Who? You? Me? Us? Uh… CAT!
“I must say I’m not 100% fluent in Sign Language, but I am working on it!”
Sandra Oakley
Well, I am not anywhere close to the 100% (maybe 2%?) but I am working on it! This past week, I decided to tackle the pronouns: I, You, He/She/It, We, They, and You (all of you). This includes the possessive forms, and just for kicks I threw in some emotions and general vocabulary words! Spoiler: yes, I did learn the sign for cat, big surprise.
I used the program I have been learning from on StackSkills specifically designed for the possessives! Here are some images from the learning process:
This guy (his name is Michael Honkanen, and you can learn more about his story and why he does what he does here) has been phenomenal in the learning process. He spends a decent amount of time reviewing what he is teaching, as well as making sure that I have time to test out and review what I learned in chunks, rather than all at once.
I also liked that he sequentially introduced vocabulary into the pronoun lessons as well. While searching for tips on learning a new language, one of the points I found useful was to start with the 100 most common words.
“Not all vocabulary is created equal. Some gives you a better return on investment than others.”
Mark Manson
While learning the words “cat” and “purse” aren’t exactly high usage for me, I figured that making some words fun and kind of random would help me remember them, especially when I try to work on them with sentences.
And here is my progress so far, thanks for following along!
I watched your video. I really enjoyed learning these signs. Great job. Keep it up
Thank you Benton for a great post and learning experience! I appreciate the video you made where I can actually see and practice the signs myself. Looking back now, I wish I had chosen to learn a skill that will be as useful as ASL. The number of adaptations you will be able to create in the classroom with this skill is going to benefit you so much throughout your career. I wish you the best of luck!
What an awesome video! As you were going through all of the different signs for different words, I was following along and (attempting) to learn! The way that you explained each of the pronouns was awesome, and I love that you included the emotions along with it. I felt like I learned a lot from this post. Keep up the amazing work!