang of it.
Again, I learned that American Sign Language, and any other type of sign language is incredibly difficult. Just starting to get into the grammar and structuring of sentences and questions is opening my mind to just how difficult it is for people to learn American Sign Language. Especially people who are born deaf, because they cannot just hear what their parents are saying and pick up on the language; they have to see the signs and connect them to some meaning and learn grammar as well as so many other things. This made me realize clearly that being born deaf must be more difficult than being born in any country speaking any language. Anyway, this is leading me to focusing more on the topic of grammar next week so that I can have proper conversations.
Next comes the TED talk, which I am doing on Friday. This gives me a decent amount of time to prepare so I need to make sure it is perfect and not only compares to the previous presentations but surpasses them. So far I am feeling very confident with what I have written so far. It was not my exact inspiration, but I remembered a story from this fall that has to do with one of my passions, sign language, and a deaf girl. Honestly, the first thing that I recalled when thinking about telling a story through my TED talk was this experience and I hadn't even thought about it until that moment but I realized how perfect that experience was to tell my story. In a way, this experience was subconsciously driving me towards this genius project and I think that is amazing. I will stop torturing you now, but overall I feel confident in the emotions and messages that I am sending through this TED talk. Although, I'm not exactly certain what images I will utilize, but I have time to figure that out.
P.S.- I have gained a newfound interest in people making ASL versions of songs so here is one that I found very fun and well made. I also learned that, like a different language, ASL grammar is structured in its own, unique way, so things like lyrics cannot be directly translated.
This week was more open-ended for me by far than the two previous weeks. But it was also by far the most important; so it was key that I learned the correct things in order to build on my knowledge. Now that I'm getting out of the ASL a toddler learns and into some real learning, I can see the reasoning behind the signs and, call me a nerd, but it is really interesting. There is logic behind signs like I don't know, thank you, or event the sign for where and even if I don't exactly know the sign I now feel confident that I can logically figure it out. All fluff aside, this was still a very difficult week. Not only did I have to learn the signs, I had to figure out exactly what signs I was going to learn based on their importance and their difficulty. But, once I knew what I was going to pursue, I could find many tutorials on Youtube as well as the sites that I have been using. Here is what I learned how to say:
My name is __________
Thank You/ You're Welcome
Please
Good, bad, and okay
How are you?
My last name is __________
Where is the bathroom? (This is the most important one)
I don't know/ I know
The list may not seem like a lot, but ASL is a memorizing game, and the older you are when you learn it, the more difficult it is just like with a language. Sometimes I really do wish that I had learned two languages growing up or a language and ASL, because that would have given so many opportunities as a kid without the hassle I have now of learning it independently. I realized that if I do pursue ASL and learn it fluently, I will not only use it for a job opportunity, but I would love to teach it to my kids one day. If I do have any extra time during this project though, I would like to memorize important words such as colors or days of the week especially if I end up teaching ASL to children in the future.
This week's learning had no organization whatsoever. Unlike the past two weeks, the things I was learning did not go together in a certain order, making it even harder for me to learn. First, I had to do my research to figure out what exactly I was going to learn this week. The most important source for my information this week was lifeprint.com. They have lessons set up for people wanting to learn ASL by themselves, exactly what I am doing. I used lessons 1 and 2 on this site to base my learning off of. These lessons included things like yes/no, question words, and even learning the history of American Sign Language. For example, I learned that a man named Thomas Gallaudet, with the help of a man named Laurent Clerc brought sign language from France to the United States in 1817 and developed ASL.
Anyway, that website was a great help in starting the bulding blocks for my learning this week. From there, I searched for video tutorials on Youtube that helped to teach the most important and most common phrases that were reccomended by the lessons on lifeprint.com. I found a video of a sassy man teaching common sign language and a woman teaching the same basics. I compared them with eachother just to double check that they were teaching the correct information. Also, they taught some the sign language that is commonly used by people and not the formal signs, so now that I know the slang I will be able to communicate better with everyone. Overall, these videos were my lifeline for this week and I did not really use any other form of learning besides watching these videos multiple times and practicing on my own without them as well. Although, at the end I did take a small quiz on lifeprint.com to test my knowledge. It looked like this:
Here is video #1 & 2:
To finish, I learned so much over the course of this week. I continued to figure out how difficult American Sign Language is and how it honestly just takes memorization and practice to learn. I attempted to practice it with one of the French exchange students becuase I felt more comfortable signing than actually speaking French. That interaction went well except for the fact that he had no idea what I was signing, but I gained a lot of confidence even with that tiny, embarassing interaction. I am glad that over the course of the next weeks I have left myself with a more open-ended task because there are a lot of components to learning common phrases and sayings in sign language and due to the fact that theya re the most important things in the language, I need time to practice. Next week I will be learning question words such as: Why, Who, When, Where, etc. As well as more common questions and hopefully answers. Wish me luck!
