I have become strangely interested in learning Japanese sign language...

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purplewowies

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So, I'm going to start taking Japanese this semester and wanted to attempt to concurrently *attempt* ("attempt" because there is a strong chance I will fail at this self-teaching task) to teach myself JSL. I would take a class... but none are offered AT my college and I have a feeling it's unlikely there are any in the surrounding area, either.

So I was wondering where I could find materials for self-teaching the language? I've found some beginner guides that teach basic signs like the syllabary and stuff like like you'd learn in the first days or weeks of an ASL class, but I wanna learn more than that. Further, I know any way I teach myself, particularly if there's no one to practice with, is probably gonna suck, but I figured there wasn't much harm in trying. :giggle: And at least with a few languages under my belt now, I do have some practice in how I best retain that type of info...

But yeah, this is kind of a shot in the dark but does anyone think they can help? :dunno:
 
I'm not trying to blunt...but what little I know of Japanese Sign Language it can use one sign that means two different words - mouthing the words is the key. Some people have used JSL to help them study Japanese but have some knowledge of Japanese before hand.

I would be very surprised if you found proper learning materials on JSL in English. I'd wait a semester or two...start understanding basic Japanese (in particular Kanji which is used on JSL) so you could help look up videos of native signers.
 
No, blunt is okay. I'm fully aware it could be a bit before I could use Japanese in any ways that it interacts with the language (or read sites written in Japanese to aid myself). I was just having a lot of trouble finding ways to learn more than the basics presented in any language. Having more Japanese under my belt would be useful for finding and understanding resources presented in Japanese, though, and I had actually for some reason not considered videos of native signers...
 
Apparently it's popular for people to make signing videos in JSL like ASL. I'll browse around on Youtube and a few .jp video websites and see if it looks legitimate.

I can totally understand what you mean. I wish it was more accessible for people to know more languages - especially sign languages. ASL has interested me a lot the last year but I'd struggle trying to learn it. I can't memorize and retain finger spelling the alphabet because I just don't push myself to keep motivated to learn it.

I forced myself to learn English as a child with no help from my teachers being an ESL student. The teachers focused strictly helping Spanish speakers. So, now that I have hearing loss trying to learn another language - ASL - leaves me with no motivation.

However, it's awesome someone is interested in JSL. It is making me curious to read more about it now. :D Maybe one day I'll get patience to study some more ASL if I learn more about sign languages.
 
Yeah, I did happen across those when there was this language-centric day on another site I frequent and we all got into a discussion on sign languages, but I wasn't sure how true to word order and grammar and all that they were... they were pretty, though? (Oh, gosh, I think I now re-understand the perspective of non-ASL proficient people who comment on absolutely horrible signed music with how awesome and cool looking it is... :ugh3:)

I have run across a lot of JSL fingerspelling resources, though, so there's that (though I'm not sure Japanese Rochester method is a thing :lol:).

I've been on a language kick for awhile... It's turned into a Japanese kick (but hopefully not in the awkward way) and part of me wants to be an ALT over there (perhaps specifically in a deaf school or environment, even), even as another part of me realizes that'd be a trainwreck. (Alas, I don't really have time left in my major to tack enough Japan/Japanese classes on for that, and it's way unlikely to happen, anyway, with the little amount I know about it and the little amount of time I'd have to learn coupled with my horrible and failing journey to independent life--I can't imagine at this point being on a different continent.)

In my search, though, I have found a few resources explaining deaf community and education in Japan, including what is (presumably) the only bilingual-bicultural deaf school in all of Japan. So even if I don't end up learning the language in the end, I can say I learned a lot of cool stuff? :hmm::cool2:
 
Jsl

I am studying Japanese sign language too, but I have the advantage of living in Japan. I really doubt there are any textbooks in English, as they are just coming out with decent materials in Japanese. If you find anything, I'd like to know.
JSL has many dialects, so I study one sign for a word in the textbook (made in Kyoto), and then in class they tell me nobody here understands that sign.:shock:
Experienced sign language interpreters tell me to just gesture and use facial expression for everything. JSL badly needs some standardization!
 
The dialect issue is good to know, actually. (There are dialects in ASL, too, but it sounds a lot more standardized than what you're describing, and I've only run into misunderstandings of a sign like twice.)

I still haven't found decent materials past the basics, but I'm attempting to learn sign vocab in tandem with my Japanese vocab via Spread The Sign and map it to what I know about JSL syntax (which is admittedly not much, but I think I'm doing about as well as can be expected working from nothing).
 
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