amylynne

So I had an experience this past week that was sort of exciting for me. Started out with a sad event: a good friend of mine lost a family member and a bunch of us went to the visitation/service/lunch after. I saw friends I haven't seen for a really long time (that's how it always seems to go) and we're sitting around a big table eating and catching up.

So I've just taken a decent-sized bite of food and my friend sitting next to me starts talking about something I really want to chime in on, and there's no way. So I'm sitting there not being able to express myself, and my hands are just screaming at me, they want to say it for me, they keep trying to jump into action. Now to be clear, I'm still very much a beginner, so I wouldn't have been able to say anything eloquently in ASL, but it was exciting to see that I have enough vocabulary that I would have been able to address some of the thoughts that happened to be occurring to me at that moment. But more exciting to me was that I'm immersing in the stuff enough that my hands kept wanting to sort of automatically start talking. I have been trying to think of how I would sign stuff I'm thinking about throughout the day, but this was a first.

It was funny, in the split second it took all that to happen, I realized that no one would understand me - I don't think anyone in this crowd knows ASL. And the physical reaction I had to that thought was that my hands then wanted to try and finger-spell. Which of course my brain had to answer: no, they wouldn't understand that either.

Still a sort of exciting day for me.

(man do I need a practice partner!)

Deafness

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JabberJay

Apparently I started using a hybrid of english and asl syntax while speaking to people this week without even realizing it, and last night during a dnd game I caught myself signing a word because I had a brain fart and couldn't remember what the word was that I wanted but I knew the sign.
The DM made a new rule just for me as well.
When I need to do any sort of calculation I must work it out in sign language, because I am more accurate that way.

I can't hold a conversation or sign a simple sentence because my lack of knowledge but asl is seeping into my brain anyways.

YAY FOR BRAIN SEEPAGE!!!!!

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JanatheShort

Ohhhhhhh this is totally off-topic, but you play D&D??? My husband use to play and I want to try it!! We love games but usually play WOW.

Back on topic: I really hope one day I will be able to use ASL like that.

amylynne

On that topic, Janatheshort, let me know when you want to do some skype!

JabberJay

D&D 3.5, Pathfinder, and old Vampire the Masquerade. I use to play WOW but with the monthly cost I dropped it. The expansion packs plus monthly cost was hard for me to justify since I didn't play much. I found that the table top games force me to socialize more which it a bonus as I am shy away from the computer.

back on topic
I really can't sign well but I seem to be picking up the word order a little easier than the actual signs. I'm jumping back onto life print in a hour or so to try to level myself out.

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JanatheShort

Soon would be great! Did you add me to yours? I didn't see a friend request...

amylynne

I thought so, but I'm a skype newbie, so I"ll fire it up and double check. (checking.)

amylynne

You're in my contact list, your picture is there and everything. I'll stay on for a while, hope you see this, will try to make contact if you log on.

amylynne

I just tried to call, but the call failed.

amylynne

logging out now - this isn't meant as a whine, just reality: waiting wears me out really fast. I hope we can figure out why we can't connect.

JanatheShort

Sorry I was napping and didn't see it. Just message me the next time you see me online, and we can chat!

Cheetah

I believe that speaking and signing take different path in the brain. When what you want to say is better visualized or more of a concept then This is why sometimes signing seems to be easier to say what we want to say. Some people visualize numbers better, Some visualize actions better, some visualize memories better. I think ASL taps into our visual and conceptual parts of our brain better than spoken language does. I think for some of us, we almost need to interpret some thoughts just to be able to put them into speech.

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dogmom

I tend to think in pictures and -of the signs I know - I see them in my mind.
I know I'm not fluent at all, but what ASL I do know comes easier to me than speech-

Mountain Man

My instinct is to use sign in a noisy environment or when the other person is too far away for me to communicate with without shouting or if I'm trying to clarify something that is difficult to put into words. My co-workers don't know sign language, so I get some funny looks.

JabberJay

Even before I started learning asl, I use to "hand talk". My family is well known for waving our arms around when we talk so my family would get it but my friends thought I was insane. lol
Now that I'm learning asl I just try to replace the waving with asl, it works about 50% of the time.
Works well enough that my sister is thinking about learning asl.

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amylynne

I came from an Italian family, so we had alot of that going on too. (Not sure how much of a stereotype that is, but is was true for us anyway.)

ha - sounds like a plan. And 50% isn't too bad, especially when I think of how well communication works even I'm talking in my native language to someone else with the same native language:/

That's great. I wish someone close to me would take an interest. I just want to do it all the time, and end up talking to myself (signing or think-signing to myself). Also badgering people in my life to learn little bits of things.

JabberJay

My mom is interested and so is my sister, my dad is concerned but hasn't shown any action yet

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Grayma

My family likes to play charades a lot. I don't like it, and I have always found that what little ASL vocab I had would seep into my playing.

Cheetah

LOL! me too! especially when I was first learning ASL. I could not for the life of me prevent accidentally signing an ASL word. partially because some signs just make so much sense that it's near impossible not to sign it.

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Speedy Hawk

I have play charades at office xmas lunch and it was hard for me not to sign so we switch to drawing pictures on flip-chart instead. That was fun.

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cayisforgetul

I had a similar situation. My friend was talking to me, and I was drinking something. I so badly wanted to fingerspell my reply because my mouth was busy, but managed to stop myself, because I realized she wouldn't understand.