NEW YORK (New York Times) - Pushing science’s limits in sign language lexicon. Imagine trying to learn biology without ever using the word “organism.” Or studying to become a botanist when the only way of referring to photosynthesis is to spell the word out, letter by painstaking letter.
For Deaf students, this game of scientific password has long been the daily classroom and laboratory experience. Words like “organism” and “photosynthesis” to say nothing of more obscure and harder-to-spell terms have no single widely accepted equivalent in sign language. This means that Deaf students and their teachers and interpreters must improvise, making it that much harder for the students to excel in science and pursue careers in it.
“Often times, it would involve a lot of finger-spelling and a lot of improvisation,” said Matthew Schwerin, a physicist with the Food and Drug Administration who is Deaf, of his years in school. “For the majority of scientific terms,” Mr. Schwerin and his interpreter for the day would “try to find a correct sign for the term, and if nothing was pre-existing, we would come up with a sign that was agreeable with both parties.” Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/science/sign-language-researchers-broaden-science-lexicon.html
Iowa State Daily - Deaf with a capital 'D' In today’s world, being politically correct is often hard to do without offending someone. However, for the Deaf with a capital “D” community, phrases and even capitalization or noncapitalization of the word “deaf” can make a huge difference.
Jonathan Webb, American Sign Language instructor and interpreter, explained that if someone is “Deaf,” that means they are culturally Deaf.
“Deaf individuals don’t consider themselves as disabled; they see themselves as a cultural and linguistic minority,” Webb said. “They don’t see themselves as a disability group because they have a shared set of values, shared behavioral norms, shared belief system and a shared language.”
Webb explained that asking a deaf person which type of deaf they are is not considered offensive because the ASL language is very direct.
“Asking someone directly, ‘Do you consider yourself lowercase ‘d’ deaf or capital ‘D’ Deaf,’ if they don’t know the difference, if they go, ‘What do you mean?’ then more than likely they are lowercase ‘d’ deaf,” Webb said. Rachel Johnson, a 37-year-old senior in history, has considered herself culturally Deaf all her life... Read more: http://www.iowastatedaily.com/news/article_f9e77d16-1096-11e2-ba6b-0019bb2963f4.html
Vlog in American Sign Language - Exploring power and privilege: Reframing Pledges by Deaf/Coda/Hearing Interpreters. Interpreters from a retreat share their thoughts on the power of reframing.
Rather than attack teachers with blanket statements, which may or may not be justified on a case-by-case basis, it's best that students be directly educated to choose the best ASL teachers.
If you, as a student, would read every Amazon.com review in deciding whether or not to purchase a $10 cookbook, but blindly spend hundreds of dollars on an ASL course you know nothing about, you have to examine your priorities, frankly.
If you want to take ASL and really learn the language, you cannot simply rely on the knowledge of college administrators who hire adjunct instructors. You have to ask people who know much more. The answer may surprise you. The best available teacher might be hearing. But, if that's the case, then I can practically guarantee that your teacher did everything they possibly could to learn directly from the Deaf community. You must accept this path to learning as well.
Don't become discouraged. Learn ASL. But to teach, you absolutely must have skills on par with the best of the best ASL teachers. Would you want anything less to be true of your own teachers?
"Together" Music in ASL. Men and Women, Deaf and Hearing of all Nations and Religions. Speak in one Language, Together. Created by: Sar-el Oren Ohana & Asaf Livni.
I am a hearing ASL teacher, this is my personal opinion of the recent "No Church in the Wild" video posted by 3 hearing ASL students. I apologize for the background noise, I made this video in my classroom. Here is a transcript for the non-ASL community:
Hello, I'm Katie (my sign name). I teach ASL.
I wanted to comment about a video I recently watched , "No Church In The Wild (Sign Language)". That video is NOT sign language. Honestly, I would use that video to show my students what NOT to do when signing music.
Now, I don't want to insult the three boys in the video. I think it's really cool you enjoy and want to sign music. I think it's awesome that you are so motivated, and I encourage you to continue improving your skills. Socialize with the Deaf community, get involved, learn, and gain experience from signing masters. I think it's awesome!
BUT... your current video is lousy. You have "dead faces"... no facial expressions or body moments, no grammatical structure... it's like you just randomly grabbed words out of thin air. Your video isn't clear, either.
Honestly, that video would be very embarrassing for an ASL teacher. And embarrassing for hearing people. I'm hearing. I would never take advantage of the Deaf community, of their language and culture, like you did. I'm sorry, but you took advantage of them, and that's not appropriate.
I encourage you to continue to improve yourselves, and I promise you, 10 years from now, you'll look back at your "No Church for the Wild (Sign Language)" video and be embarrassed of yourselves, too.
