51–60 of 184 posts
Those seem like reasonable adaptations, but i think Zoom has missed an opportunity here, we all need some kind of sign language with video calls. Where is my "Yes", "No" button, or other instant ways to communicate common things without having to turn on the mic or type in chat ?
Two quick misconceptions to call out for those less familiar with signed languages: 1. ASL is not just English with each word replaced with a sign. It's an incredibly complex language with different grammatical rules, some of which don't have English equivalents. 2. It's incredibly flexible. Many core grammar components will remain consistent, but often if you drive to another city, many words/signs will be different…
I didn't know much of anything about ASL, but seeing David Cowan at some press conferences in Georgia made me a bit curious. There's a nice video of him on Youtube[1] where he explains that deaf people's native language is ASL, and not English. That was absolutely flabbergasting to me, because I had always imagine, like you said, that it was just "do this gesture to mean this word and this gesture for this other word…
Sign language only has a few (thousands) of signs. For the rest the signer finger spells the word they need, if they will use that word again they make up a new sign (often the first letter in a specific position). If a word is commonly used it will eventually enter the language in that city, and may or may not spread to other parts of the country/world. Obviously the finger spelling is the word in the spoken language not sign language.
Warning, don't make up words in sign language until you are somewhat an expert. I know of a novice who needed to talk about a person named Ryan, so they gave Ryan a sign - not realizing that sign was already used for retard.
Two quick misconceptions to call out for those less familiar with signed languages: 1. ASL is not just English with each word replaced with a sign. It's an incredibly complex language with different grammatical rules, some of which don't have English equivalents. 2. It's incredibly flexible. Many core grammar components will remain consistent, but often if you drive to another city, many words/signs will be different…
I didn't know much of anything about ASL, but seeing David Cowan at some press conferences in Georgia made me a bit curious. There's a nice video of him on Youtube[1] where he explains that deaf people's native language is ASL, and not English. That was absolutely flabbergasting to me, because I had always imagine, like you said, that it was just "do this gesture to mean this word and this gesture for this other word…
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1. The captions usually suck 2. Would you mind if they just shut off the audio?
As someone who watches subbed TV and movies frequently, it wouldn't particularly bother me. I prefer audio in my native language so I have the luxury of being able to take my eyes off the screen for a moment now and then, but that's not really an option when it comes to sign language.
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This is kind of unrelated, but I wonder if a small amount (say 100 signs or so) of sign language (ASL or local equivalent) wouldn't be useful for hearing people in their day-to-day lives. I'm very interested in sign-language, but language being what it is you can't do it alone ...
Check out Cued Speech (one-handed phonetic signing). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn4e9V3oigs It's a different modality of the local spoken language, not a separate language like ASL. You can learn it in a weekend. IMO it should be taught to everyone in the 2nd grade to help with phonological awareness, which is helpful for visual literacy. But it'd also be useful in a lot of noisy situations throughout life.
The value proposition of CS is language accessibility to Deaf/HoH people while still using English.
ASL, which comes with its own body of literature, puns, jokes, culture, etc., wasn't designed in the sense that Cued Speech was, but offers something much more valuable, in my opinion.
Two quick misconceptions to call out for those less familiar with signed languages: 1. ASL is not just English with each word replaced with a sign. It's an incredibly complex language with different grammatical rules, some of which don't have English equivalents. 2. It's incredibly flexible. Many core grammar components will remain consistent, but often if you drive to another city, many words/signs will be different…
Here's another apparent misconception: sign language === ASL. There are many sign languages and many more dialects.
That said; it is amazing how many sign languages can come to similar conclusions due to "always trying to find the simplest way of explaining yourself".
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It can be useful to have some signs, but don't confuse a few signs with a language. One like going to a foreign country and knowing how to ask where the bathroom is, and understanding because more their pointing than their words vs going to the country and getting into a discussion of something weird with a stranger that you just happen to meet. Sign language is a real language you can learn the language. Or you can…
Why do I always sense anger seething below the surface of any conversation about sign language?
Another example, the notion that monkeys can "learn sign language". They can learn to use some signs, like a newborn can learn some words, but how would you feel as a French speaker if someone said "look, the monkey speaks French!" just because they taught the monkey some French words? It implies not that the monkey is smart, but that French is so simplistic that even monkeys can understand it.
Microsoft Teams supports live subtitles - I've not tried it but it looks like it could be interesting. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-live-captions...
English is not always the preferred language. An user of ASL may not necessarily be as proficent in English. The government version of Teams still does not have live subtitles last I checked.
Those seem like reasonable adaptations, but i think Zoom has missed an opportunity here, we all need some kind of sign language with video calls. Where is my "Yes", "No" button, or other instant ways to communicate common things without having to turn on the mic or type in chat ?
I know what you mean and you are right, but in our team we signal trivial stuff like yes/no with gestures, without turning on mics/interrupting speakers.
- a lot of trivial interuptions are "can you see this?" , "can you hear me" etc