The ASL Alphabet
Above is the ASL Alphabet. These are used to spell anything from names and places to words you may be unfamiliar with. Notice how many of them take on the shape of the written letter - such as C, D, L, O, and more. The letters T, M, and N are based on the number of fingers over the thumb - one finger for the one vertical line of T, two fingers for the two vertical lines of N, and three for the three verticals of M. Unfortunately, beyond noticing these interesting features of the alphabet, there is no easy trick to learning it. It simply takes time and practice to be able to comprehend letters at faster speeds - however, this comes with more practice of the language as a whole! You don't need to attain complete mastery of fingerspelling to continue learning, as long as you have a good idea of what all of the letters are.
One major pitfall new signers fall into when "reading" another signer's fingerspelling is trying to remember every letter that is signed. Not only is this inefficient, it also creates serious problems when trying to sign/read longer words. Instead, signers should be sounding out the word in their head as they read so they do not have to commit every letter to memory. For example, instead of remembering every letter of birthday as it is signed ("B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y"), you can begin sounding out the word in your head (Bill Vicars,http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/fingerspelling/fingerspelling11.htm). Committing every letter to memory can lead to a bottleneck in the working memory that will severely limit the ability to remember new letters that are coming in. This is why it is important to sound out the letters as they are being signed instead of trying to memorize each letter individually.
Practice this with a friend if you are able to. There is a strong initial tendency to simply read the letters, but conditioning yourself to form the sounds in your head will make reading fingerspelling in the future much simpler. If you are unable to practice with a friend, you can head to http://www.asl.ms/ to work on automating this process.
One major pitfall new signers fall into when "reading" another signer's fingerspelling is trying to remember every letter that is signed. Not only is this inefficient, it also creates serious problems when trying to sign/read longer words. Instead, signers should be sounding out the word in their head as they read so they do not have to commit every letter to memory. For example, instead of remembering every letter of birthday as it is signed ("B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y"), you can begin sounding out the word in your head (Bill Vicars,http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/fingerspelling/fingerspelling11.htm). Committing every letter to memory can lead to a bottleneck in the working memory that will severely limit the ability to remember new letters that are coming in. This is why it is important to sound out the letters as they are being signed instead of trying to memorize each letter individually.
Practice this with a friend if you are able to. There is a strong initial tendency to simply read the letters, but conditioning yourself to form the sounds in your head will make reading fingerspelling in the future much simpler. If you are unable to practice with a friend, you can head to http://www.asl.ms/ to work on automating this process.
Pronouns and Possessives
Pronouns and possessives are some of the easiest signs to remember. Pronouns are indicated by pointing with only your index finger. Pointing at yourself means "I" or "me," while pointing at the person you are speaking with means "you," and so on. When talking to a group, you can continue pointing but make a sweeping motion from one side to the other with this hand to indicate you are talking about the group. Starting or ending by pointing to yourself indicates you are included in this.
When referring to somebody or something that is not present, you can establish a position for it on an imaginary axis in front of you - just make sure you are not pointing to anybody in particular!
When referring to somebody or something that is not present, you can establish a position for it on an imaginary axis in front of you - just make sure you are not pointing to anybody in particular!
Possessives follow the exact same rules. However, instead of using a pointing finger, you use an open hand.
ASL Introductions
Let's learn to introduce ourselves now. The sign for name is shown next, so to sign "My name is _____" you would sign "MY NAME _____."
Now that you've introduced yourself, you may want to say a polite remark. To say "nice to meet you," you can see the following images for the signs of "nice" and "meet". The sign for "nice" is made with a sweeping motion of your dominant open hand over your other hand. Note that this sign can also mean "clean" depending on the context. The sign for meet has two "one" hands (just index finger extended) coming together - like two people coming together and meeting for the first time!