Surprisingly, learning American Sign Language numbers is much harder than learning numbers in any language, including japonese. You can't just put individual fingers up to indicate what number you are trying to say if the number is ,say, 67. Unless you have several extra hands, it just takes time, effort, memorization and practice to learn how to sign ASL numbers. This part of my learning was the most difficult so far, but it taught me many things about myself and also about all the hard work that deaf or hard-of-hearing people put into their everyday lives just to be able to communicate.
There were so many things I learned this week that I feel the need to share and explain them all to you. First, I learned that sign language is so much more difficult than I initially thought, and I think harder than every other normal person thinks it is. I also learned that my project is going to take a lot of time and I have to devote myself to it and make time to practice and read every single day, because I do not know how difficult each goal is going to be to achieve. Third, I learned that you have to be concious of every single detail when you are signing. For example, if you are signing a quantity, the palm of your hand should face away from your body while you are signing the number, but if you are just signing a number, then the position of your hand varies depending on the number you are signing. Not only that, but when you are signing a number, the position your hand faces is changing practically every 10 numbers. Finally, I learned that I need to delve myself into this project more in order to completely perfect what I am learning.
So, on to my experiences this cycle. The beginning of this week kicked off the start to the spring sport season, including track, which I am in. So it has been even more of a struggle to keep up with learning ASL, but I have gotten through it with only some exhaustion and a possible cold. Since my learning went so well last week, I decided to use similar techniques because memorizing the alphabet is similar to memorizing numbers. At first, I went on to my new favorite site, signingsavvy.com, and I read the basics on the numbers and general descriptions of what to do when signing specific numbers. The first time I read all the rules on signing numbers, I could not even think straight. I am not only expected to overcome my terrible hand-eye coordination by signing, but I also have to think while doing it? Nevertheless, once I watched a video tutorial on how to sign the numbers, most of my confusion was gone.
The first three days were devoted solely to learning the numbers through the use of websites, readings, and videos on Youtube. The videos were the most useful source, because when learning to do anything by yourself, it is nearly impossible to just read about it. The first day I learned the numbers 1-20, the second day I learned the numbers 21-40, and the last day I learned the numbers 41-50. My initial goal was to learn numbers from 1 to 100, but I had to change that due to difficulty of the task and time constraints. Sign language, like many other languages, is based off of the first 20 numbers, and then builds off of that. So, I tried to focus more on memorizing the first 20 than anything else. Then, it was somewhat easier to learn the signs for 21-50 since I already knew the basics.
Random Number Generator
The following days I spent doing almost exactly the same learning techniques as the previous week. First, I found a random number generator that gave me five columns of numbers from 1-50 and I just signed all of them at my own pace, and if I wanted to change the numbers I generated more. Then, I started siging every ingle number I saw. Numbers on math homework, numbers in science, numbers on my computer, the date (Which has rules for signing also), and just anything that I saw a number on. Like the previous time, this helped me with the memorization of the numbers and also helped me to think about ASL quickly; making it almost an instinct. Finally, I had people tell me random numbers from 1-50 and signed them. Or if I heard a number I would sign it off the top of my head. After doing all this, I felt completely comfortable with signing the numbers 1-50 in ASL.
Believe it or not, sign language is not for deaf people, members of the military, or the occasional interpreter. Recently, sign language has been delving itself into the heart of media and hollywood. No, not because certain actors or actresses are deaf, but because, sadly, the population of deaf people in this country is rapidly increasing. Surprisingly not because of louder rap music or crazier parties, but because of heredity and genes. Just in the past year, I have come across so many different things in the media that include sign language, without even looking for them. I do not scour the internet on a daily basis, so that means the sign language had to be very prominent in media sources like youtube, television, etc. Here is me ranting about ASL and the media. Hopefully you find it as interesting as I do.
