Learning the Alphabet

    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!