I am having trouble understanding fast fingerspelling

ha ha ha, You are so funny Ms Jay. I am glad you went to Gallaudet University that is the best place for you to mingle with many Deafies. Thats the best change you have now. ;)

Interpretrator, ;)

I rather to make sure I read the right spelling word that they spelled it out. Because I want to spell it right instead of mispelled words for the vocabulary. It s important to do this.

In other hands, some deaf people have the vision problem. So thats reasonable for them to repeat their fingerspells.

Thanks!
Sweetmind
 
Sweetmind said:
I rather to make sure I read the right spelling word that they spelled it out. Because I want to spell it right instead of mispelled words for the vocabulary. It s important to do this.
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Yes, that is also sometimes a problem in understanding fingerspelling. I have had students fingerspell what looks like complete gibberish to me and then get very frustrated when I don't understand them. It turns out they had the spelling completely, and I mean COMPLETELY, wrong. I'm pretty good at figuring out what they mean if a few letters are reversed, especially when there's context, but there's only so much I can do.

If it's desperately important that the fingerspelled word be understood, sometimes a good last resort is to fingerspell along with the deaf person, copying each letter. It may help make that word "click," especially if it's been misspelled. Certainly I really try to avoid this as an interpreter but in conversation it's sometimes necessary, especially if it's the name of a city I'm not familiar with. (If it makes you feel bad, consider that if it were an English conversation with a hearing person you might well ask that person to repeat what they said a few times and then spell it!)
 
Three C's
Configuration
Understanding a fingerspelled word by shape.
Focus on seeing the word as a whole unit. For example, there's lots of shape change in the fingerspelled word LAWYER. It will be easier to read compared to the fingerspelled word SEAT, which does not have much shape change.

Closure
Understanding a fingerspelled word by filling in the missing letters.
We use our knowledge of the English language to fill in the blanks. An example of this is, if a person fingerspelled a word to you and you only caught the letters--elphnt, by using your knowledge of the English language you could make closure and fill in the missing letters, thus understanding the word "elephant". We do this all the time when we read misspelled English words. Our brain makes closure automatically. We tend to panic when we don't catch every letter, but every letter is really not necessary. Read the whole word as a unit, just as you read a printed word.

Context
Understanding a fingerspelled word by using conversational clues.
When you see a fingerspelled word always keep in mind the topic of conversation. This is what I call active fingerspelling. So, back to the earlier example, if someone was signing about their visit to the zoo, and you saw the fingerspelled word--elphnt, you could use the conversational clue of a visit to the zoo to help you make closure and figure out the word.


one last thing and it doesnt start with 'c' which is anticipation.
 
Interpretrator said:
Yes, that is also sometimes a problem in understanding fingerspelling. I have had students fingerspell what looks like complete gibberish to me and then get very frustrated when I don't understand them. It turns out they had the spelling completely, and I mean COMPLETELY, wrong. I'm pretty good at figuring out what they mean if a few letters are reversed, especially when there's context, but there's only so much I can do....
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Oh, yes! I know exactly what you mean. :P
 
Simple... If they signed their names too fast for me and my eyes to see, I'll ask them to repeat it SLOW. :giggle:
 
I've resigned myself to the fact that I will probably never be a fast fingerspeller, expressively or especially receptively, because I could never spell quickly in English. I hated spelling bees and other times when I had to spell words out loud. I had to break the word down syllable by syllable, and try to spell it that way. "Continue" would come out "con, c-o-n-, tin, t-i-n, ue, u-e." And my husband could never spell things to me when we were trying to keep info from the kids; I'd get the first 2 or 3 letters, then everything would start getting jumbled together, and my brain would freeze. I'm an excellent speller as long as I write the word down, but my brain just isn't wired to allow for doing it mentally.
 
Demise said:
Simple... If they signed their names too fast for me and my eyes to see, I'll ask them to repeat it SLOW. :giggle:
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I might do that with most Deaf people but probably not when practicing with my fiancee because I don't want to keep asking people to slow down.
 
Demise said:
Simple... If they signed their names too fast for me and my eyes to see, I'll ask them to repeat it SLOW. :giggle:
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hi, my name J........ A........ N........ E......... last name D....... O........E........ :lol:
 
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