Two things I have found, one is a music video and one is a TV show, revolve completely around sign language, and all if not any of the members are actually deaf. The music video isfor the song Give Me Your Hand by The Ready Set. When hearing this song on the radio, I just viewed the song as another fairly good pop punk song that will be overplayed on the radio and in a few years everyone will forget that it even exists. But when I say the music video I thought otherwise. This music video is completely different than any proffesional one I have seen before. It opened with a pretty blonde woman just standing against a plain background swaying with the instrumental introduction to the song, typical, maybe even somewhat boring for a normal music video. Then, when the lyrics start, the woman begins to sign the lyrics with the rythm of the music. I can say, I have developed the opinion that the most of the media is shallow and unaware of current issues in the world, but this music video geniunely opened my eyes. I may actually have faith in new music videos for a few weeks until another Harlem Shake video becomes viral.
If my jaw wasn't all the way on the floor by then, it was in the next minute of the video. Clips were then shown of the woman going out on the streets of what I assume is LA or southern California, and teaching random people how to sign the chorus of the song. Now this may just be a continuation of the trend of public embarassment that the media thinks is hilarious, but I am trying to be optimistic, so I believe that it really made these people more aware that sign language is emerging and it is important. Hopefully ASL can become one of those new, insane trends like Gangnam Style, Call Me Maybe, the Harlem Shake (Why?), or dressing up like a mix of Lana Del Ray and Lady Gaga, so the word can actually spread about the importance of this language. Deaf people should be able to communicate with everyone else, it's not fair that they should only be able to speak to the select few people that know sign language.
Here is the music video:
If you thought the music video shocked and amazed me, you haven't seen anything yet. So, there is a television show called Switched at Birth which plays on the major network, ABC Family, and has millions of viewers tuning in for every single episode. So far they have had 2 seasons and, the series' debut was the highest-rated show debut for ABC Family to date. Now, you think this may just be a normal teen drama about vampires, werewolves, pregnancy, or "A", but it is entirely different. According to ABC Family, it is "the first mainstream television series to have multiple deaf and hard-of-hearing series regulars and scenes shot entirely in ASL." Not only does this show include heavy amounts of ASL, but they have multiple deaf and hard-of-hearing SERIES REGULARS. It blows my mind that it has taken television networks this long to realize how important this is and stop discriminating against deaf people. If people of every age, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation can dominate the media, deaf and hard-of-hearing people should be able to also.
To give a basic overview, the show, if you haven't heard about it or seen it, centers around these two girls who were accidently switched in the hospital as newborns. One of the girls grows up in a poor family, without a father, and becomes deaf. The other grows up in a rich family, with her hearing, and feels like she does not belong. They finally realize they were switched, and the soap opera/ teen drama continues, only not like a normal soap opera or teen drama. Being that the one girl is deaf, her mom signs, and that she goes to a deaf school, the show was bound to show ASL. But unlike normal TV show writers who would avoid certain situations like this, they attacked it head on. Switched at Birth has several, just ASL scenes, and although some people think the silence is akward, I could not love those scenes any more.
This week my goal was to learn the alphabet in American Sign Language. Overall, I thoroughly accomplished my set goal and I am very content with my progress. The first day, I practiced memorizing letters A-M just by looking at the ASL alphabet multiple times and then practicing without any reference or guide. The second day, I practiced memorized letters N-Z using the same tactic of looking at the alphabet multiple times and then practicing without any help. The third day, I put both sections of the alphabet together and practiced all 26 letters with and without a reference until I completely memorized the entire thing. The source I found that helped me the most, as embarrassing as it is, was this ASL alphabet song aimed at young children:
Clearly this video was helpful to other teens/adults who most likely aren't all toddlers operating computers, judging by the 3 million views this video has acquired.
On the fourth day, I used a random letter generator to test my knowledge of each of the letters in the American Sign Language Alphabet. I found that the only reason I memorized the signs in the alphabet was because I had memorized the order that they were in. When forced to recall specific signs for specific letters, I completely blanked. This was one of the most helpful and best things that I did over the course of my learning the ASL alphabet. I found that this random letter generator helped me solidify my knowledge of each and every letter. This is what the generator looked like:
On the fifth day, I read articles on www.signingsavvy.com, which just helped me go over the basics that I had just learned. Through this reading, I also learned that ASL is the third most common language non-English used in the US behind Spanish and Chinese. It is also growing very rapidly, which makes me even more confident in my decision to learn ASL. I also learned that there are multiple uses for the ASl alphabet. You use it to spell people's names or other proper names that do not have a designated sign, you use it to spell words from spoken language that don't have a designated sign, to spell words that you do not know the sign for, and it can just be used if you feel comfortable using it.
