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Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organised

Part I: Starting to Sign

Part II: Everyday BSL

Part III: Getting Out and About

Part IV: Looking into Deaf Life

Part V: The Part of Tens

Part VI: Appendixes

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Starting to Sign

Chapter 1: Discovering Who’s Who – And How They Communicate

Different Groups of Deaf People

Who’s dumb?

Understanding who’s who

. . . And how do they communicate?

Attracting a Deaf Person’s Attention?

Touching on the arm or shoulder

Waving

Stamping on the floor

Switching the light on and off

Watch My Lips!

Chapter 2: Sign Language You Didn’t Know You Knew

Signs That Make Sense

Gestures

How do you sign this word?

How does BSL create new signs?

Making It Clear with Body Language

Let Me Spell It Out: Finger-spelling

Left or right?

Watch my lips – not my fingers

Now you see it, now you don’t

Funny Faces

Using funny faces

No! Not me!

Oh yes!

Are you happy?

Getting Your Hands into Shape

What is a hand shape?

Simple Sentences: Sign Order

Chronological order

Question forms

Part II: Everyday BSL

Chapter 3: Meeting and Greeting

Greetings! Starting a Conversation

Asking questions: Who? What? Why? When? Where? Which? How?

WH questions (open)

Yes/no questions (closed)

Rhetorical questions

Getting to Know You

What’s in a Name?

Where do you live?

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye

Chapter 4: Knowing Me, Knowing You

Don’t Point! It’s Rude! Or Is It?

Telling Others about Yourself

Family and friends

Talking about your job

Discussing your workplace

Chapter 5 : Expressing Your Feelings

How’s Life? Talking about Your Feelings

You OK? Talking about your health

Where does it hurt?

Just take one of these

999 Emergency

Chapter 6: Nailing Numbers

Explaining Regional Signs

Numbers? Count me in

Who’s first?

Telling the time

Talking about money

Asking someone’s age

Chapter 7 : Describing Weather, Colour, and Clothes

Signing Come Rain, Come Shine

Describing Colours

Developing Dress Sense

Eyeing up everyday clothes

Mentioning the unmentionables

Wrapping up winter warmth

Putting a spring in your signs

Summer sun (if you’re lucky)

Part III: Getting Out and About

Chapter 8 : Getting from A to B

Signing Space

Placement of signs

Prepositions

How Do I Get To . . .?

Getting to and from work

Location, location, location

Looking out for local landmarks

Countryside landmarks

Out on the Town

Chapter 9 : Arranging Not So Blind Dates

Getting Tense about Time

Arranging to Meet

Today’s the day

When shall we meet?

Mastering months

Special Celebrations

Chapter 10 : Fancy Fish and Chips?

On Today’s Menu

Which knife and fork to use?

Want breakfast?

Grabbing a quick lunch

Tea, a drink with jam and bread

What’s for dinner?

Eating Out

Take-away food

Fancy a drink anyone?

Chapter 11: Making the Most of Your Free Time

Having Fun with Leisure Activities

Getting Sporty

Playing Indoor Games

Having Fun with Hobbies

Part IV: Looking into Deaf Life

Chapter 12 : Deaf Community and Culture

Digging Into the History of BSL

Exploring the Origins of Deaf Education

Deaf 1880 Milan conference

The oral method

Enlightenment at last!

The Social Side of the Deaf World

Discovering Deaf clubs

Embracing the new

Access for Deaf people – Language Service Professionals (LSPs)

Investigating interpreters

Communicators/Communication Support Workers (CSWs)

Lipspeakers

Manual notetakers

Electronic note-takers

Palantypist/speech-to-text reporter (STTR)

LSP etiquette

Chapter 13: Technology and Modifications for Deaf People

Keeping in Touch

Minicoms and Text-phones

Type-Talk and Text-Direct

SMS

Fax machines

Videophones/webcams

Wakey-wakey! Flashing Lights and Vibrating Alarms

Somebody at the door

Fire! Fire!/Baby’s crying!

Wake-up call

Part V: The Part of Tens

Chapter 14: Ten Top Tips To Improve Your Signing Skills

Watch My Face

RSVP Please

Showing the Sign!

Spotting the Difference

Being Honest

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

Being a Film Star

Keeping a Record

Hare or Tortoise?

The Way of the World

Chapter 15: Ten Top Tips For Good Communication

Get an Attitude

Lights, Camera . . . Action!

