Hello everybody, my name is Chris Gorges and as of this recording, it's
March 31st, and to say the least the past few weeks has been a bit of a roller
coaster. So, a couple weeks ago I did put out a video about some basic signs that
people should know during the corona virus outbreak and in today's video,
I thought it might be appropriate to show some basic signs to express how we may
be feeling during these times, many of us are frightened or fearful or feeling
isolated or lonely, so in today's video I'm going to be showing you a few basic
signs that cover those types of feelings, but before we get started feel
free to let me know how this crisis has personally affected you down in the
comments down below, and of course I do encourage everybody to stay up-to-date
with everything that's going on and especially with all the information
coming out of the CDC. And I will leave a link to the CDC's website down below and
I do want to reassure you that even though these are unprecedented times,
together we can get through this. And if like me, you too are under a shelter at
home order or a stay at home order in your state or your country, and you may be
feeling the effects of the social distancing, I did create an article that
is a little more positive and uplifting and it's entitled "7 Ways to Cope
with Coronavirus Fatigue", so I'll also leave a link to that article down
in the description down below, and I do want to mention starting tomorrow for
the entire month of April, I do plan on giving away a lot of my programs for
free, so be sure to stick around till the end of the video for more details about
that. So, with all that said I'm gonna go ahead and go over some signs for some
feelings that we may want to express, and keep in mind when you are doing these
signs, your facial expressions are very important and can actually change the
meaning of the sign. So, with that in mind I'll go ahead and show you the first
sign which is just 'feeling' and you just basically put your middle finger down a
little bit and it's gonna go across your chest like this for 'feeling'. The next one
I wanted to show you was the sign or signs for 'scared' or 'frightened', so this
one actually has a few variations to it, one of them is you start with fists like
this and they're going to go out into open fives like this across your chest,
for 'scared' or 'frightened', another way that you might see that sign is without
the fists and they'd just be open five across the chest like this so 'scared' or
'frightened' or 'scared' or 'frightened', and again you want to have that facial
expression match the sign that you're conveying. So, keep in mind that there may
be even more variations that are used in your local deaf communities, so my
recommendation is to go ahead and use the variation that is most common in
your local community. The next sign I wanted to show you is 'nervous',
typically it's just like this, where you shake your index fingers down, so if you
happen to be watching this from Canada I've seen another version of nervous
being signed like this ... in ASL in the United States typically this means cold.
Cold. So, if you're watching this video in Canada just keep in mind that
most the signs that I'm showing are used in the United States. Another feeling
that many of us are going through right now is 'loneliness' or 'isolation', so the
sign for 'alone' is just you're circling the number one handshape like this. Now
if you're feeling 'lonely' that it's going to get a little closer and you're gonna
sign it towards your chest like you're feeling all 'alone' you're
feeling 'lonely'. However, if you wanted to sign 'isolation' you would sign it a
little bit differently you almost set up like a cave with your non-dominant hand
and that isolation is gonna be underneath, so 'isolated' or 'isolation'.
On a more positive note, if you look forward to being 'happy' when all this is
over, the sign for happy, it's like this, happy. So, another sign that I wanted to
show to you is 'disconnected', so many of us with social distancing may be feeling
disconnected from one another, so the sign for relationship or a connection is
like you're linking two things together, however if you're becoming disconnected
then that connection breaks, disconnected away from each other or if someone is
becoming disconnected from you, it could become disconnected from you, just like
that so it's kind of a locational sign too depending on how you use it. One thing
I've been seeing a lot lately is that people are feeling bored, they're stuck
in their homes and they've run out of things to do or they just want to go out
and socialize, so the sign for bored is just like this, bored. Just a couple more,
the next sign I want show you is 'miss you' like I really miss
seeing you, so this line can easily be confused with a lot of others because
there's a lot of signs on the chin, particularly with the one handshape but
the sign for 'I miss you' is starts on the chin it twists in a little bit and it
goes out, I miss you, and you can also do, I miss you. And again it wouldn't just be
I miss you, it would be, I miss you, make sure the facial expression
expresses the feeling that you're signing. So, the last sign I'm going to
show you is a really good example of how the facial expression can change the
meaning of the sign, so the sign is like this but depending on your facial
expression it could either mean settle, calm, or relieved.
So, for 'settle' like I'm really looking forward to things settling down you
would just kind of do this motion or settle. The other one is 'calm', like you
need to calm down or I need to remain calm, calm, and then
the other one is 'relieved', so that would be like a deep exhale, relieved, I feel
relieved. So, those are just a few signs of feelings that I wanted to share with
you, as I had mentioned earlier in the video, for the month of April I wanted to
do something special for all of you. So, some of the programs and services that I
typically offer, I'm going to give away for free, so one of the things I'm going
to be offering for free for the entire month of April is I'm going to be
hosting weekly ASL group practice sessions, and the reason why I wanted to
make that available to everybody is because one of the challenges I hear
over and over again is from ASL students that don't have others to practice with.
So, if that is something that you might be interested in I'll go ahead and leave
a link to that in the description down below. Another thing that I'll be
offering too is One-on-One Language Coaching or One-on-One Tutoring, so if that is something
that you're interested in, I'll go ahead and leave a link in the description for
that as well. And if you would like to see a full list of everything that I'm
going to be offering for free for the month of April, I'll leave a link with
that as well in the description down below. So, I know that was a lot of
information and I know we are all going through a lot right now and it is
more important now than ever to remain connected, so we may be able to
get through this crisis together. So, I encourage everybody
to stay safe, to stay home, and to stay healthy, and until next time, I'll see you later.