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In this lesson we learn about people in a family. Remember that the masculine signs are at the top of the head and the feminine signs are at the bottom.

Vocabulary learned in this lesson:

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The post LearnSigns 005: Family appeared first on LearnSigns.

Vocabulary Taught in This Lesson:

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Numbers seem innocent enough, but be careful that you do them properly or you might end up saying 6 when you meant to say 3.

Sign language numbers are fun in that you can count all the way up to 999 on one hand. Watch this simple lesson so you can see how you too can do it.

You can view the closed captions if needed by clicking on the Closed Caption [CC] logo on the video player above.

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Fingerspelling is an important part of Sign Language. Not only is it important, but it is something that many people struggle with doing well. This lesson contains some tips for fingerspelling properly which will also help you read fingerspelling better.

You can view the closed captions if needed by clicking on the Closed Caption [CC] logo on the video player above.

Hello! Welcome to LearnSigns.com. My name is David. I am going to be talking about fingerspelling in this lesson.

Now in the last lesson we talked about the alphabet. If you haven’t seen that you can go to LearnSigns.com/1 and that will get you the alphabet.

But this time we are going to talk about fingerspelling and how to use the alphabet. How to implement that. So let’s start off with talking about a couple of the rules that we need for when we are fingerspelling. And that will help you become a better fingerspeller. It will also help you learn how to read spelling. That’s something a lot of people struggle with. But if you learn to spell correctly you will be able to read spelling a lot better.

When you spell you want to keep your palm out. As much as you can keep your palm out. There are the exceptions. There are a couple of letters that you have to turn your palm toward yourself.

But for the most part you want to keep your palm out and keep your hand still. Now, again, there’s the letter J that you have move your hand, but as much as you can keep your palm out and your hand still. You may find that it helps to rest your elbow in your hand and do all of your spelling right here.

Then you also do not want to bounce your hand. You don’t want to bounce it off to the side nor forward and back. You want to spell smoothly with a rhythm. And that way you are not spelling, for example, if I were to spell my name you are not spelling D-A-V-I-D. It’s DAVID. It is one smooth rhythm across there.

So you want to do that with your spelling. And then one thing to help you with that, with the rhythm, is to think of the word as a whole word as a unit. Instead of individual letters.

For example, if I were to ask you to spell the word DICTIONARY with your mouth out loud, not with your fingerspelling, but just with your mouth. Try to say that. Right now try saying the word DICTIONARY (or spelling the word DICTIONARY) out loud. Do you end up doing something like this: D-I-C, T-I-O-N, (diction) A-R-Y?

Is that the way you spell it? Many people do. And it is because we are not used to spelling words like that. We write words. If you were to take the word DICTIONARY again and just write DICTIONARY you probably would not have any problem. You just write it as a whole word, as a unit. And that is what you need to work on with your fingerspelling. You want to spell words as if they are a whole word.

One of the things that will help you spell the word as a word is to say the word. Say the word as you spell it. So you need to spell with a consistent rhythm. To help you spell with a consistent rhythm then you need to spell the word as a whole word. And then to help you spell it as a whole word together is to say the word as you spell it. And that will help you with this.

You are going to do DICTIONARY. Not D-I-C, T-I-O-N, (dictiona) A-RY.

When you try to spell individual letters…well right now, if you are new to fingerspelling and the alphabet you are trying to learn your letters. But as quickly as you can you want to get away from spelling words as individual letters. So it is not C-A-T it is the word CAT.

It’s not D-O-O-R. It’s DOOR. Now it looks the same on the hand. The difference is right here [in your head]. So your difference is in the way you think about those words.

Try to spell the whole word as a word. And then that will help you to spell clearly, smoothly and with a consistent rhythm. And then it will also help you read fingerspelling.

When you are watching another person spell a word. You don’t need to say E-N-CY (ency) CL-OP-E… Ah! I have no idea what that word is. But if you read it ENCYCLOPEDIA as the person spells then you will be able to read spelling a lot better.

Many people struggle with this. They may have known sign language for years but struggle with reading fingerspelling. And if you will learn to spell words as whole words it will help you read fingerspelling a lot better.

So let’s look at a couple of words.

DOG You can spell that with me. DOG

CAT

MILK and think of it as the whole word. MILK

LAZY

LAZY

LOG

BROWN Spell it, it is not B-R-O-W-N. It’s just the word BROWN.

Now each of these words has a sign that goes with it. So these are some basic words to help you with your fingerspelling.

Another thing to help you with fingerspelling is just spell things you see as you’re driving down the road…keep your hands on the wheel. But maybe think through your fingerspelling or, if you are not driving, you can fingerspell billboards that you see up along the side of the road you can see a billboard and spell those words. Or work on common everyday words that you would have to spell.

Another tip to help you with spelling and maintaining that consistent rhythm is try and sing a song. Spell the whole song as you go along. For example. JING oops, let me start over.

JINGLE BELLS

JINGLE BELLS

JINGLE ALL THE WAY

Now you would not really normally spell a song out like that. Please don’t. But it will help you maintain a consistent rhythm. And making you spell words, because you can’t think about individual letters when you are trying to think about the song and the rhythm of it. And obviously you can’t spell it as quickly as you would sing, at least certainly not now as a new signer. But as time goes on you will be able to spell much more quickly.

Don’t think about speed as your goal. Spelling well should be your goal. So instead of thinking, “Oh I’m going to spell my name as quickly as I can.” That is not your goal. You need to be clear. And you need to spell well.

That means you will keep your palm out. You are not going to bounce your hand up and down. You’re going to keep it out and keep it still. Then you are going to spell with a consistent rhythm.

One of the things that will help you with that is to spell whole words. To help you spell whole words is to say the word. Say the whole word as you go through.

There are websites that will help you with fingerspelling practice where you can do receptive skills. Some sites have people signing or they will have a drawing of spelling a word and then you guess what the word is.

I will put a link to that at www.LearnSigns.com/2 and that will be this episode. www.LearnSigns.com/2 will get you to this episode and in the information along with this video there will be some links to websites that you can go to and practice fingerspelling. So work on your fingerspelling.

Look at lesson 1 to get the alphabet and use these tips in lesson 2 to help you learn how to spell properly. As you spell more properly it makes it easier for people to understand you and it will help you to learn to understand spelling when other people sign for you.

So take those few tips and work on that and in the next lesson we will work on our numbers.

The post LearnSigns 002: Fingerspelling appeared first on LearnSigns.

Learning the ASL alphabet is the beginning of learning to sign.

Printable alphabet pages and other fingerspelling resources are available.

You can view the closed captions if needed by clicking on the Closed Caption [CC] logo on the video player above.

Hello! Welcome to the Learn Signs podcast, or learnsigns.com.

My name is David and I’m a sign language instructor. I’m not going to sign everything in these early lessons. At this point it doesn’t mean anything to you, and it makes it a lot easier for me.

We are going to learn basic sign language and some of the topics we will cover later will be much more advanced topics. But right now we are going to learn the alphabet. And we will keep these videos fairly short so that you can watch them in a few minutes and learn what you need to.

Along with the LearnSigns.com website you can get the video lessons like you are watching now. But then also I will have some papers you can print or websites to look at. So there’s resources there. If you go there where I post the video then I will link those resources there. For example, for this first lesson then we’re gonna have some resources on the alphabet and where you can find more information about that if you need to.

But let’s just jump right in and learn the alphabet and see how far we get tonight.

A B

And you can do these with me.

Now, most of the time we’re going to have our palm out, I will explain a little more about that later, but right now keep your palm out when you can. However you can do some of these signs to the side.

B C D – It looks somewhat like a “d” as you write it on a board you can see the letter “d.”

E – Then take your fingers, there’s a couple of different ways to do this one, but I like to put my fingertips right on top of my thumb. And then you are going to pull your fingers in tight so that it is not out like this. It’s not lazy. Pull your fingers in tight. Sometimes you will see people do it with their fingers off the thumb. That is fine. But, again you want your fingers in tight.

E F G – Looks like a gun except you are pointing it down.

H I J – Just draw the letter J.

K – Now this is the thumb on the middle knuckle of the middle finger. You have your pointer finger pointing up and your middle finger pointing out. And then your thumb is going to sit right on that middle knuckle of the middle finger.

