Signing with Left and right hand

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sparrow2

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Hi,
I'm currently self-taught, and I think I thought I was signing in ASL, but maybe it's more like signed english, because I'm signing what I say right?

Well, until I can begin taking classes in the fall, I'm studying by watching videos. Since the person who is demonstrating the signs is facing me, does it matter which hand I use to sign father, mother? or as long as it's in the correct location on the body it conveys the correct meaning?

Also, I got confused with the sign "come" and "go"; it seemed to look the same to me, but the motion was fast. Is there a difference between the two signs?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks :wave:
 
I've always been taught that you always sign with your dominant hand. If the sign requires two hands and one hand moves, the hand that you should move is your dominant hand.
 
Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Bold )

Typically you sign with your dominant hand. I do know a few lefties who sign right handed though. The big "no-no" is flippeding back and forth between hands - signing some right handed, others left handed.

Yes - you're not using ASL at all. It's likely you're not using signing space to illistrate time, space, speed, etc, so you're not using PSE/CASE either, unfortunately

To be honestly, it sounds like you've taught yourself some signs and made up you're own "language-like system" instead of studying the grammar etc along with the signs (there are many sources to learn basic ASL sentence structure both online and in books).

This is the main reason we don't recommend people teaching themselves - they end up inventing, instead of learning.

It's important for people to understand that ASL is a complete language of it's own. It is not "English made into signs" and just like French, Spanish, German or any other complete language, ASL has it's own unique sentence structure, grammar etc. Which is a critical component of ASL as a language.

We love our language, and sometimes it's a bit painful to see it not respected as a complete language :(
 
Thanks for your feedback Anji. I Really appreciate it. I'm glad to be here, and to be getting feedback. You are right about me not knowing a whole lot. I wouldn't call myself anything except that I've loved signing from the time it was introduced to me.

I've been studying signing for years since the 80s, but I have no one (friends or family) to practice with or to give me feedback. I finally can use some of what I know working with non-verbal autistic children, but it's one way, and only a prompt for verbal language. I still don't have two-way communication, and I sure don't feel confident about signing with a deaf person now.

The main reason I keep wanting to learn is because of my friend who was deaf, and a deaf student in one my classes in high school. He was always left out, because no one knew how to communicate with him. I felt so helpless, and tried to write him notes to try to include him, but eventually he just allowed himself to be left out. I felt so sad seeing him. I wished then that I knew how to sign so that I could communicate with him, and tell him what was going on you know?

Plus, I want to volunteer at the deaf school here where I live so this is my goal to learn ASL and deaf culture.
 
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