TED TALK

So, the Ted talk happened and I thought it went quite well! Caroline and I worked very hard on our speech, and it was very exhilarating up on that stage, but it was also EXTREMELY fun. Signing for everyone to show was we have accomplished was so awesome. There was no one that could judge me on my signing, because hey, they couldn't do it.

I think one of the most prominent things I learned throughout this process was that it's impossible to fail. When you fail, you're actually succeeding, because throughout your failures, you learn. And learning leads to success. Passion, drive, and discipline are also key to success.

PASSION- because I'm passionate about it. That's basically it. I WANT to learn. I don't have to, but I WANT to.

DRIVE- the ability to WANT.

DISCIPLINE- The ability to tell myself that I should go practice- even if I would rather be watching modern Family or eating or something like that.

Because sign language is always something that i've wanted to be able to learn. And I have. Not only have I learned signs, but I've learned that i have the capability of doing whatever I want to do, and no one can stop me from doing it.

I would give myself probably a 29/30 because i had a few flaws as I spoke, but I thought our content was pretty on point and we tried to get that point across without boring the audience.

Overall, I loved this project, because  it allowed me to delve deeper into a subject that I don't think I ever would have made time to do without the project. I loved being able to express myself doing something I loved to do.

MY FAVORITE DUDE

                                                                       THIS MAN.
                                                                         That is all.

I honestly couldn't tell you what his name is, or why he made this website, but every single word I could imagine (well, most of them) HE KNOWS IN ASL. It's perfect. 

So, lately, I've been kind of taking a detour from my original plan, and started to attempt to sign as I speak. This has been going well, but you really don't understand the amount of WORDS in a language until you start attempting to speak with your body. For example, I hopped in the car the other day with my mom after lacrosse practice, and started to sign as I talked. I got to my fourth or fifth sentence when I realized that I was talking, but my hands weren't moving. It's SO DIFFICULT to do both! I talk way too fast, which is something I have to work on anyway, but using your hands as well? HARDER THAN YOU THINK. 

BUT

This does help me. By doing this, I can realize the words that I say very often. If I don't know a word (for example, in the car I said "true" about 16 times (yes, I counted), and I didn't know the sign for it, but NOW I DO! Thanks to the guy above! No not, G-d, I mean the one up there in the blue button down and the belt.) 

THINGS I PONDERED

• What happens if your hands are frozen or really cold? (I thought about this after a 20 degree lacrosse practice when I could barely move my fingers)
• At what age do kids start to learn words instead of fingerspelling? 
• Is there a sign for everything? (Actually I kind of figured this out already, there is NOT a sign for every word, which becomes really annoying) 
• There is no sign for the word annoying
• How do you speak sign language if your holding something?
• How much does lip reading play into it? 
• What percent of the deaf can read lips and mouth words as they sign?

I've also been coming to realize that deafness isn't necessarily a disability. Of course, it is in a sense, but in other ways, it can actually be a learning experience. Communication is a huge part of life, and knowing how to do it with your body is an amazing skill. I don't think anyone can truly appreciate it until they have tried it out for themselves. 

VLOG! (:

SIGN2 from Alyssa Ryan on Vimeo.

VIDEO TIME

4 Weeks Down. Instead of telling you what I learned so far, I can show you, since sign language is all about movement and showing. 

Okay, how was it? I know I'm just learning, but I expect myself to pretty much know how to sign those kinds of things (the basic words). As I said in my last blog post, question words are hard to remember and deal with, as they always come after the sentence. Phrases like the ones  showed you are extremely simple. One thing I do wish I had though was the opportunity to watch someone sign very slowly, and with words that I have learned.

The thing I do in the beginning is finger spelling, and I did my name. Finger spelling is the first thing I have learned, and I plan on posting another video about it next week. I've gotten much faster at it, and it's very handy if you don't know what a word is- because you can just spell it.

I hope I taught you something this time around! Sign language is awesome and I love learning it!

~Alyssa

THESE BLOGS. Are awesome.

http://samkesgeniusproject.blogspot.com (Sam)

http://designsbyjennyd.blogspot.com (Jenny)

http://donnasgeniusproject.blogspot.com/(Donna)

http://jennamakesfood.blogspot.com (Jenna)

http://streetdancein7weeks.blogspot.com  (Brianna)

http://igotthemagicdansmoi.blogspot.com/ (Noah)

I'm Having Conversations with Myself..

