American Sign Language For Dummies with Online Videos

Grasp the rich culture and language of the Deaf community To see people use American Sign Language (ASL) to share ideas is remarkable and fascinating to watch. Now, you have a chance to enter the wonderful world of sign language. American Sign Language For Dummies offers you an easy-to-access introduction so you can get your hands wet with ASL, whether you're new to the language or looking for a great refresher. Used predominantly in the United States, ASL provides the Deaf community with the ability to acquire and develop language and communication skills by utilizing facial expressions and body movements to convey and process linguistic information. With American Sign Language For Dummies, the complex visual-spatial and linguistic principles that form the basis for ASL are broken down, making this a great resource for friends, colleagues, students, education personnel, and parents of Deaf children. Grasp the various ways ASL is communicated Get up to speed on the latest technological advancements assisting the Deaf Understand how cultural background and regionalism can affect communication Follow the instructions in the book to access bonus videos online and practice signing along with an instructor If you want to get acquainted with Deaf culture and understand what it's like to be part of a special community with a unique shared and celebrated history and language, American Sign Language For Dummies gets you up to speed on ASL fast.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go from Here 4 Part 1: American Sign Language and You 5 Chapter 1: You Already Know a Little Sign 7 Discovering Signs That Look like What They Mean 8 Building on the Basics of Sign: Gestures and Expression 9 Spelling with your fingers 9 Shaping up those hands 12 Benefiting with body language 14 Gazing at the face of expression 15 Chapter 2: Signing Grammar Basics 17 Explaining the Parts of Speech 17 Distinguishing between noun/verb pairs 18 Modifying with adjectives and adverbs 20 Talking Tenses 22 Structuring Sentences 24 Subjecting yourself to nouns and verbs in simple sentences 24 Placing subjects and objects 24 Exclaiming in Simple Sentences 31 Signing Conditional Sentences 36 Personification: The Secret of Agents 37 Clarifying with Classifiers 39 Chapter 3: Starting to Sign Basic Expressions 41 Initiating a Conversation 41 Attracting someone’s attention 42 Using greetings and closings 43 Getting Acquainted 47 Sharing feelings and emotions 49 Connecting your thoughts 52 Talking about where you’re from 53 Acting the Part: Constructed Dialogue and Constructed Action 62 Constructed Dialogue 62 Constructed Action 63 Chapter 4: Getting Your Numbers and Times Straight 65 Counting on Numbers 65 Getting from one to ten with cardinal numbers 67 Ordering ordinal numbers 69 Signing phone numbers and the like 70 Talking about Time 70 Signing calendar dates 74 Chapter 5: Signing at Home 79 Handling Signs about Your Home 79 Touring all the rooms 83 Furnishing your home 86 Hanging Out for the Holidays 92 Teaching the Tots 95 Keeping Track of Your Subjects in Space 97 Part 2: Refining Your ASL 99 Chapter 6: Asking Questions and Making Small Talk 101 Signing Key Questions: Six WS, One H 102 Discussing Family, Friends, and More 107 Family and friends 107 Relating where you live and work 111 Using Possessives and Pronouns When Chatting 123 Personal pronouns and possessives 123 Demonstrative pronouns 125 Chapter 7: Asking for Directions 129 Finding Your Way 129 Looking to Natural Landmarks 135 Searching the Streets 138 Transporting Yourself 141 Directing Your Sentences with Conjunctions 143 Chapter 8: Dining and Going to the Market 147 Eating Three Square Meals a Day 147 Having breakfast 152 Munching on lunch 154 Enjoying dinner 159 Dining Out 163 Ethnic food around town 164 Don’t forget the drinks! 