ASL Lesson 5: Sentences to tell a story/situation

All of these are linked for you at

www.adeafinthefamily.com

Review:

Here is the sentence structure (again) in ASL:

TIME + SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT + ADJECTIVE

Activity 1:

Putting sentences together in ASL is like creating a map.

Object

Situation

Action

End Result

Here is our map and our story:

I am a priest in a situation. I am passing the sacrament.

First I go to pick up the bread.  Then I pass the bread to the congregation.

When I reach the back and everyone is served, I am finished.

Activity 2:

Now lets have some fun!!

As a speaker of ASL, you will have to learn to tell stories with your body, the signs that you know, and a translation of the words in English into ASL.  Not all words will be easy to translate, or will directly translate.  Knowing about the topic can lend clarity to your story in ASL and help lend to understanding. Watch as he sets up the ASL Sentences in TIME and also the SPACES for the objects in the story.

Translations of Star Spangled Banner in ASL Explained

Sometimes the definition and the meaning of the song story can be better explained / portrayed through ASL because it portrays the concepts and diverts our brains (as hearing people) away from the “words.”  Take this rendition of the National Anthem:

Troy Kotsur performs the national anthem in ASL at Super Bowl LVII Feb. 12 2023

Have you EVER had someone EXPLAIN to you the National Anthem in this way?  Does it not convey, perfectly, what the writer was trying to say?  There is no doubt that the interpreter here (who is an actor, so he already knows how to move you), did a little research on the national anthem, so he is both educating you about what he learned while trying to convey it in the “pictures” we talked about in Lesson 1.

Homework:


Now you try to tell a story (or look one up).  In our lessons in Come Follow Me, there are many parables, because Jesus commonly taught with parables. Parables are simple stories with deep meanings.

There are stories that will be easy to translate because they have simple concepts (think of the parable of the lost sheep) and you will just translate it by telling the story with your hands – a group of sheep, and one goes off. 

The Lost Sheep

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/new-testament-stories/the-first-parable-the-lost-sheep?lang=ase

Other stories are more complicated.

Titanic – ABC Story

Can you tell a story about yourself in ASL?  Something that happened to you recently or a place you visited?

ASL Lesson 4: Making a Sentence

Review:

Now you know some basics: Men/Women/Occupation/Places – You’ll need some verbs to make a sentence.

In ASL verbs  show the action of the verb you are explaining it and in the direction the verb indicates.

First 100 Verbs in ASL with captions

Remembering the sentence structure

TIME + SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT + ADJECTIVE

And using the words you have learned, make a sentence.

Important words and phrases:

Who? (both old and newer) WHO • ASL Dictionary (handspeak.com)

Where? American Sign Language ASL Video Dictionary – where (signasl.org)

Why? WHY • ASL Dictionary (handspeak.com)

What? WHAT • ASL Dictionary (handspeak.com)

25 Common ASL Phrases | ASL Basics | American Sign Language for Beginners

How are you?

Nice to meet you.

Where is the (—-Place—)?

Please.

Thank You

You’re Welcome

Sorry

Excuse me

Yes

No

My name is ____

Who are you?

Nice to meet you

Homework:

This is a great video for beginning words: The Creation of the Earth (churchofjesuschrist.org)

Practice making some sentences.  Try to use PLACES and OCCUPATIONS from Lesson 3, remember  spatial orientation and:

TIME + SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT + ADJECTIVE

Another video to use:

One of the most important things to communicate for hearing and deaf alike are places.  Places you need to find or places you need to get to.  What places did you see in your review of the video homework?

In this talk President Nelson talks about some important places: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/04/47nelson?lang=ase

Can you pick out these signs?

Room:

World:

Church:

Home:

Work:

Ward:

Internet (online):

Hospital:

City:

ASL Lesson 3: Places and Spatial Orientation

Review:

In the video we reviewed in Lesson 1&2 (Alma the Younger) the story is told about Alma and his son, Alma the Younger, along with Mosiah and his four sons.  Notice how the interpreter refers to them using different places and always the same signs to refer to the people she “put” in those places.

