When talking about people, places, or things (called referents) that are not visible, these referents need to be "placed" in a virtual space in front of you so you can refer back to them simply by pointing to that space. So if you're talking about your two brothers, you would start by assigning them a space. So you would sign John's name and point slightly to your left, and then sign Jim's name and point slightly to your right. Now whenever you want to say something about one or the other, you would just point to that spot rather than needing to finger spell their names every single time.
PLEASE READ: About my Blog...
I am an ASL student at Algonquin College in Ottawa. The program uses the "Signing Naturally" textbooks, which are really quite difficult to follow. This is where my desire to create this blog came from. I wanted to create a resource that would act as a supplement to the textbook to fill in the blanks, and maybe just explain things in a different way to hopefully help my fellow students. I also wanted this to be helpful to people who want to learn ASL but who don't have the textbooks, so I have tried to re-explain key things from the text.
If you are a student, the posts have been labeled according to the level of ASL and the unit of the book. If you are not using the book but simply want to go through the posts in order, follow the labels entitled "Post".
I have found that there are many different signs that are used, and they vary from person to person, and from teacher to teacher. So I have included any differences I have learned, but this list is by no means comprehensive. I am sure I am not aware of all of the variations, so I have just posted what I know. Please do not use this site to override anything that you know. I am only just learning and am by no means a pro. That said, I am more than happy to hear any comments or suggestions, so please let me know if I have posted anything that is incorrect, or if you would like me to do something differently. This blog is intended to help you, so if there is a way it could be more helpful, I sincerely want to know!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
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thank you thank you thank you sooo much!
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