Does He Take Sugar?

Get Body-Conscious

What’s the Point?

Keep Clear – Access Required

Be Environmentally Friendly

One at a Time Please!

English versus BSL

Don’t Give Up!

Chapter 16: Ten Top BSL Resources

Honing Your Skills at BSL Classes

Attending a Communication Club

Going to Deaf Pubs

Taking a Trip to the Theatre or Cinema

Attending Deaf Workshops and Conferences

Watching BSL Signed DVDs

Taking in TV Programmes

Wising Up to Websites

Weighing Up Webcams

Making Deaf Friends

Chapter 17: Ten Really Useful Phrases

How Are You?

You All Right?

Again, Please

I’m Sorry

I Don’t Understand

Do You Need Help?

That’s Right!

That’s Bad/Wrong!

Excuse Me

See You Around/Soon!

Chapter 18: Ten Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know about Deaf Culture and History

British Sign Language (BSL)

St John of Beverley

Early Signs of Sign Language

Vows of Silence

To Read and Write – Right?

Finger-spelling Circa 1720

Give Us a Bell

Deaf Church to Department Store

The Queen Amused Others

Deaf to the Crowd

Part VI: Appendixes

Appendix A: Answer Key to Fun & Games

Appendix B: About the Online Content

End-User Licence Agreement

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

City Lit, based in London, is the largest adult education college in Europe, providing thousands of part-time courses each year, from the visual and performing arts, to languages, humanities, complementary therapies, and counselling.

City Lit’s Faculty of Deaf Education and Learning Support offers one of the most comprehensive programmes in Europe for D/deaf learners and those interested in working in a deaf-related field. With over 60 years’ experience, the provision is nationally and internationally viewed as a centre of excellence, and the department is frequently contacted to offer advice, support and training on a wide variety of issues related to deafness, deaf learners, and working with deaf people.

Learners come from all over the country and beyond – so unique is the programme and so highly regarded are the expertise and skills of staff (who are D/deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing). The team includes teachers of the deaf, of lipreading and sign language; teacher trainers, interpreters, communicators, note takers (manual and electronic) and hearing therapists.

City Lit’s annual Deaf Day celebration is a free national event providing a large exhibition and many exciting workshops. Usually held in March or April, it is open to all. For more information please visit www.citylit.ac.uk

Melinda Napier is Deaf from birth and comes from a Deaf family. She has worked at City Lit for over 25 years, managing the Communication and Training Programme Area. She has taught on Teacher Training courses since 1981 and has vast experience of teaching BSL from Level 1 to Level 4. She was with the Association of British Sign Language Tutors and Assessors from the very start and is now its Chair. She lives in Surrey and loves London, her children and new Australian granddaughter. She is living in the hope that her granddaughter will learn from the book to communicate with her grandmother in BSL not AUSLAN (Australian Sign Language)!

James Fitzgerald has been working within the faculty of Deaf Education at City Lit for the past 9 years. In that time, he has worked as a note-taker, a communication support worker, a lip-speaker, a support tutor and now as a qualified BSL/English interpreter. In addition to interpreting, James co-ordinates the faculty’s Business Training & Interpreting Unit and delivers deaf awareness and communication courses with a Deaf colleague to staff at City Lit, and to external businesses around London. Apart from BSL, James has a love of log-fires and wellington boots, and lives in leafy Surrey with his wife and four kids . . . and seven ducks!

Elise Pacquette (the illustrator) attended Norwich School of Art and Design, where she studied for a BA (Hons) in Illustration, and an MA in Fine Art. Whilst working as a prop maker in London, she started learning BSL. She has worked at City Lit since 2002 as a Senior Communicator and is currently studying a PGDip in BSL/English interpreting. She lives in London with her husband and two young children and regularly receives painting commissions to fit into her free (!) time. She loves baking, singing, painting, and (oh, yes) signing.

With a huge thanks to all the staff and students from the City Lit Faculty of Deaf Education and Learning Support whose contributions and support have been invaluable in putting together this resource. We are confident that all new learners of BSL will not only benefit from their hard work but will also enjoy themselves learning the language of the Deaf community in Britain!

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Introduction

You may have seen people signing in the streets, restaurants, or shops and didn’t know what they were saying. Perhaps you wondered whether they were using proper language or just miming. You may have heard of Deaf culture but didn’t know what the term meant. You may have bought this book because you want to learn signing and communicate with a deaf person you know, a work colleague, or a neighbour so here is your opportunity to learn their language and be able to hold basic conversations with them.