If you remember in Lesson 1 the idea about painting a picture, it is important that while you are signing, you remember where you signed the people and places you are telling the story (painting the picture) about.

Activity 1:

Time –

How to Sign Time in ASL | Number Series

Spatial Orientation regarding Time:

For signs about time, remember that spatial orientation forward and backward indicates future and past.  Year, Month, Week, even life – family, history, future, past, time, era, etc they are all space oriented signs with regards to time periods.  The past is always toward your back and the future is always away from your body.

Week: https://www.handspeak.com/word/2370/

The sign for LAST week, is this same sign, but going toward your back over your shoulder.

The sign for NEXT week, is the same sign, but going forward away from your body.

The same for YEAR and MONTH

Activity 2:

Watch Lehi’s Dream and see how the Interpreter gives the sign for TREE and FRUIT, then she signs the RIVER next to it.  Then the interpreter shows the sign for the BUILDING.  Notice all the places Lehi sees in this dream remain in the same Spatial Orientation during the interpretation.

TREE – https://www.handspeak.com/word/2264/

FRUIT – Fruit and Vegetables | ASL – American Sign Language

RIVER – https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/r/river.htm

BUILDING- https://www.signingsavvy.com/sign/BUILDING/776/1

PLACE – AREA-[place]

Places around town:

Learn How to Sign Places Around the Town in ASL

Homework:

Study these verbs:

First 100 Verbs in ASL with captions

And get ready to make sentences.

Just for fun:

Watch this ASL video telling the myth of Perseus and Medusa.  Notice how the storyteller keeps her spatial orientation for the people and the hero. Perseus and Medusa What are some signs you recognize? Notice the signs for Man and Woman?  Perseus was a HANDSOME man.  Medusa was a NOT beautiful woman with snakes for hair. 

Resources:

LDS ASL Dictionary: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/dictionary-of-church-terms-in-american-sign-language/dictionary-of-church-terms-in-american-sign-language?lang=ase

Book of Mormon Stories in ASL: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/book-of-mormon-stories?lang=ase

ASL Lesson 2: Man, Woman and People

Review:

Signifying of male and female in ASL is most often associated with areas on your head/face. In the last lesson, you saw the video of the Sons of Alma and Mosiah. The sign for son starts at the top of the head. The sign Father starts at the top of the face. This is the area you sign many other male oriented signs like Uncle, Cousin (male), grandfather, boy, etc. The signs for female are at the bottom of the face. Mother, Daughter, Aunt, cousin (female), grandmother, girl, etc. This is a sort of “rule” for male and female signifying signs.

ACTIVITY 1:

The Family: A Proclamation to the world:

Let’s watch Paragraph two that talks about male and female.

The Family Proclamation (churchofjesuschrist.org)

Start at 1:10 (it says “Paragraph 2” on the bottom left of the screen)

Signing mother – is signed using the #5 sign on your chin
Signing father – is signed using the #5 sign on your forehead
Signing parents – parents is signed as mother and father in a fluid motion
Signing men – men is signed as father and the same #5 sign on your chest in a fluid motion
Signing women – women is signed as mother and the same #5 sign on your chest in a fluid motion

Daughter
Son
Sister
Brother
Grandmother
Grandfather
Aunt
Uncle

Family

When ASL refers to ‘mankind’ or ‘people’ or ‘humans’, the sign is almost always “people” because the CONCEPT (remember that term from lesson 1) is about people. The sign for person is important in the context that every occupation is referred to by giving the action/focus of the job/career and ending with the person sign. Thus a teacher would be a “teach person.” A student would be a “Learn” person.

