Digitalkatie's blog

Mobile signing

Bristol University is one of the few places you can study Sign Language and Deaf Studies in the UK.  The Centre for Deaf Studies there has recently released a web site designed for using on mobile phone to help you communicate with deaf people. 

Go to www.mobilesign.org, find the word you want, and it will play a video of the sign.  How fantastic!  Go and bookmark it now, then when you're sitting in a boring meeting or on the bus you can learn more words!  Why not learn a sign a day? :-)

Signing on kids TV? Make sure you get it right!!

This is hilarious - a presenter on a Cbeebies TV show (a BBC channel for toddlers) mucked up the sign language he was using.  Instead of saying "I'm happy to see you", Mr Tumble instead signed "I'm f***ing you". 

If you find yourself presenting a kids TV show in sign language, here are the words to be VERY careful about:

• happy, organise (similar to f***ing)
• ban, exclude, lemonade/pop (very similar to f***)
• "I don't know anything" (very similar to d***head)
• "You're welcome" (similar to "come ahead Jimmie, you want a fight, I'll gae you a fight")

If you want to learn how to swear properly (and not have people confuse what you mean for namby-pamby words like 'happy' and 'lemonade') then go watch Videojug

Oh, I am sooooo going to get blocked by the council's web filters for weeks!

Using Video Jug to learn sign language

I came across Video Jug this week, which is a collection of videos instructing you on various things.  I particularly like the videos that teach British Sign Language.  You can learn how to ask basic questions, how to complement someone in sign, and how to make small talk about the weather..... but you can also learn the things you really want to learn in any foreign language but are too polite to ask, like how to swear in sign language (apart from just sticking two fingers up, which also works!), how to flirt, how to insult someone, how to reject someone's unwanted advances, and how to make sexual references. 

They also have lots of videos on how to survive Christmas (not in sign language though) so when you're given a really naff present you know how to say thank you (Mum, you might want to watch this one before we turn up ;-)