Indefinite pronouns are words you use every day even if you didn’t know they had such a fancy name. These are words such as all, each, every, and none. There are a bunch of them, but this lesson covers most of the ones you need to know.
Sitting at a roundabout in Mexico teaching sign language. How fun!
Vocabulary learned in this lesson:
Car
Truck
Bus
Train
Plane
Boat
Ship
Taxi
If you like the outdoor locations, let me know. I have a few more weeks in the big city of Merida, Mexico and can try to think of other vocabulary lists that go with these locations. You can leave a comment below or write to me with your suggestions.
Thank you to those of you who have bought the book, Learning Sign Language. I would greatly appreciate a review of the book either at Amazon (or one of the other retailers), or at your own blog. Something as simple as posting a link to the book on Facebook would help spread the word among your friends.
When I was thinking through a list of animals I came up with a huge list. I will probably have to do 3 different lessons on animals. This one is a list of farm animals. There could have been a few more, but I will save those and find another list they can fit in.
Vocabulary learned in this lesson:
Farm
Animals
Cow
Bull
Pig
Goat
Sheep
Horse
Donkey
Chicken
Rooster
Turkey
Dog
Cat
Incidental signs
Dirty
Old
Devil
Stubborn
Will get the transcript and the captioning up soon.
My new book, Learning Sign Language, is #1 in the “Hot New Releases” at Amazon in its category! That’s not like being a #1 best seller yet, but it does give the book more exposure. If you would like to help the exposure more, please leave a review at Amazon and/or the other retailers. You can leave a review of the book at a website even if you did not purchase the book from there.
Learning Sign Language — Now on 3 platforms!
The book is now available at the Nook and Kobo bookstores as well as Amazon. Please continue to let me know if you would like the book in another store.
The book is about 40 pages in length (if it were a printed title). Besides the main text of the book, there are interesting stories of learning sign language in other countries that you will enjoy reading. Please take the time to read more about Learning Sign Language.
Benefits of reading Learning Sign Language
As a student at LearnSigns.com you will still benefit greatly from the lessons in the book. A few of the items we have talked about in the videos, but there are many subjects we have not gotten to yet. One of these sections is about how to read and understand sign language. This is invaluable material for launching out on your own to learn from your deaf friends.
You and your friends, who may be taking other sign language classes, will benefit from the book. Because you watch my videos you have heard me explain fingerspelling. But, I promise, the section on fingerspelling will help improve your friend’s spelling ability. It would be thrilling to learn that they used the information in the book to help their teacher explain fingerspelling in a better way. So many people struggle with it when there is no need to do so. I wished all sign language teachers did a better job of teaching such a basic language skill.
There are practical tips on where you can get free sign language practice on the web. Links included!
Hello! Welcome to LearnSigns episode 32. In this episode I am going to talk about books.
We’ve seen this word before. BOOK. And then BIBLE is you do JESUS’ BOOK. So you do, JESUS BOOK – BIBLE.
LIBRARY – Where you can get BOOKS. LIBRARY is just your letter L and you are making a circle. Now this circle for me as a right-handed person will be clockwise. From my perspective it is clockwise. If you are left-handed then it will be counter-clockwise. So you go from the inside up and out. LIBRARY. Or, if you are doing it left-handed, LIBRARY.
BOOKSTORE – BOOK and then you do STORE. This is the word for SELL or STORE. BOOKSTORE
BOOKSHELF – A couple of ways to do this. BOOK and then you can do SHELF. BOOKSHELF. You are showing the ledge you put the books on. Or, I do this. You can do BOOK and then line them up like this. Or just do that if it is clear you are talking about BOOKS. BOOKS on a SHELF. BOOKSHELF
DICTIONARY – You have your large DICTIONARY here and you are going to flip the pages. Flip the pages with your letter D. DICTIONARY, DICTIONARY
ENCYCLOPEDIA is like that except it is with the letter E. ENCYCLOPEDIA
MAGAZINE – MAGAZINE. It is a small book. So you’ve got the small spine of the BOOK and you are showing the spine and how thin it is. So that would be MAGAZINE. It is also PAMPHLET or BOOKLET. MAGAZINE, PAMPHLET or BOOKLET
NEWSPAPER – This is the word to PRINT. PRINT. It is also just the general word NEWS. You would get your NEWS in PRINT. NEWSPAPER you will see it like this. Or I do it like this. I do NEWS and then I open a large NEWSPAPER. NEWSPAPER like you have a large PAPER there right in front of you and you are opening it up. NEWSPAPER
SCROLL – Like you are opening a SCROLL. Or it could be a SCROLL this way. You just wiggle your fingers like you are pulling something open. SCROLL
And then to do all of this, to actually enjoy the content in all of that you have to READ. READ. You take your eyes. These are your two…represents your two eyes. And you are going to READ down the page. READ
OK? Let’s go through those again.
BOOK
BIBLE
LIBRARY
BOOKSTORE
BOOKSHELF or BOOKSHELF
DICTIONARY
ENCYCLOPEDIA
MAGAZINE, PAMPHLET or BOOKLET. A small BOOK.
NEWSPAPER NEWSPAPER
SCROLL or SCROLL
And then READ.
And of course the reason I am talking about books this week is I have released the book, Learning Sign Language. It is available at Amazon right now. I am working on getting it available at the Nook bookstore. Right now and for the next couple of weeks it will be available for $5. At Amazon and as soon as I can get it on Nook I will have it there. If there are any other bookstores you would like to see the book available at then let me know. Send me an email at david [at] learnsigns [dot] com and I will try to make that available as soon as possible on that.
You can go to LearnSigns.com/book to get more information about the book. Or this episode is LearnSigns.com/32.
This is a guest post written by Jonathan Peach. Jonathan works at a hospital as an RN and also freelance interprets. I asked him what he would like to share with new sign language students and here was his reply.
Sign language is not English that is put on the hands. American Sign Language (ASL) is its own language with its own rules and syntax. As you are learning this new language, remember it is a new language. Forget English syntax, sentence structure and word order, and focus on the rules of ASL.
English is a verbal language but a majority of the meaning in Sign Language is conveyed in body language and facial expression. As you work with the signs make sure you facial expression and body language match your intended meaning.
Non-manual markers are also used to help with meaning or emphasis of a sign or concept. A non-manual marker is a mouth movement, facial expression, body movement or a combination of one or all of them. So as you continue to practice and learn, keep in mind, sign choice, sign production, and any non-manual markers to help convey your meaning.
Practice, practice practice. Stand in front of a mirror so you can see how you produce the sign and what your face and body “say.” Then ask yourself if they make sense. As often as you can, meet with the Deaf and attempt communication every chance you get. The more you practice and talk with the Deaf, the better and more confident you will feel.