ASL Song - Summer Nights

Daredevel7

Daredevel7

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I found a video on youtube of Summer Nights (from Grease) in ASL. It's one of my favorite songs. I know I know, I'm a dork. However, I wanted to ask everyone if this really is in ASL or more like PSE/SEE.


If it is more like PSE/SEE, what would you change?

At the beginning of the song, the lyrics say "Summer days driftin' away to uh oh those summer nights." In the video, they did sign drifting (I think), but does this make sense ASL-wise? Should they have used the sign for "change" or "becoming"?
 
I think this is more PSE than ASL. The sign "Have" is used for when you have posession of something (having a car, not a "blast"). The two signers did well, but it seemed like they signed the lyrics almost word for word than what it meant. Examples would be "Did you get very far?" and they signed the literal meaning for "Far" instead of something like "What did you do?" and the grammar for the lyric "Does he have a car?" should have been "Car he have?" or "Car have?"

As for "Summer days driftin' away" I would have done something like "Summer days" and then a sign like "wet" where you rub your thumb and fingers together and pulls your hands out slightly so it's like "dissapearing." If that makes sense?
 
Okay so they are ASL signs...
but the word order.. is english... very common in students ( which im pretty sure they are)
many times students translate literally word for word... instead of the concept..aka asl... it happens
PS THIS IS MY FAVORITE MOVIE!:)
 
violet said:
Okay so they are ASL signs...
but the word order.. is english... very common in students (which im pretty sure they are) many times students translate literally word for word... instead of the concept..aka asl... it happens
PS THIS IS MY FAVORITE MOVIE!:)
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Yes, they are students, if the title is an indication. It said "ASL 201", so I guess they're in their second year of ASL. This video might be a class project.
 
posts from hell said:
omg Very english like.
ASL = Concepts.

This is pretty much pure PSE.
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Yeah, it doesn't make sense a lot of the time, or maybe I'm just misunderstanding because my signing skills are poor.

When the boy interprets "did you get very far?" he signs about distance, which isn't what they're talking about at all. The song means did you get very far with the girl... like bases :naughty:

Or am I missing something?
 
DeadlyCure said:
I think this is more PSE than ASL. The sign "Have" is used for when you have posession of something (having a car, not a "blast"). The two signers did well, but it seemed like they signed the lyrics almost word for word than what it meant. Examples would be "Did you get very far?" and they signed the literal meaning for "Far" instead of something like "What did you do?" and the grammar for the lyric "Does he have a car?" should have been "Car he have?" or "Car have?"

As for "Summer days driftin' away" I would have done something like "Summer days" and then a sign like "wet" where you rub your thumb and fingers together and pulls your hands out slightly so it's like "dissapearing." If that makes sense?
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Oh! You answered my questions :ty: I need to learn to read all the posts more closely before I post... or maybe avoid posting at three in the morning!
 
I think the kids did pretty good. All the signs are ASL even if they are in more of an English grammar than ASL context.

Signing a song is very intuitive. It depends on the person's knowledge of ASL, personality, ability to mime, and of course in the case of hearies the ability to get away from English.

I am a clown by nature as well as by hobby so mime comes natural to me even when speaking English, which really bugs a lot of hearing people. So I would sign the song way differently than most. For instance I would probably sign "Did you get very far" by miming "Did you look down her blouse?"

On the whole I agree with DeadlyCure's analysis of what I would change, but I would not follow the suggested changes, I would make my own.

I might add that "crazy for me" is an English idiom I would change.

"Saved her life, she nearly drowned," is backwards to ASL where events are signed in chronological order, and would be a lot more fun if you mimed dragging her out of the water by her hair...

"Did she put up a fight"... not sure how I would sign that, but what they signed was not what was meant by the song.

Also mouthing the words to the song does not help you with facial expressions... which to me contribute to 90% of real communication in or out of ASL.
 
Berry said:
"Did she put up a fight"... not sure how I would sign that, but what they signed was not what was meant by the song.
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Would you do something more along the lines of her trying to resist or her saying no to him?

And I love the neanderthal aspect of dragging her out by her hair :) It's very "me Tarzan, you Jane" and very Danny!
 
very english. Plus their bodies moves too much with less signing. that isn't asl. ASL can do both sign and movement at the same time so smooth.
 
nope said:
Would you do something more along the lines of her trying to resist or her saying no to him?

And I love the neanderthal aspect of dragging her out by her hair :) It's very "me Tarzan, you Jane" and very Danny!
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How about him trying to peek under her dress and him doing the "Danny Shuffle" when she slaps him?
 
"..we made out under the dock" I would have signed that very differently. Among other things..:giggle:

But it's so cute! Love Grease!
 
society's_child said:
"..we made out under the dock" I would have signed that very differently. Among other things..:giggle:

But it's so cute! Love Grease!
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I just saw that. "We made out under the dock" looks almost like "We necked in the oven" to me.

Now that is funny.
 
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