Home Teacher: https://broadcast-portal.lds.org/asl/dictionary/2013-11-2270-home-teacher-1500k-ase.mp4

Homework:

Unit 10, Talking about Family and Occupation

Home Study (for Next week):

GROUPS of people are often referred to in a GROUP sign. The sign for group is used with the C sign making a circle with both your hands. You can also use the G sign.

https://www.signingsavvy.com/sign/GROUP/1432/1
https://www.signingsavvy.com/sign/group/1432/2

Some signs you can just use the first letter of the word WITH the group sign:

For specific groups, you do the sign for the root word and then the group sign.

Bishopric: https://broadcast-portal.lds.org/asl/dictionary/2013-11-570-bishopric-1500k-ase.mp4
Elders Quorum: https://broadcast-portal.lds.org/asl/dictionary/2013-11-1420-elders-quorum-1500k-ase.mp4

There are signs for ethnicities and specific groups of people that don’t use the GROUP sign but if you are referring to the people, to be clear, you want to use the “group” sign with it, for one specific person, you’d use the people sign:

A San Antonian would be San Antonio followed by the people sign: https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/s/san-antonio.htm#:~:text=American%20Sign%20Language%3A%20%22San%20Antonio,(down%20near%20the%20chin).
Mexican is also the sign for Mexico: https://www.signingsavvy.com/sign/mexican/5100/1

I were telling a story about the Alamo, I’d use the sign for Mexican / Group and Texas / Group to talk about the two armies.

These signs refer to GROUPS OF PEOPLE. If you are referring to people in an area, you use the PEOPLE Sign followed by AREA sign.

AREA: https://www.handspeak.com/word/3180/

Houston Community College Deaf Education Channel:https://www.youtube.com/@MasterASL1234/videos

Beginning ASL: Lesson 1

ASL gets it’s structure from French, because it was adopted originally from French Sign Language.  In French The grammar structure is SUBJECT, VERB, OBJECT – and if the object or subject has an ADJECTIVE, it goes before it.  Similarly, in ASL, the structure is SUBJECT / VERB/ OBJECT – with all ADJECTIVES going after the object or subject it is describing, common in Latin rooted language.  In addition to these rules, ASL uses a TIME reference.  Every ASL without a time reference is regarded as PRESENT TENSE. 

Keep in mind that there are no HARD rules for ASL like there are for French or Spanish.  The point of ASL is communicating a concept and understanding the concept.  Communication is more fundamental to the process than any rule of grammar.

Here are two basic sentence structures in ASL grammar – though there are NO hard rules when it comes to using ASL to communicate (see every movie with ASL ) – but these are the STANDARDS:

TIME + SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT + ADJECTIVE

SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT + ADJECTIVE

In these basic sentence structures:

Time = the tense – if there is no time referenced, assume it is PRESENT

Subject  = the subject of the sentence

Verb = what is being said about the subject.

Object = refers to the subject you are talking about.

Adjective = a descriptor of the Object or Subject

For a standard sentence like: “I pick up my red dog tomorrow.” You would use in the STANDARD ASL, the elements of this sentence are:

Time – tomorrow

Subject – Me / I

Verb – pick up

Object – dog

Adjective – red

You would sign this sentence in ASL as: “Tomorrow me pick up dog red.”  Improper “grammar” is NOT atypical.  So, “me go pick up dog red tomorrow” is also a common way to say the same sentence. 

Remember that the CONCEPT is what’s important, and everyone composes/paints a picture differently.  This means that the sentences formed will vary depending on how fast the person you are communicating with is processing the information.  Pay close attention to body language and facial expressions (both yours and the person you are communicating with) for understanding.  People who were mainstreamed in school (deaf who have gone to a hearing / regular public school) will often use a more English grammar structure.  It’s important to understand the method of communicating in ASL can vary GREATLY from person to person depending on their education level, how and where they learned, method of education, etc. etc.

Summary and giving you permission to ignore everything you just read:

When communicating in ASL, be as clear as possible of the concept and less concerned about the grammar. Think more in “pictures” than in “words.”  You are making a scene with your hands, face and body.  Your EXPRESSION and the picture you are making with your hands and body are what are being conveyed more than any word you are using.  If you have ever seen a storyboard or read a comic book/manga you know that the pictures can be as important, often more important, than the words.  This is true in ASL too.

