Southern

I really do and this I think has caused me not to do well with it, which makes me hate it worse. It is a vicious cycle. I have a very large vocabulary, I love words but I am a horrible speller, I always have been. I have to really think some times on how a word is spelled or memorize it a certain way so I spell it correctly. Another problem is that if a hearing person were to vocally spell a word…. Say “discontented” I would have to have them repeat it over and over before I got it. I know the word, and use it. But that part of my brain just doesn’t work well for some reason. Ggggrrrrr. Any tips on how to improve? I used to take the fingerspelling quizzes on aslpro.com everyday during lunch but now my schedule has changed and I cannot do that. It helped a little. Blah I wish I was a better speller.

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Ariakkas

my advice, would be to stop fingerspelling so much. your english vocabulary means very little in ASL. Same with your english vocab means little if you were speaking german.

sign what the word means, not the word itself.


Also, if your unsure of how to spell a word, spell it phonetically, thats is, spell it how it sounds.

or, if its a long word, start with what you know, then do the "fingerspell" sign(finger wiggle) and trail off, if they dont understand, then explain what the word means. they should be able to piece together what you mean.

French Deaf Boy

I hope that you will not look at my words: I am French... My English is perhaps not terrible, but I test my better... :eek: :ugh3:

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Southern

Well I mean for words you have to fingerspell, like names of people or places. Sometimes there isn’t a sign and you have to fingerspell it. Also while I communicate quite well with my friends and we talk about everything under the sun there are signs I don’t know so I have to fingerspell it. Or if I come across a new sign, (new to me), then what it means has to be fingerspelled. I just used “discontented” as an example. New sign last night was “probation” which was fingerspelled 3 times before I finally got it. Certain words I get immediately for some reason or spell super fast like “digital” I love fingerspelling that word because I spell it both correctly and super fast!!

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Ariakkas

i believe the sign for probation, is the same as "warning". tapping back of your opposite hand.

there really isn't any tricks, that i know of anyway, for helping in this situation, other than working on your spelling. If i were in your situation, i would either a)suffer till i got better, or b)change the way i am signing. for example(made up sentence)

"Yeah Bob got arrested, he was out in 3 days but hes on probation for 2 years."

if i didn't know the sign for probation, and didn't want to try fingerspelling it, i would change the sentence to say:

"Yeah Bob got arrested, he was out in 3 days but now he has to check in with the cops once a month for the next 2 years."

you may think this is silly, but ive done it, and still do it. same as you, expressive fingerspelling is my achille's heel as well, only spelling isn't my problem, its fingerspell in a way other people can understand. I fingerspell too fast and sloppy, older Deaf or fully Deaf understand me, but Hoh, oral, or new singers tend to miss what i say quite often.(please noone who is oral or Hoh get offended by that comment, it was a generalization)

As for names and places, your kinda stuck heh. Try and learn signs for them, such as cities, restraunts, grocery stores etc sometimes have local signs used by the community in the area, so ask.

Southern

That doesn't sound silly at all, i reconstruct my sentences all the time now and it is becoming automatic. This is my work around for the signs i don't know. But some one was signing "probation" to me and then they had to fingerspell it's meaning. There is still a lot of signs i don't know, but yes you are right on how to sign it. yeah i am just suffering through it right now, and others are suffering right along with me! LOL

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Hear Again

Southern,

When I learned fingerspelling, my sign language instructor encouraged me to think about letter combinations and the way they are formed. You might want to start with small combinations of letters like "c-a-t" and then work your way up to longer words. Spell the word over and over to yourself while pronouncing it. (Don't say individual letters. Say the entire word.) Practice using names of family members and cities. Every now and then spell the sentence "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs." (Notice how this sentence uses each letter of the alphabet at least once.)

You might also try videotaping yourself with a camcorder or web cam. Write a long list of words that are of interest to you. Then sit down in front of a camcorder/web cam and spell the words one at a time leaving a short break between words. After a few days, play back the video and test yourself. Write down the fingerspelled words. Then get out your original list and compare to see how well you did. Keep making videos and testing yourself until you are comfortable with your fingerspelling speed.

A third suggestion is to practice with a Deaf friend. Close your eyes and have them fingerspell into your hand while you sign or fingerspell the word back to him/her.

One final suggestion (which one of my sighted Deaf friends told me about) is that you can set up your chat room to use fingerspelled letters instead of print letters. (The name of this font is called "Gallaudet font.") Use a search program like Google to find the font on the Internet, download it onto your computer and use the preferences option of your chat program to choose a fingerspelling font/size.

Additional suggestions:

* Fingerspell what you hear while listening to a newscast or TV program.

* Practice fingerspelling the alphabet, names and/or places with both hands simultaneously.

Hope these suggestions help!

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LuciaDisturbed

My sign for probation is like the sign for "plumbing", but upright.

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DeviantArt

Southern

Wow good suggstions hear again! Thanks!!

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RDC_girl

Southern I used to HATE fingerspelling. For me it was just a practice thing. I find I am quite receptive when it comes to fingerspelling but doing it myself, my hands just dont move that fast.

Now when I am on the bus home from University I sit there and spell all the names of the stores. Another practice technique is to fingerspell while you are talking. Trying to keep up with yourself is hard at first but great practice. When I first started I had to talk VERY slow but now I talk at a normal pace and can fingerspell it all, Well that is if my hands are not cold HAHAHA.

It just takes practice, and I am the worlds worst speller!