So this is the third week, and by this point, I wanted to be able to speak basic words, maybe a few phrases, and definitely know structure of sentences. And awesomely enough, I did!! It's pretty exciting knowing that you're able to talk with your hands. Caroline (http://carolinelearns2sign.blogspot.com/) and I have been signing through some of our classes, and it's pretty funny to see people's reaction. Sometimes they'll stare at us trying to figure out what we're trying to say, but fail.

One of the things i hate about signing is the fact that I hardly know anyone who signs. So, for 95% of the time I sign, I'm having a full conversation- with myself. Of course, I don't mind that much, but I' hoping to find someone soon who can sign and has experience. 

Things I've realized while doing this project:

Signing is hard. 
It's even harder when hardly anyone you know signs. 
It even harder when you are forced to have conversations with yourself.

It has gotten easier, though. I have learned some sentence structure, and have created a google doc with a list of words and phrases that I know. I cannot have a full conversation yet, but hopefully that will come later. This is the list of what I still need to accomplish:

Week 4: Adjectives. Although I know some colors and common adjectives, I'd like to learn a few more of them, just so it'd be easier to describe the nouns I can say.

Week 5: Pronouns. Like in any other language, pronouns are a huge part of your sentence structure. Without them, the sentence doesn't make much sense. I'd like to learn if the pronouns in sign language are placed differently in the sentence, or how to refer to someone. Also in this category are names. Fluent signers tend to name other people based on their personality. They come up with a sign that means their name. I could be able to name people in sign language based on their personality and their likes/dislikes.

Week 6: Conversations with Caroline. I would hope to be able to have a conversation about school or something by this point. Obviously, I won't know the entire dictionary but having a conversation could be fun.

Week 7: Reading/Speaking? This is a long shot. I would hope to be able to have a conversation about my day or something like that, and be able to figure out what the other person is saying. This will be hard because I've been in Spanish for 4 years, and I still can barely get out of the typical school and weather conversations.

Throughout my process, I have discovered a really useful video website that has given me all the signs I have needed to know. It's called: http://lifeprint.com/asl101. This website shows me signs, and has a guy who just shows me every sign I could ever possibly need to know in my life. It's a great resource!
I have achieved my goal for this week, and that was to be able to know some sentence structure. I know that question words come after the sentence, and nouns usually come first. It's very different from english which is annoying, but it'll be worth learning at the end. I hope.

Hi fellow bloggers! My name is Alyssa and I have decided to take on the challenge of learning ASL (American Sign Language). I thought this would be a fun and interesting thing to learn, and very useful as well. I love to talk. Whether it's to my friends, my parents, or my siblings, I feel like I say over ten thousand sentences per day, and the truth is, I probably do. I speak English, and I have, everyday of the 15 years I have been alive. I see people who are bilingual, and think it's actually really interesting. It would be pretty cool to know how to speak more than one.

Originally I was just going to teach myself another spoken language, but then sign language crossed my mind. I thought it was really unique and different. I then discovered, from research, that sign language is the 5th most spoken language in the US. So why don't I ever see anyone that knows how to sign?

So far, learning sign language has been... interesting. Just as I thought it would be. I have learned the entire alphabet so far, and learned that there is a way of speaking sign language where you only use letters. This is called finger spelling. Although the alphabet was pretty easy to learn, I watched a video about finger spelling, which also showed people performing it, and realized that it is NOT easy at all. Finger spelling is much faster than I expected, and you have to be able to read letters, and sign them at a pace which I am not even close to being capable of. 

I've learned a few words and phrases, and also learned that speaking sign language is backwards compared to speaking English. Many of the phrases I have learned how to sign are questions. When asking a question in sign language, the question word (what, who, where, why etc.) are the last part of the compilation of signs. Not necessarily is it the last sign of the sequence, but it is usually one of the last. One of my favorite signs so far is the word, "awkward". It's when you take both of your hands, make threes, and then lift them up and down oppositely. It's kind of a weird sign but it's good because it's easy to remember.

I really hope signing becomes easier. FOLLOW ME! (: