Languages

Is she also learning Mandarin? Do you speak Mandarin yourself?
 
Beach girl said:
Is she also learning Mandarin? Do you speak Mandarin yourself?
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She is (I don't, but I wish I did!), although we're only just beginning these past few months, and we're doing it on our own, so she's still at that basic hi, my name is, where is the ... etc. stage. We probably should have picked French, then her ASL grammar would be more appropriate :) but she insists on Mandarin. She's got a thing for all things Chinese.
 
Beach girl said:
From the biggest item to the largest? I don't understand that.
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English version:

A mother watches her three children play in a sand box in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California.

ASL version:

California, City, San Francisco, play place "Golden Gate Park" children = 3 play. Mother watch.

I choose "children = 3" because I would sign 3 with my left hand while signing children with my right, then sign "mother watch" with my right hand while my left retained the 3 handshape.

It is something called "passing" in ASL, where you use both hands to convey simultaneous meaning, but you have to be careful with it or you just look like you don't know which hand to sign with.

English:

An old car pulls up to a small cabin laying near the woods, which slant upward to a large mountain. The sky over head casting deep shadows over everything.

ASL:

DARK sky. Mountain - large. Near base tiny cabin (use open A hand [passive] to establish location of cabin) C L-3 hand pulls up next to cabin.

Does that help?
 
GrendelQ said:
She is (I don't, but I wish I did!), although we're only just beginning these past few months, and we're doing it on our own, so she's still at that basic hi, my name is, where is the ... etc. stage. We probably should have picked French, then her ASL grammar would be more appropriate :) but she insists on Mandarin. She's got a thing for all things Chinese.
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May not be as bad as you think. I'm positive I read somewhere in my linguistics reading that Chinese is the closest linguistically to ASL of any spoken language.

Wish I could remember the source though.
 
you are good edit on great person I am very glad of see you appreciate to you see I am happy see you hope be hear you! I am not see you long time I remember you skype :)
I am enjoy ASL reading!
 
Berry said:
Unfortunately she was not so much being unreasonable as unable to understand why you were obstinately refusing to do what to her was a very reasonable request.

And most Americans are monolingual -- Most of them think other languages just use different words that mean the same as English. They have no concept that other languages are not "Just coded English" like SEE.

I get this about Spanish.

One day someone said something to me in spanish that ended in "Pendejo" and I replied, "No aye pendejo, soy pendejon."

Every one laughed.

My English speaking friend wanted me to translate. For the life of me I cannot. I can explain it, but I cannot translate it. And if I did it would not make sense. It certainly would not be funny.

He thought I just did not want to share the joke.
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I have to revise this post.

While talking about this with a friend who signs, but does not speak Spanish, I realized it was easy to translate into ASL.

As soon as I did so I realized it is easy to translate into SPOKEN English -- So long as you ignore syntax and grammar and concentrate on voice and expression.

You have to get past the limiting crap the teachers drummed into your head at an early age.

I am not dumb, I am De-UMB.

Using voice tones, gesture, and manner, spoken English can be a much more versatile tool than it is -- And oddly enough it is something Hearing people need to learn from Deaf people.
 
Berry said:
I have to revise this post.

While talking about this with a friend who signs, but does not speak Spanish, I realized it was easy to translate into ASL.

As soon as I did so I realized it is easy to translate into SPOKEN English -- So long as you ignore syntax and grammar and concentrate on voice and expression.

You have to get past the limiting crap the teachers drummed into your head at an early age.

I am not dumb, I am De-UMB.

Using voice tones, gesture, and manner, spoken English can be a much more versatile tool than it is -- And oddly enough it is something Hearing people need to learn from Deaf people.
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I could not agree more. Animated communication is so much more comprehensive.
 
jillio said:
Grasping that particular feature is, yes. But they still have difficulty with other features, such as syntax and qualifiers because their basic communication is still word based rather than concept based. Anyone who tends to be very emotive gets the physical features down pretty quickly.

But then, I have even seen some native signers that are not as emotive as I would like to see in ASL. Their signing is boring. Like reading a sentence with no descriptives.

Add an edit here: when I see a deaf signing client suffering from depression, their ASL shows the same sort of impoverishment that is seen in the spoken language of hearing depressed clients.
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:hmm: That's of intrest.
 
deafskeptic said:
:hmm: That's of intrest.
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Yeah, when I started to realize the similarities, I thought, "Well, duh! That makes sense!" It isn't speech that becomes impoverished; it is COMMUNICATION that becomes impoverished. But, given the natural tendency to phrase things from a hearing perspective, all the text books and the diagnostic screening forms state: "impoverished speech".

But, this is just another reason that I believe knowledge of deafness and culture is mandatory for anyone providing mental health services to the deaf.
 
Berry said:
May not be as bad as you think. I'm positive I read somewhere in my linguistics reading that Chinese is the closest linguistically to ASL of any spoken language.

Wish I could remember the source though.
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It is because chinese characters in their written form are, in fact, strokes forming pictures or a story. My late brother told me this. His widow is Chinese.
 
BecLak said:
It is because chinese characters in their written form are, in fact, strokes forming pictures or a story. My late brother told me this. His widow is Chinese.
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That reminds me of some research done in the field of cognitive psychology:

Deaf participants were compared to hearing participants in memory of and ability to repeat sequencing of Chinese characters. The performance of the Deaf subjects was superior to that of the hearing.
 
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