(Blue Skies ♪♪)
(no voice)
- Did you get it? You understand?
Let me try it again. (no voice)
Did you get it now? No?
Ok one more time. (no voice)
You got it right?
No? Ok, well don't worry about it.
Really the reason I was signing that so fast, spelling it,
is because I wanted to talk about fingerspelling and receptive skills.
You know, are you able to understand people's fingerspelling?
Maybe sometimes somebody fingerspells something. It's too fast. You don't understand
and how do you improve that? So let's talk about it.
First thing and it's an old phrase is practice makes perfect.
It's right! If you practice and practice
and watch a lot of fingerspelling.
Overtime you wil become more experienced and you'll be able to understand people better.
Practice helps to re-train your eyes.
It's true you become more confident in yourself as well.
You see something more, you feel more confident in it and
you're more experienced in it. So you can understand them.
Now understand that doens't mean you have to fingerspell really fast or understand people who
are really fast, but as long as it's at a moderate pace it's fine.
So what are some of the things, or approaches you can do to practice
for your receptive fingerspelling skills?
The first one is find a friend!
The best option would be to find a d/Deaf person. Ask them,
"hey do you mind helping me practice with my receptive fingerspelling?"
They can spell words for you or even sentences and phrases
and spell it over and over. Start kind of slow spelling
and you know just kind of give a few words here and there.
You could for example make flashcards.
So let's say I'm the person watching the fingerspelling.
I hold up a card which I can't see. Kind of like the
Head's Up game. You know on your head you do that. So I'm not able to see it.
The other person spells out whatever the words is and I try to understand what the words is.
Then if I get it right we go on to the next card. So that's maybe an idea you could do.
If you don't have any d/Deaf friends, that's fine you can just--
anybody who can sign. Just make sure they are able to go at different speeds.
So maybe start with a slower speed and then a more moderate
speed, up to a faster speed. If you don't have anybody,
to help you then you can go online.
For example they have ASLpro.com, which is
a website. I'll have a link down below. There you can watch
fingerspelling, someone fingerspells. Then you can pick
which word you think it is or type a word. I can't remember which one. But that could
be helpful for you. It's not the same as having a person there, but
still it's an online tool which is helpful. There's different speeds, I think slow,
medium, and fast-- I think. So maybe that could work for you. Find the website
maybe there's other websites. If you know any please leave them in the comments below. Let me know!
Now I have two tips to kind of help you
to understand fingerspelling better. Now, remember
sometimes if a person is fingerspelling, let's say for example
HAPPY or.....
I-- I don't know... KNOW--
or for example BARN.
Ok you can use what's called closure skills.
That means that sometimes even-- even myself
I don't quite catch all of the letters within a word.
But if you're able to catch enough of the letters,
sometimes you can figure it out or I can figure it out myself. For example someone said
"hey do you mind going over to the--- let's say it's BARN, but maybe I only
saw B-R-N. I can guess that it was an A if they say
"hey go over to the BRN and get the hay for the cow."
I can figure out that they're saying go over to the BARN. So I know what that means.
So it's really important not to obsess over
all of the letters in the word. You don't need to do that. A lot of people, you look more
at the shape of the word. Like BARN or like
HAPPY, it's more of the shape that's actually helpful. So you don't need to know all
of the letters of the word. One other approach which is kind of similar to what I already
mentioned, is to use the sentence, figure out the words.
So what the meaning of the word is. Sometimes you can figure it out with even
know all of the letter, or even understanding the spelling word at all!
You can just figure out what it is. So use those two tips and hopefully that's
helpful for you and again practice, practice, practice.
If worse comes to worse, you don't have any options, just sign with
yourself in front of a mirror. At least you're seeing somebody spelling.
But it's truly best to ask a friend or even family. Somebody who can sign, d/Deaf or not.
But the point is-- or also you can use the online fingerspelling tool.
So hopefully that's helped you guys. Keep practicing with the
fingerspelling and you will improve. Can't wait!
Hopefully you enjoyed today's video. If you have click the LIKE button.
I'd appreciate it and if you're not already subscribed please do so.
I'll see you in the next one. Bye! -Nope forbidden.
- What if I die after? - Nope - I could die.
- Not my problem. - Ahhh (laughs)