K L M N

Notice the difference there? M has 3 sticks on it just like if you write the letter M on paper you would have 3 sticks on the letter M. And now on N you have 2 sticks. So M is 3 sticks and you got the little humps here. And then N is 2 sticks with the little hump.

N O P – Now P is just like K. So remember you do your pointer finger up your middle finger out and the thumb on the middle knuckle on the middle finger. Now you’re going to point it down and that is the letter P. So K is up and P is down.

Q – This is just like G.

Q R – Just cross your fingers. R

S – Remember this letter? The letter A. A your thumb is on the side and it, if you think of the letter A it is round and it has a stick down the side. A – Now this one is S. This is just like a fist, you’re going to sock someone. S for sock.

S T – Your thumb is going to stick up between your fingers. So you have M with your thumb underneath 3 fingers. N with your thumb under 2 fingers. Now T your thumb is under 1 finger.

T U V

W – I have trouble with this letter. It is the 3 fingers sticking up. W X Y and then Z.

Let’s go through those again.

A B C D

Do you remember this one? F That’s right F. Now this is D. D your fingers are down and your index is up. With F your fingers are flying and your index finger is down. So D, fingers down. F, fingers flying.

D E F G H

G is with one finger pointing to the side. H is two.

I Just the little letter I.

J you draw the J.

K This is the index finger up and the middle finger out.

K L M N

O P Q R

S T U V

W or W X Y Z

Now when you are using the alphabet you want to keep your palm facing to the person you are talking to. You are not talking to yourself. So you don’t put your hand to you. You put your hand out.

Now there are a few letters that doesn’t work well with. For example the letters G and H my palm is to me. You will see some people turn their G and H out. That’s awkward. So just turn it to the side, more of a natural position. G H, and then the letter P your palm is facing down.

But for the most part, as much as you can, you want to keep your palm facing the person you are talking to.

Now when you do need to spell, and spelling is important, but learning how to fingerspell well is something many people don’t do. However, it is very basic. It is a basic part of sign language. So you need to learn how to fingerspell. And you need learn how to fingerspell well. It’s something that as you get more and more advanced in sign language you’re not going to have to do as much because you know more signs. However you need to learn it now.

And honestly, while a lot people learn basic fingerspelling, I will tell you it is the hardest part of sign language. Because there is really no association between this letter A and what an A is. I told you it is round and it has a stick on it. But the letter P? There is no association there.

This really, the fingerspelling part, I think is one of the hardest parts of sign language. And if you can learn that, then you can learn the rest of it. So don’t be discouraged or surprised, “Ah, this is the hardest part!” Don’t worry about that because it is just 26 letters. And then once you get those down then you have a good basis where you can learn a lot more. You can begin to interact with your deaf friends and get more information from them on how to do other signs properly.

So work on your alphabet this week. Work on getting those letters smooth and start spelling some words.

Now let me just give you a quick tip on spelling words, we will talk about this more in a later lesson. But when you spell a word try to spell the whole word. For example, if I am going to spell the word “cat”, I don’t spell C-A-T. I spell “cat.” Now, what’s the difference?

The difference isn’t so much here (hand) as it is here (head). In my mind when I spell “cat” it makes my hand work smoothly and clearly. And then I am not getting confused. If you have a longer word then spelling those longer words if you are trying to spell one letter at a time in your head you are going to get lost. But if you just spell the whole word as if it were a word, and it is, then it will make it easier to spell and it will also help you when you go to read fingerspelling. Because you are going to be able to start seeing whole words.

And we are going to drill some of that with you because it really is important that you learn your fingerspelling well. So work on your fingerspelling, your alphabet. And work on spelling some basic words.

And then go to LearnSigns.com get some of the papers that I will have for you, or links that I will have where you can get some printable papers that give you the alphabet and some other basic signs.

The LearnSigns.com website will be very important as we go through these lessons, because that’s where you can get other resources. And I will have other things besides the video. There will be other little articles and things of information to help you as we learn signs together.

So I appreciate you watching the video. Please go to LearnSigns.com to get more information and until next time have a great time practicing the fingerspelling and learning those letters well and we will do a lot more next time.

The post LearnSigns 001: The Alphabet appeared first on LearnSigns.