ASL Fingerspelling with non-dominant hand?

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becksalottery

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Okay, so firstly, hi everyone :) Consider this my virgin post, haha. I stumbled on to you guys after trying to google this info, so forgive me if I stand out like a fly in a punchbowl, I'm new! :wave:

I am hearing, but (hopefully) I'm going to RIT next fall (2014, to major in advertising photography & minor in French) and because of the deaf/hoh culture there, I would really love to become somewhat proficient in ASL ahead of time. I've taught myself some basic vocabulary and to fingerspell, but one of the things I'm having a problem with is the fact that while I am right handed, I was injured pretty badly at fourteen, which resulted in a mild loss of flexibility in those fingers and pretty gnarly tendonitis of that wrist. As a result, my right hand gets tired easy and is prone to some fairly brutal inflammation when over used. I've found that I can make neater signs when finger spelling with my left hand, but I don't know if that's acceptable, even though I'm right handed, and am right hand dominant for other signs? Would it be understood, or would it get made fun of?

Wow, holyrunonparagraph batman. Sorry! /end ramble.
 
It's fine if you want to spell with your left hand, as long as you are consistent and don't try switching hands midstream.
 
Bottesini said:
It's fine if you want to spell with your left hand, as long as you are consistent and don't try switching hands midstream.
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Thanks! I had read that it was OK for lefties to spell with their left hand, but I didn't know if it would look stupid or anything being otherwise right handed.
 
You can learn a lot but probably won't be fluent in ASL in a little over a year that takes years of learning and practice. And it doesn't matter if someone is left or right handed really its what's easier for them to sign with. I'm left handed but my dominant hand is the right for signing.
 
ncff07 said:
You can learn a lot but probably won't be fluent in ASL in a little over a year that takes years of learning and practice. And it doesn't matter if someone is left or right handed really its what's easier for them to sign with. I'm left handed but my dominant hand is the right for signing.
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Oh of course!! When I say proficient, I only mean that I want to be able to carry on simple conversations (Hi, how are you, what's your favorite color, etc). I've taken French for three years and I'm still not fluent, I certainly don't expect that for ASL! I only want to be able to efficiently sign things like "I'm sorry!" if I literally run into a deaf/hoh student (I'm basically the living equivalent of what happens when a tornado meets a volcano, my depth of field sucks-- I bowl people over and run into doors constantly!) in the quads.
 
"I'm sorry" is an easy one ... look up lifeprint.com its what a lot use to learn some.
 
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