Who's learned it? How hard is it to master?

I think I'm going to resolve to learn Japanese Sign Language (JSL), just because it's fucking cool as shit.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E6%89%8B%E8%A9%B1

See also
http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Orange_Days
http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Kimi_No_Te_Ga_Sasayaite_Iru

1/25/2008 10:33:33 PM

My girlfriend's an ASL interpreter. I'll see if I can trick her into posting here.

1/25/2008 10:36:47 PM

oh plz do.

1/25/2008 10:40:36 PM

p.s. If you ever wondered why not to fuck with deaf people, read this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaf_President_Now

Basically, the students Gallaudet University laid siege to their own fucking school to get the board to hire a deaf President.

1/25/2008 10:45:37 PM

my youtube crush:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eATPkmQJMwM

*swoon*

1/25/2008 10:47:51 PM

just learn karate. its the same damn thing

1/25/2008 11:25:53 PM

I have a feeling there's a Chuck Norris joke about this.

1/25/2008 11:28:08 PM

Quote :

"Basically, the students Gallaudet University laid siege to their own fucking school to get the board to hire a deaf President."

if we did that at ncsu you know rpd would love to gas everyone

1/26/2008 12:23:44 AM

i used to be proficient enough to converse with deaf strangers, not just my relatives... but not well enough to know the symbols and tricks and shortcuts real well

learning the alphabet isnt hard at all, its just 26 letters...so once you got those, you are basically on your way. the problem is practicing, you really need a devoted partner or other deaf person that you can work with frequently to learn it

but then again thats more or less the same for any new language

eh

1/26/2008 2:07:38 AM

[user]icansign2[/user]

I LOVE watching ppl talk and sign at the same time. It's much easier to pick up little bits than another language with subtitles or something.

1/26/2008 11:14:30 AM

I started to learn it to impress a deaf girl I was interested in, but the time I was putting in to learn became a hindrance. She was impressed anyway.

[Edited on January 27, 2008 at 3:41 AM. Reason : and one day I'll pick it back up.]

1/27/2008 3:40:47 AM

i never understood why sing language wasnt universal

1/27/2008 3:42:03 AM

^ there is a long answer to this question.

One part of it is that from country to country, it's not that different. And even for a single language there can be different forms that serve different purposes.

But ask someone who knows their shit better than me.

1/27/2008 10:43:32 AM

Woman I used to employee is doing sign language for guilford county schools now, apparently she's pretty good at it

1/27/2008 11:11:49 AM

Quote :

"i never understood why sing language wasnt universal"

Sign languages aren't universal for the same reason that spoken and written languages aren't universal.

I mean, unless you're into esperanto or something.

2/1/2008 11:27:09 PM

Can't be too hard if my 1 yr. old cousin (who's NOT deaf) can learn it all.

2/2/2008 2:21:44 AM

if i have kids i want to raise them on sign language.

that would be so cool.

2/4/2008 9:37:28 PM

The sign for "older brother" is apparently flipping the bird.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CFljDwHwpk&feature=user

fucking hilarious.

2/10/2008 8:30:07 PM

i lol'd

2/10/2008 11:11:40 PM

hahahahha

[Edited on February 11, 2008 at 8:33 AM. Reason : "brothers"]

2/11/2008 8:32:59 AM

Yeah, it is. Like during Christmas, my mama was holding him and he started moving like he wanted to get down, and then he did the "hungry" signal and his mama saw him so she took him upstairs to feed him without interrupting the big dinner prayer. It is really awesome.

2/11/2008 11:20:35 PM

I'm taking my first ASL class with a friend tomorrow.

This is gonna unlock a whole new way of making fun of people right under their noses.

[Edited on February 11, 2008 at 11:51 PM. Reason : 2]

2/11/2008 11:51:17 PM

I had a dance teacher growing up who did sign language for major concerts. He was amazing at it- could sign to the music and what not.

2/12/2008 5:57:48 PM

sometimes I'm fucking mesmerized by people doing that. It's like miming basically. But the movements are so expressive, but yet at the same time, I have no idea what they're saying. It's just one of those things that you can get in a locked stare. amazed and clueless.

2/12/2008 6:31:54 PM

is it true kids can understand/learn/communicate with sign language well before they can speak well?

2/12/2008 6:33:29 PM

This is what I hear, if that make it believable to you, lol. I might check the internets for something on this later.

2/12/2008 7:16:01 PM

^^ Sure is. And where have YOU been???

2/13/2008 12:46:25 PM

I took sign language as an elective in 4th grade. I still remember the alphabet and some common words.

It was pretty easy to learn and it's stuck with me all these years.

2/13/2008 1:00:54 PM

I hate those sign language cards that lazy deaf people try to sell.

2/13/2008 1:41:05 PM

learning the alphabet sounds boring.

i want to skip to the cool stuff.

2/13/2008 5:47:45 PM

^ You need to learn it anyways for words which there isn't a sign.

I still remember how to sign my name and that was about all I'd ever learned.
5 minutes of sign stayed with me longer than 3 years of french class.

I should learn American Sign Language or maybe German if i ever learn the latter as a language. That would be SO cool.

2/14/2008 3:13:43 PM

my high school was big and happened to be the hub for deaf kids in the area (back in california) so it offered sign languange as language classes... but they didn't count as your required language classes. if it did, i would have taken it, but instead i got french

2/14/2008 5:01:28 PM

^^ I know I'll get it eventually, but there's more for Japanese

http://youtube.com/watch?v=koeb9zKCges

I wouldn't have a shot at this without youtube...

2/14/2008 9:42:07 PM