Excellent!
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Excellent stories and examples of Deaf Culture info.
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Not something I'd want my students to use!
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Yesterday, one of my students brought to class a copy of this book. I teach Sign, and about Deaf culture. I, myself, am hard-of-hearing. Just for starters, on the first page, we looked at an alphabet full of errors! It was as though someone who didn't know the fingerspelling alphabet had played "cut and paste." Hand-shape letters were not near the same designated printed letter. And one hand-shape, looking like no letter in particular, drawn without a thumb, was included in the mix. Looking further through the book, drawings were expressionless. It was difficult to recognize motion or direction in the drawn signs. ...And I know what the signs should look like! Looking for background on the authors, I read that one is an interpreter. Yikes! :-(
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If you want to learn sign language, don't buy this book.
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If you want to learn about Deaf culture, this book is not *too* bad. Yes, it has some inaccuracies, but most of the information is OK and easy to understand.If you want to learn sign language, don't even bother with this book. In almost 300 pages of text, there is not one example of a complete sentence in ASL. Not even sentences as basic and important as, "Hello, my name is Mary. What's yours? Nice to meet you!" or "Could you repeat that again slower, please?"Even as a guide for learning individual signs, this book is poor. The illustrations are often unclear or inaccurate, and the written descriptions of the signs often don't match the illustrations. Furthermore, many important basic signs are not shown at all. The book jacket says that you will learn how to use sign language when... making introductions, telling time, ordering food, asking or answering a question, celebrating special occasions, telling a joke, communicating with kids, expressing emotion, making small talk, asking for travel directions. And that it gives you essential signs for handling emergencies. Bull-oney!!! No way in heck will you be able to do any of these things after reading this book. Ask an ASL student how long it took (how long it is taking) him or her to learn how to do all of these things, and you will realize the folly of thinking that you could learn all of this from one brief book for idiots. Even a well executed book for idiots couldn't deliver what this book promises. If you want a book to help you learn ASL, buy "American Sign Language the Easy Way" by David Stewart. It's not for idiots, but it's 10 times better and a wee bit cheaper. And of course, you gotta practice with skilled signers. Practice, practice, practice! You can't learn a language solely from a book! Duh!
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A good summary of the basics
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I thought this book was a terrific summary of basic sign -- not for the Deaf culture, who presumably already know the language -- but for those who wish to learn the basics. I found the drawings charming and helpful, and the writing fun and instructive. I learned a lot!
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One look at this and I realized the authoer is an "idiot"
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what the hell were these people thinking!! What an insult to the Deaf Community, and REAL users of ASL. when I saw the title of the book, I was scared, then I actually looked through it, and realized the people who wrote this knows nothing about Deaf culture, or sign language and are just idiots for thinking they could get away with this. How pathetic! :(
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