Video for the National Association for the Deaf in captioned.
A project created for my Strategic Presentations class at Rutgers University. Thank you to all those we interviewed. Stock footage and sound given credit at end of video. Music: Remember Me as a Time of Day - Explosions in the Sky.
Video: 'No Church in the Wild' ASL video: Under fire for major mistake.
After a video publication, the articles on the internet was met with a strong reaction from the ASL-speaking community. Many members of the community have objected to the video on the grounds that it features incomprehensible signs.
Numerous Deaf people of the community finds quite interesting the hot debate about the mistake and nonsense of the music in American Sign Language videos in these days.
Mark Nakhla's ASL video is the worst since as similar in the hearies world refered "Rebecca Black's "Friday" Music Video" the worst music video of the century... anyway, back to the ASL issue, a music ASL video that Deaf people as native ASL users barely unable to understand the dudes sign language amateurs are now under fire a horrbile ASL, which is completely different than signs in a signed language, we only see thier gestures.
Signing these dudes claimed that they used ASL to interpret the song of a video which expert ASL teaching consultant saying that it confused alot of Deaf people who watched this. Mark Nakhla's video.
No Church In The Wild - JAY-Z & Kanye West (Captions/Sign Language)
***Disclaimer: We are hearing college students that have taken 2 years of ASL. This video combines sign and dancing in order to creatively express the song in a new manner.***
Last a few weeks ago, Sir Paul McCartney just released a music ASL video for "My Valentine" - Featuring Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp in which a video was under fire for major mistake for flubbing a few wrong gestures. Signing tampon instead of appear and enemy instead of valentine. A rep for the British Deaf Association says It would have been nice if genuine Deaf people had been used. However, this video clip is only for American Sign Language, not for British Sign Language.
After a video publication, the articles was met with a strong reaction from the ASL-speaking community. Many members of the community have objected to the video on the grounds that it features incomprehensible signs.
Many numerous of the Deaf people finds and feels offensive by the hearing people claimed that they used ASL to interpret the song of the videos for the hearing impairment, somewhat, this is a saddening testimony to how ignored and oppressed the Deaf Community.
However, Deaf bloggers/vloggers finds quite interesting the hot debate about the mistake and nonsense of the music American Sign Language videos these days as you can check out the published of the articles and videos on Mark Nakhla's music ASL video: No Church in the Wild ASL Video -huffingtonpost.com
Video Description of American Sign Language Facts - American Sign Language Teaching: On behalf of the Deaf community. American Sign Language facts and researched facts about ASL.
Video: Documentary Film: 'A Sign of Respect' in captioned.
In this interactive DVD, you will follow Amy Walker, who is beginning her study of ASL and Deaf Culture. As she attends events in the Deaf community and begins to interact with Deaf people, she faces situations where she needs to decide how to behave in the most culturally appropriate way. You will decide along with her what she should do.
This DVD is available from http://www.TreeHouseVideo.com. It's a "Textbook on DVD" for Deaf Culture classes. The DVD comes with the video program and the 92-page Workbook in pdf format.
Thomas Holcomb, the narrator, appears after each answer selection to give you feedback on your selected course of action.
The program features:
Interactive lessons to develop culturally appropriate behavior with Deaf individuals. 18 potentially awkward situations are presented with three possible solutions for each scenario.
Reading materials on the history of Deaf community events. Worksheets to compare Deaf culture with American mainstream "hearing" culture.
Reaction sheets to help your students process their feelings about attending Deaf community events. Exercises to encourage your students to develop the right attitude about Deaf culture.
Tips on how to locate appropriate Deaf community events to attend, how to meet Deaf people, and how to initiate and develop friendships with Deaf individuals. Opportunities to increase awareness of the following features of ASL: listing, fingerspelling, repetition, and backchannelling. Filmmaker by deafculturethat.
Learn about Deaf people and their culture video in American Sign Language.
Learn and improve your ASL while learning about the people who use it! Deaf Culture Autobiographies show you some of the leaders in the Deaf community who said so much... without uttering a word! Want to be an interpreter?
Learn from one of the best. Lou Fant interprets this one. If you'd like to see more of this or other DVDs from Sign Enhancers... www.SignEnhancers.com OR you can see sign language instructional videos online and on demand! www.SignEnhancersOnDemand.com
Video: Interpreters In Training in ASL/subtitled - The first sitcom in American Sign Language. Thanks Helping Hands ASL for the upload! Great concept... so funny! "What are stocks?" There needs to be shows like this on TV for the ASL world!
NEW YORK (New York Times) - Pushing science’s limits in sign language lexicon. Imagine trying to learn biology without ever using the word “organism.” Or studying to become a botanist when the only way of referring to photosynthesis is to spell the word out, letter by painstaking letter.