Additionally, I read any random book I could get my hand on, including Les Miserables, and I just spelled out each and every single word until I felt like moving on to something else. I spelled out words on signs in school, I spelled out words I was saying, I spelled out words on signs on the road, I spelled out words on websites, I spelled out words that typing, the list continues on and on. In my opinion, this was even a step up from the previous day in terms of difficulty, but also in terms of how helpful it was. This activity made me think on my feet and think about more than one letter and letters that I had not signed very much previously.
On the sixth day, I had people tell me a random word or talk to me and I would spell out the word(s). I found it very difficult to not be able to see the actual letters as opposed to the ones I had been reading previously, but eventually I got the hang of it and it proved to be very beneficial to my learning and memorization. Because I found this step to be the most difficult, I continued to use this practice activity through the next day as well. In addition to the activity, I continued to learn more information through signingsavvy.com and my other resources.
Overall, I learned several things about myself and about this project just in the first week. I learned that my fingers are incredibly long and awkward, and that it is going to be very difficult to sign 100% properly, but I will continue to work hard at it. I also learned that my memory is worse than I originally though it was. For example, I would know all of the letters perfectly one day, but the next day I would completely forget one or two. To tackle that problem I plan on just memorizing and just practicing, practicing, practicing. One of the most important things I learned which opened my eyes was that sign language is very difficult. I see people in movies, on the street, or on tv signing at 100 miles-per-hour and I have not once thought that it would be nearly impossible to sign that quickly without years and years of practice. But now I realize that learning sign language is even more difficult than learning how to speak a new language, but I am ready for the challenge.
Here's a video of me signing the alphabet:
Next I will be learning how to sign numbers from 1-100 in American Sign Language. Wish me luck!
What is sign language? Sign language is a system of manual, facial, and other body movements as a mean of communication. This is the predominant way that deaf people speak to other deaf people, or to hearing people. However, there are multiple forms of sign language, just as in different languages. Some examples are American Sign Language, French Sign Language, British Sign Language, and many more. These different types of sign languages even have specific dialects within them like jargon or slang of a particular area. The sign language I have decided to learn is American Sign Language, as I live in America.
Sign Language in use.
Where is it used? Sign language is used all over the country and all over the world. It is utilized in a school setting, with deaf children, a community setting, a business setting (meetings, collaborations, etc.), even in a wordly situation (Interpreters for a country/area). Fields including jobs that require sign language are numerous. Some of these fields are: Government, Education, Health, Recreation, Social Services, Therapy, and more. Sign language can even be utilized in dangerous situations to communicate to someone quietly in order to decrease your risk of getting hurt. This skill can even be used in situations like on set for a movie or T.V show. For example, in the show "Switched at Birth" on abc family, two actors are actually deaf, and all of the other actors were required to learn ASL for their roles. As you can see, sign language plays a huge role in the lives of everyone, and it is definitely a helpful skill to have. Why do I want to learn ASL?
I would like to learn American Sign Language for many reasons. First, I have a strong desire to work with disabled children or to be an interpreter, whether that be in terms of language translating or sign language interpreting. My long-term goal would be to become an interpreter in either a school, business, or government setting. Additionally, I have tried multiple times to learn sign language, with no way to use it in my daily life and refresh my knowledge. This skill would be a great tool for me to use in the future regardeless.
Goals:
How will you measure your progress?
My progress will be measured depending on how close I come to my weekly and overall goals, and if I feel that I learned an adequate amount and put in enough effort over the course of the week. I will make at least one blog post about my progress each week. If something occurs and I do accomplish more than my goal for the week, I will make a blog post at that time to talk about what new goal I have for the end of the week. My first goal is to be able to recite the entire alphabet in sign language by the end of this week.
Possible issues and solutions:
Predictions:
I know this project will not be easy, as is learning different languages or forms of speaking, but I am motivated to achieve my goals and use sign language as a tool for my future career. The first step I intend is to learn the alphabet. If a achieve this in less than a week I will make another change my goals, and make another blog post to update what I intend to do next. I believe that through this experience I will learn that sign language is very difficult and requires attention to detail, but that it is useful and exciting to learn. I also think over the course of the journey I will learn that I may not be as determined as I think, or I may be more determined than I think, and that I will enjoy learning sign language as much, if not more, than I enjoy learning a different language.
DID YOU KNOW?
37 to 140 of every 1,000 people in the United States has hearing loss.
Works Cited
Fant, Louie J., Barbara Bernstein. Fant, and Betty G. Miller. The American Sign Language Phrase Book. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Print.
"My Smart Hands." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.
"Signing Savvy, Your Sign Language Resource." Signing Savvy Blog. Michigan State University, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.