Whatever the reason why you’re reading this now, British Sign Language For Dummies introduces you to basic sign language and helps you get an understanding of Deaf culture. You cannot learn sign language without understanding a bit of Deaf culture as they go hand in hand, and once you understand both, you become a better signer.

About This Book

This book focuses on British Sign Language (BSL) with some simple explanations of grammatical rules. We assume you bought this book because you want to learn BSL, not to learn about grammatical jargon in depth. There are plenty of books around that explain the linguistics aspects of sign language.

Like any spoken language, BSL has regional signs and dialects. For this book, we have chosen the most common signs, the ones that are understood all over the UK.

This book is categorised according to subject. You can use each chapter as a building block for the next chapter, or you can skip around wherever you please. Just choose a subject that interests you and dig in. Just remember that it is fun to learn BSL and you can practise with your friends. Don’t worry if you couldn’t get the hang of it, just keep on practising and your Deaf friends will help you.

Conventions Used in This Book

To help you navigate through this book, let us explain some conventions we’ve used when writing this book:

Whenever we use a sign in lists, examples and dialogues, we print the word version of the sign in capital letters to show that it’s the closest equivalent to its English counterpart.

When we are about to introduce a new sign, we print it in bold in the text, so that you know you’re about to learn a new sign.

We capitalise the letter D in the word Deaf whenever it means culturally Deaf (explained in depth in Chapter 1)

The text for both signs and English always come before the equivalent illustrations.

The illustrations have arrows on them to show the direction of the sign. A wavy line indicates that the fingers of the signing hand wiggle up and down. See the sign for ‘when’ on page 36.

To save space, words that are fingerspelled do not have illustrations, and you can refer to Chapter 1 or Cheat Sheet if you need help remembering how to sign a letter or number.

Web sites appear in monofont.

This book also includes a few elements that other For Dummies books do not have. The elements that you’ll find are as follows

Starting To Sign: Seeing signs in actual context in the text and on the online content helps you understand how to sign the dialogues in correct grammatical order.

Fun & Games activities: These visual games help you practise your signing skills and are a good way to have fun while checking your progress; and you can have more fun if you practise this with a friend.

The English sentences are translated into British Sign Language (BSL) and are not to be taken as word-for-word translations.

Foolish Assumptions

We hate to assume anything about anyone, but when writing this book, we had to make a few foolish assumptions about you. Here they are (we hope we were right):

You have little or no experience in this type of communication, but you have a genuine interest.

You don’t expect to be a fluent signer after learning from this book. You just want some basic signs in simple sentences.

You aren’t interested in learning about grammatical rules of BSL; you just want to communicate. Some basic explanations are sprinkled throughout the book, however.

You want to learn a few signs in order to be able to communicate with Deaf friends, family members and colleagues.

How This Book Is Organised

This book is divided by topics into parts, then divided into chapters. The following sections let you know what kind of information you can find in each part.

Part I: Starting to Sign

This part introduces you to the concept of communicating with different groups of Deaf people with a range of hearing losses, and how to attract their attention, as well as looking at some principles of good communication. Chapter 2 helps you to understand fingerspelling and how to make sense of signing and facial expressions.

Part II: Everyday BSL

In this part, you learn how to communicate with Deaf people using basic signs and sentence structure. You will be able to ask and understand simple questions, express and recognise basic facial expressions.

Part III: Getting Out and About

All the signs you need from giving directions, making plans, meeting friends and getting around are in this part.

Part IV: Looking into Deaf Life

Read this part to learn about Deaf history of education, community and culture as well as finding out how Deaf people use technology to get better access to information.

Part V: The Part of Tens

This icon gives the handy hints and tricks of the trade that can make signing easier.

This icon emphasises important information that you should take away with you.

This icon warns you to avoid making a mistake or offending a Deaf person, so take note of what these paragraphs have to say.

This icon highlights useful tips about BSL grammar rules.

This icon helps you to understand bits of information about the culture of the Deaf people.

Where to Go from Here

The beauty of this book is that you can go anywhere you want. You may find it helpful to start with the first two chapters to get down the basics, but if that’s not your thing, feel free to jump in wherever you want. Find a subject that interests you, start signing, and have fun!

British Sign Language For Dummies®

British Sign Language For Dummies^®