Most Common/Important Signs

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KimmieSODA

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If you're Deaf/Hoh, what signs do you wish all hearies knew? What do you think they should learn first? If you're hearing, what signs did you learn first? What do you wish you had learned first? What do you use (or need to use) the most?

In other words: if you could only teach/learn a few words, phrases, or conversation topics, what would they be?
 
Hi Kimmie, you probably already know the answer to this question. If you found yourself in the middle of a country where you did not know the language, what do you think the most important concepts would be? In order to communicate in ASL, try not to think of it as a translation of English. It isn't. It is a language that is as separate from English as French or German. So, start by asking yourself... if I were in Russia and didn't speak Russian, what communication would I find necessary? You might want to know how to ask for food, or to say hello, or to ask where something is... like the bathroom. Start there and a whole world will open for you.

Good luck,
Michael
 
I was more interested in words and phrases for actual conversations. For example, my boyfriend is learning sign language to communicate with my sister so he learned how to talk about our family and art first.
 
I would like them just to be literate, so they can read my order off a mobile screen.

Signing isn't something they would use often, but good literacy skills would take them a long way in life.
 
OK. Without the context of your specific situation, your question is a bit vast to answer with a simple list of words and phrases.

Start here: http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/concepts.htm

That should give you 100 signs with which to have a basic and simple exchange. However, please understand that learning a sign does not give you a language. Just as knowing the French word parler does not teach you how to say that word, or use it in its proper context. If you REALLY want to learn, then sit down with an ASL instructor or someone fluent in ASL and learn to use your hands, rather than your spoken word, to communicate. Then again, there is Bottesini's solution... buy an iPad and write down the words you want to communicate.
 
Sorry, my last post was, perhaps, a bit sarcastic. I didn't mean to use that tone.

As a hearing person learning ASL as a child, I learned the concepts that were important to communicate with my friend first. I learned how to ask if my friend wanted to play (WANT PLAY?). I learned to ask to use the bathroom (TOILET?). I learned to say THANK YOU, PLEASE, DOG, NICE, etc. These are all words that a child learns first. Of course, MOM, DAD, PARENTS, BROTHER, SISTER... However, I also learned to put interrogation words at the end of sentence and to furrow my eyebrows. I also learned to place topic and the facial expression associated with a topic marker at the beginning of a sentence. Finally, I stopped trying to find a sign that was a conjugation of the English word "are" and "be". They are redundant in ASL.

I would imagine that an adult learning ASL would learn a slightly modified set of object words. However, to be understood by an ASL-signing deaf person, you need to understand the basic concepts of ASL grammar.

I hope that was a more complete and direct answer to your original question.
 
MMcC said:
Sorry, my last post was, perhaps, a bit sarcastic. I didn't mean to use that tone.

As a hearing person learning ASL as a child, I learned the concepts that were important to communicate with my friend first. I learned how to ask if my friend wanted to play (WANT PLAY?). I learned to ask to use the bathroom (TOILET?). I learned to say THANK YOU, PLEASE, DOG, NICE, etc. These are all words that a child learns first. Of course, MOM, DAD, PARENTS, BROTHER, SISTER... However, I also learned to put interrogation words at the end of sentence and to furrow my eyebrows. I also learned to place topic and the facial expression associated with a topic marker at the beginning of a sentence. Finally, I stopped trying to find a sign that was a conjugation of the English word "are" and "be". They are redundant in ASL.

I would imagine that an adult learning ASL would learn a slightly modified set of object words. However, to be understood by an ASL-signing deaf person, you need to understand the basic concepts of ASL grammar.

I hope that was a more complete and direct answer to your original question.
Click to expand...

I think my initial questions were too general/vast. Let me try to rephrase.

I've seen posts about feeling excluded, having to communicate in time consuming ways, etc. So if you were having an actual conversation with a friend or family member, what are the most common/important things you would like to discuss?

Like I said, my boyfriend is learning ASL. He's obviously learning the basic words, but he doesn't use those nearly as often as he does to talk about art. Recently, he's learned a lot of house buying/renovating terms. Another example would be one of my friends who loves to talk about Doctor Who.

So I was really more interested in personal themes than practical intro-to-signing lists :)
 
OK... at my house you would have to be able to sign about the following topics:
1. Work
2. Traffic
3. Dogs (definitely about the dogs)
4. Movies or TV
5. Food (what are we having for dinner, etc.)

Hmmm... those look like the same topics you would talk about in a hearing household, too. Could it be that deaf people and hearing people have the same topics in common? Yes, I'm being sarcastic again. Sorry
 
then those are the signs to learn if that's important to you....You have terps who do different things like religious medical legal design art etc they would proberly know some signs not familia to me.
 
Strip club.....
C classifier, palm up ridge of hand preasy under cupping breast...(peck).move up, while puckering and blowing kiss with lips....which breast(peck) doesnt really matter...
Wink
 
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