166 Attention, Shoppers! 170 Signing specialty stores 170 Getting a good deal 172 Chapter 9: Shopping Made Easy 175 Clothes for All Seasons 175 The winter look 176 Fall fashion 180 Spring style 182 Summer suits 186 Clothing by color 188 All about Money 194 Shopping Superlatives and Comparisons 199 Chapter 10: The Signer About Town 203 Making Plans 203 Going to the movies 206 Going to the theater 211 Going to the museum 213 Selecting Your Social Station 215 Chapter 11: Takin’ Care of Business 221 Occupying Yourself with Occupations 221 Sorting Office Supplies 227 Getting to Work 230 Chapter 12: Recreation and the Great Outdoors 235 Exercising Your Right to Recreate 235 Getting into the competitive spirit 236 Setting out solo 242 Playing Indoor Games 246 Having Fun with Hobbies 248 Seeing the Night Sky 251 Getting the Weather Report 254 Asking Rhetorical Questions in ASL 259 Chapter 13: Here’s to Your Health 263 Going to the Doctor 263 Signaling medical personnel 263 Figuring out how you feel 265 Expressing medical terms 267 Describing Ailments and Treatments 269 Pointing to Body Parts 272 Handling Emergencies 277 Part 3: Looking at Life Through Deaf Eyes 281 Chapter 14: The Deaf Community and Deaf Etiquette 283 Digging into Sign’s Past 284 Examining When and How ASL began 284 Facing the Challenges of the Deaf Community 285 Putting the past behind us 285 You’ve come a long way, baby 286 The Deaf as an Ethnic Group 288 Understanding Deaf culture 289 Knowing who falls into the Deaf cultural community 289 Living as bilingual/bicultural people 290 Being Sensitive to Being Deaf 291 Living together in a hearing world 291 Getting the Deaf perspective 292 Participating in the Deaf Community 292 Finding your place in the Deaf community 293 Communicating with new Deaf friends for the first time 294 Questions you shouldn’t ask 295 Interpreting for the Deaf Community 295 Chapter 15: Soliciting Social Justice 297 Oralists and Manualists Meet in Milan 298 The Deaf Have It 299 Rejecting Language Oppression 299 Movers and Shakers 300 Chapter 16: Using Technology to Communicate 301 Using Videophones: Can You See Me Now? 301 Communicating with videophones 302 What to expect when using a video relay service 303 Keeping quiet what is private 304 Using Other Communication Methods 304 Texting 24/7 304 Chatting visually 305 Calling through Captioning 305 Part 4: the Part of Tens 307 Chapter 17: Ten Tips to Help You Sign like a Pro 309 Watch Yourself and Others Sign 309 Discover Multiple Signs for Communicating One Thing 310 Practice Your Signing — with Others 310 Always Fingerspell a Name First 310 Adjust Your Eyes; Everyone’s Signing Is Different 310 Use Facial Expressions like Vocal Inflections 311 Journal Your Progress 311 Get Some Signing Space 312 Don’t Jump the Gun 312 Watch the Face, Not the Hands 312 Chapter 18: Ten Ways to Pick Up Sign Quickly 313 Volunteer at a Residential School for the Deaf 313 Volunteer at Local Deaf Clubs 314 Attend Deaf Social Functions 314 Make Deaf Friends 315 Assist Deaf Ministries 315 Attend Conferences for Interpreters 315 Work at Camps for the Deaf 315 Attend Silent Weekends 316 Go to Deaf Workshops and Deaf Conferences 316 Watch Sign Language Videos 317 Chapter 19: Ten Popular Deaf Expressions 319 Swallowed the Fish 319 Train Gone 320 Pea Brain 320 Rats!/Darn! 321 I Hope 322 Your Guess Is as Good as Mine 322 Cool! 322 Oh No! 323 That’s Superb! 323 That’s Pretty Straight-Laced 324 Wow! 324 Index 325

About the Author :
Adan R. Penilla II, PhD, NIC, NAD IV, CI/CT, SC:L, ASLTA, teaches American Sign Language at Colorado State University and is a freelance interpreter for the Colorado court system. Angela Lee Taylor has taught ASL for Pikes Peak Community College and the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind.