Teaching SignWriting by Videophone

[Shane Gilchrist O hEorpa]

SignWriting List
April 2nd, 2006

> > 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

One of our weird slangs - when they teach us kids at school (when we
were wee), we'll get used to the word 'land' coming after i.e.
Scotland, England, Finland, Greenland etc - as I think in Ireland,
nationality is more important to us therefore people would say
"England is where the English live, Scotland is where the Scottish
live etc" - so for some of us, America doesnt come with the word
"land" - i know some kids who sometimes say "Americaland" and we
usually refer to you Americans as "Yanks" i.e. "The Yanks were in
Belfast during the wars" - so some of us refer to the USA as
"Yankland" but some of my mother's relatives (very good at letter
writing etc) refer to the USA as "The Dixieland" - i think it was
because one of my mother's aunts married a Dickson and the joke came
from that.

> 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!

Still across the big pond :-)

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

of course - Kathleen was teaching me that VGT "slang" which is weird -
i cant really get hang of it yet Sara and her mates were laughing
their tits off...erm...

> > 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.

Yeah - not 100% interactive as we would like - no touching or pointing
etc - but i ll say its 80% interactive BUT very very effective. And I
am very glad I got this ip-vp here its great.

Jeff McWhinney was telling me about the new videophone that they are
working on - its not released yet - but it will be a lot more better
than the DLINK DVC1000 - the ip videophones are really brilliant.
Technology will only improve :-)

> > 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...

Remember its your first lesson by videophone and i called you earlier
than the appointed time (due to the change in Irish Summer Time!) so u
were in a rush (not your fault!)

> 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...

Maybe we can try that in your next lesson?

> > 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!

Raymond Luczak explained that to me :-) - as he use it a lot.

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

I was watching MR HOLLAND'S OPUS last night - it is important that we
are to let our good teachers know how good they are - as teaching can
be a very difficult job and very draining at times :-)

yours in SW,


Shane