Interpretrator

When someone fingerspells to you, don't spell out each letter in your head. Sound them out. So if someone spells A-M-A-N-D-A, don't think "ay em ay en dee ay," think "ahh-mmm-ahh-nn-dd-ahh." It's not a perfect system (you'll be thinking "tuh-huh" for a while before you get used to seeing "TH") but it's far better than trying to read fingerspelling like a written word.

When you are fingerspelling to someone else, visualize the word in your head before spelling it and keep it there while you are spelling it.

And crossword puzzles are the best way to practice fingerspelling cloze skills.

Taric25

Interpretrator,

Thanks! Your suggestion helped me fingerspell A–M–A–N–D–A much better. Take a look!
A–M–A–N–D–A on

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Mr. Taric Sam Alani

Hear Again

What do you mean by "cloze skills?" Sorry, I don't understand...

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What is bipolar disorder?
What are the different types of bipolar disorder?

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shel90

Southern,

When I first learned ASL, fingerspelling was the toughest skill for me both receptive and expressive. Finally after 6 years of being immersed in ASL, fingerspelling is easy for me now. Guess it takes time and practice.

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~Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

shel90

Southern,

When I first learned ASL, fingerspelling was the toughest skill for me both receptive and expressive. Finally after 6 years of being immersed in ASL, fingerspelling is easy for me now. Guess it takes time and practice.

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~Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

dracotkk

I've known fingerspelling all my life, but i never used it till this past summer. I was at a d/hh college prep for 2 weeks straight. I had plenty of time ofcorse, but i just set aside a little of the day to fingerspell whatever i could. I even practice when i read a sign on the road while driving down the highway.

Take a piece of paper with a bunch of writing on it. Go through it letter per letter. Even just one time. It'll help ya. Just stick with it. I'm alot better than I was back then.

rabbit

Yeah fingerspelling is indeed very hard to learn (especially on the receiving end)... I guess it just takes a ton of practice and seeing people do it enough... when it comes to understanding it, it definitely helps to know the context of the conversation first. But when it comes to spelling yourself I guess the only thing you can do is practice practice practice... I sometimes will read and spell every word and try to do it as clearly and accurately as possible... remember a fast fingerspeller isn't necessarily a good one. It does stink when you can't spell good to begin with, I encountered that problem too... to learn how to fingerspell you need to know how to spell first LOL,

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Interpretrator

Hey neat, I only know the vowels in BSL.

Cloze = figuring out what's missing. (Used in various contexts, like a cloze activity in a language class.)

When you see P_N_UIN in a crossword puzzle you can figure out that the word is PENGUIN. That skill transfers to receptive fingerspelling, where a lot if not most of the time you're going to miss a letter or two. So doing crosswords can improve receptive fingerspelling, as well as vocabulary, spelling, trivia, all kinds of things interpreters need to be good at.

Southern

Good suggestions all. And thinking of AMANDA the way you suggested, (the sound the letter makes instead of the sound of the letter name), really helped when I fingerspelled it. I am waiting for that click that happened with typing. I used to type with one finger per hand and think of how a word is spelled. Now I just think of the word and my fingers automatically go to the keys without me thinking about it. I used to fingerspell all the time in church and was very good at it, both receptive and expressive. I wish my brain would just go back and access that knowledge. If I could still do the fingerspelling quizzes on aslpro.com at lunch that would help. Cloze is a new term for me, but your explanation I understand and do. I also do that with signs I don’t know. I infer from the context of the sentence or conversation what is meant. If I really don’t undy then I ask.

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Interpretrator

That technique is actually for RECEPTIVE fingerspelling. It will mess you up when you're doing the fingerspelling since sounds and spelling in English are not related and you can end up spelling things wrong.

To recap:

When someone is fingerspelling to you, "read" the sounds, not the letters.

When you are fingerspelling, visualize the spelling before and while you spell the word.

Tousi

Is there such a term as "syllabic fingerspelling".......can we "coin" it as it relates here?

Taric25

I wouldn't go coining a term.

日本手話 (Nippon Shuwa (Japanese Sign Language {JSL}) uses 指文字 (Yubi Moji [literally "Finger Letters" {"Japanese Sign Language syllabary"}]) . This is because Japanese Language uses syllables, not letters.

We also have a way of representing English Spoken Language with syllables by using phonemes: Cued Speech. Because Cued Speech is dependant on the language cued, it is not its own language. Thus, Hearing cuers who cue between Hearing speakers and Deaf and Hard–of–Hearing cuers are not interpreters, and they are not translators. They are transliterators.

Cued Speech can be adapted to any language, and Japanese is no exception with Japanese Cued Speech. Japanese Cued Speech is different from 指文字.

As far as improving receptive fingerspelling by interpreting letters as phonemes (sounds), you would need a lot of practice to receive words as phonemes such as "D–E–E–P T–R–E–A–S–U–R–E" to "d ee p t r e zh ur".

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Interpretrator

Yes, it definitely takes practice, and it is by far a more effective way to receive fingerspelling. The problem is at first of course you're reading "tree-ay-sur-ee," but eventually you learn to recognize patterns of letters.

I became much better at receptive fingerspelling when I learned this technique, but it has left me with a residual habit of mouthing slightly when someone fingerspells names and other out-of-context terms to me. People seem to prefer my mouthing to their having to fingerspell something two or three times before I get it though.

SpaceyUFO

Grins New Zealand Sign Language use both hands to make alphabet and I don't have any problems using fingerspelling. I find using ASL alphabet are harder cos i have to try to make it faster but still not good. I have to do fingerspell it slowly. But opposite, I use my hands to fingerspell really faster.

jasin

I can fingerspell pretty well after just two years of asl. My problem is I can't read what is fingerspelt to well. I guess it's different for everyone when it comes to fingerspelling.