| SignWriting List Archive 1 October 1997 - May 1998 |
November 24, 1997
MESSAGE TO THE SIGNWRITING EMAIL LIST
SUBJECT: Full Tech Support :-)
Dear List Members:
Recently I received this message from someone trying to learn
SignWriting
all alone...
>I am having trouble getting the time to get a sufficient
grasp on
>SignWriting so that I have principles in mind to teach to
others.
>Any suggestions of mnemonics? Any standard texts/videos for
practicing
>with? I know the best way is just to jump in and get started
but it
>seems that when I do that something sidetracks me and I need
to start in
>again rather than having a broad enough or deep enough foundation
to
>build on. What a frustration.
I think we all can relate to your frustration. Learning anything
new by
yourself is difficult. But actually you are not alone, because
all of you
have full technical support from me :-)
Here are my suggestions...
To learn SignWriting by yourself, you will need 2 videos and a dictionary...
1. View the "Lessons In SignWriting Video Series"
several times - both
videos should be studied carefully.
You will find that you will be able to read quite a lot of SignWriting
just
from the videos.
2. For those who are writing ASL...
Open the "ASL Dictionary written in SignWriting". Try
to write your first
"sentence in ASL". Look up the sign for "hello"
in the dictionary. Copy it
by hand exactly as it looks in the dictionary. Look up the sign
for "my"
and "name", and copy those signs by hand. Be sure to
write vertically down
the page. Then write your name in fingerspelling symbols. You
have now
written your first sentence: "Hello. My name is ________".
Fax it to me at
(619)456-0020, or scan it into your computer, and send it to
me through
email as an attached GIF file. I will read it in SignWriting
and send it
back to you with comments :-)
Once you have completed your first sentence - write it many times
again and
again. Repetition is what makes it "gel" in the brain.
Write rows and rows
of one symbol, just as kids write rows of the alphabet. This
way the
symbols become second nature. And use the dictionary as a reference
point -
if you wish to write a sign that is not in the dictionary yet,
think of
another ASL sign that is similar and look it up in the dictionary.
Then
change the sign slightly so it becomes the sign you want :-)
3. For those of you who would like to write essays
on Deaf issues -OR- for
those of you writing another signed language other than ASL...
Ask someone to take a video of you while you sign your essay.
Make a VHS
copy of this video and mail the copy to me. Then you and I will
transcribe
the signs on the video together. You will try the first sentence,
then fax
it to me and I will correct it and send it back. And slowly but
surely you
will learn how to write signs. We can transcribe the video together
as a
team :-)
If your essay is good, we just might post the written transcription
in
SignWriting on the Web, sometime after March, 1998. Any written
signed
language is welcome!
Hope these suggestions help -
Oh - and by the way - my report on the Las Vegas Seminar is coming
soon :-)
Have a great week -
Valerie
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