Activity 1

Look at this picture:

An Angel Appearing to Alma The Younger and the Sons of Mosiah

How would you describe this picture to someone who had never seen it? Let’s translate that into ASL.

HOMESTUDY:

Use the link provided to watch (and listen) to the story in this chapter. See how the signs make pictures and create scenes. We will review it next week and see what you can remember.  Keep an eye out for the signs for men, women and people.

Next Lesson: Men, Women, People

A Deaf in the Family: Dating (pt 2)

I started to take the idea of dating seriously, and tried to be open.

While I was trying to put together in my mind what I wanted from a potential husband (something I never really did when I was young) I kept writing and stayed in contact with most of my family and friends through email, livejournal (the precursor to “blogs”) or instant messaging.

Writing consumed most of my free time at this period in my life. It was a good diversion from feeling sorry for myself, my situation, being angry at the ex, and trying to adjust to being a single mom.  I was delving into scifi, something I hadn’t really done before, and my first serious foray was a short story called: A Rock and a Hard Place. I posted on my livejournal and it went like this:

sky earth space working

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Richard “Rock” Klein

Captain’s Log 14.10.2665

Outside Uranus (isn’t that ironic)

Kerry Portsmith Station

Docking Bay 24

They say space is cold. But it’s not *just* cold. No one has ever really felt how cold it is and lived to tell about it. We know instinctively that anything so vast and so empty must be cold.

The irony is that all the things we spend time with while in space also make us feel cold and empty. We travel in cold metalic ships from cold empty space to cold empty space.

Machines have no disability like perception. Filled with Artificial Intelligence and hundreds of processors heating up their hard drives, they are still only metal and plastic. They don’t care if they sit in space or in a shipyard for twenty years. They do not desire warmth and companionship. They just exist.

If you have one of those new bioships it might feel a little more like a horse than a cold lifeless THING, but in the end, it’s still a machine. It gives out as much personality and intelligence as an animal and it only lives to fill it’s purpose. It knows exactly what it should be and do. There is no goal for a spaceship to one day be a station. It is what it is and will never be more.

We try to fill the spaces with ego or warm it with personality. Those of us who spend so much time in space hardly know what exaggerated bravado is. We believe the lies we tell ourselves. We believe all the fantasies we create about ourselves and the things… and people, we love – or maybe it’s just ‘want.’

I’ve given up trying to tell the difference between love and desire. I just want warmth.

We leave a planet’s atmosphere to be greeted by a sheet of black with pinpricks of light. There is so much empty blackness between each point of light, that space seems cold even without feeling the temperature drop. We spend much of our time trying to make it feel warm and filled.

The ship is cold and empty this morning, but it won’t be tonight. Tonight she comes.

Samantha.

Three years ago she warmed these halls. It was three years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. No one has ever turned me on, out and completely neutroned me like Sam did. We were good. No. That’s a lie. We were slammin’ fantastic. I know how good it can be between a man and a woman.

That’s why I hate her.

You might look at the logs from six years ago and come to the same conclusion I did: She could be a cold hearted bitch.

Still… a cold hearted bitch is better company than an empty starship.

It was just a little story told using the method of narrating from a captain’s journal, but there was a reply from someone who had never replied to my journal before and the comments after the story went like this:

Slyfoot: Hey, I’m a Sci-Fi fan!

You’ve really got me interested in what happens next!

I really am interested, it’s not just ‘coz it’s the polite thing to say.

Me: I believe you. You don’t normally drop me ‘polite’ comments just to tag my LJ, so I appreciate the attention. (and I’m serious about this story, so it’s good to have someone to help me gauge if it’s still interesting).

Slyfoot: Yeah, keep at it! Maybe you’ll be the next Orson Scott Card. 🙂

PS: I have a Star Trek tattoo, too, lol.

Me: Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.

 

Part 3 next week

Part 1 can be found here

Sam’s schizophrenia part 1 here

and part 2 here