Teaching SignWriting by Videophone

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
April 1st, 2006

Shane Gilchrist O hEorpa from Belfast, Northern Ireland wrote:

> Val and I have agreed that she is to teach me SignWriting (after all
> she did suggest THAT last year) to see if it is actually working - to
> see if it is an effective way of learning SW rather than me flying
> across the big pond to Yankland.

I got a big giggle over this, Shane! Your slang is terrific! So the  
US is called Yankland? ha! Better than Yankee Go Home! grin

And the big pond must be the Atlantic Ocean? That is some big pond!  
And meanwhile I am over on the other side of the country...so I am a  
double pond away, since I live near the Pacific Ocean!

For those who are not native to English on this List, this slang must  
be hard to follow...but a great deal of fun!



> It is a positive experience - it was really strange for me to talk to
> the TV like that - but it was good - i am actually talking to the
> inventor (therefore the uber-expert) of SW and I got to learn the
> history of how SW was applied etc.


It is an astonishing experience...something that I will never stop  
marveling at! What a surprise! That we can see each other on a TV  
set, looking clearly and easily at Sign Language, with NO jerks or  
problems...as clean as if you were sitting in my home in California,  
and yet we are on the other side of the world from each other...truly  
impressive technology.


>
> Val's ASL is quite good and simple - which is a real bonus for me as I
> am not very fluent in ASL - i can follow ASL buuuuuuuuuuuut for
> fingerspelling and the unusual number system - and it is very easy for
> most (fluent) signers to follow her shall they try and make efforts.
> It was really strange using pen and paper and then show it to the
> dlink videophone - but after a few mistakes we are slowly amending to
> use the system - and its very positive.

Yes. I have now placed a table near the videophone so I can show the  
diagrams better...but we did learn together, how to show each other  
symbols so we could see them. We had to find what worked for each of  
us, because the videophone views everything a little fuzzy if you are  
not in the exact position needed to show a diagram...

BUT...I have another videophone with a special lens on it that lets  
you see the whole room I am sitting in, and therefore I believe  
people might be able to see the diagrams better with than special  
lens, so that is something I would like to try someday...




>
> When using the videophone, you would make sure you use artificial
> light (lamps etc) rather than natural light - because the videophone
> is not so good with natural skylight - and make sure you use the thick
> pens (the ones u use to write on flipboards etc) instead of normal
> pens cos you will have the trouble seeing the lines (in the SW we drew
> etc)

Yes. You are right!

>
> Yes, I do know a lot of SW - but i am not very good at movements etc -
> i do need interactive teaching - which Val kindly provided - and the
> real bonus Val have over most signwriting trainers is that she is good
> at the visual grammar of ASL which is very important for people like
> me - I can say safely that i find it easy to learn SW from our
> Kathleen and our Sara because they are very good at visual language  -
> whereas others they would used the signed version of the spoken
> language.
>
> Even more, Val is a superb teacher - im a teacher myself and a teacher
> trainer (not so good) but I can recognise a good teacher when I see
> one - and in Val, we have a very talented and good teacher - we are
> very lucky - many inventors are not good at teaching but for Val,
> she's great :-)
>
> Thank you, Val - and I do look forward to our next lesson! :-)
>
> yours in SW,
>
> Shane a bit more confident with his SW movements! :-)


I am blushing and smiling...Thank you, Shane, for the nice comments  
above...I enjoyed it!

Val ;-)