Numbers in the language of the deaf and dumb. Basic Sign Language Courses

• Silent language interpreters are state-certified professionals who have gone through years of training to become highly skilled sign language interpreters. In most countries, there are certain rules about who can be a sign language interpreter in the fields of law, medicine, education, sociology and psychology. The fact that you memorized the entire sign language dictionary does not give you the right to translate, for example, in such a situation, if you see an accident on the road and a deaf-mute person wants to say something to the police. Every law enforcement officer knows that when a deaf-mute person is involved in an incident, a professional and certified sign language interpreter must be called.
• Hearing people acquire language skills through a pair of eyes and a pair of ears from an early age. Remember that many of your deaf and mute friends have never heard cues, which is a matter of course for a hearing person. Never assume that if a deaf-and-dumb person does not write so well, then this means that he or she is less intelligent than you. Know that when you communicate in sign language, you are also far from perfect.
• If you are studying a sign, do not assume that a deaf person should be ready to take a break from business and at any time begin to help you learn the language and hone your skills. If you want to meet a specific deaf person, be polite. Say hello if the situation allows it, but don't meddle in the person's personal circumstances.
• There are a huge number of systems for sign communication, for example, Sign Supported Speech (SSS), Seeing Essential English (SEE) and Signing Exact English (SEE2). They were created by people outside the culture in which they are used, i.e. by hearing people for the deaf and dumb. These are not natural languages ​​for full and effective communication.
• Deaf-mutes value their personal space as much as hearing people. If you are teaching signing, please do not stare at deaf-mute families or groups of people in restaurants or other public places. Even if you look with admiration at the use of language, it is still very unnerving.
• Never make up your own signs. American Language of the Deaf and Dumb is a universally recognized language, not a game of facial expressions. If you don't know a symbol, spell it out and have the deaf person translate it for you. These gestures were invented by the deaf and dumb community, and it would be very strange if a hearing person starts creating gestures.
• No dictionary in any language is exhaustive. For example, one of the links gives you only one translation of the word "abbreviate", a sign for shortening. And this common sign has another translation - “thicken” (two hands folded in the form of the letter C at chest level are clenched into fists). Remember that many different characters can match one English word, and vice versa.

We are used to counting oral speech the only and main language of the people. But besides it, there are other ways of expressing words and thoughts. People with hearing impairment use body language and facial expressions for interpersonal communication. It is intended for communication between deaf people and is called sign language. Gesture speech is carried out using a visual channel for transmitting information. This type of communication is not widespread and has not yet been fully studied. Only in our state, Russian sign language is used by 2 million people.

In sign language, information is transmitted from talking person to the listener through hand, eye or body movement. It is perceived through the visual channel and has the following properties:

• In sign language, the main place is occupied by the space around the speaking person. When communicating, it affects all levels of the language.
• Unlike spoken words reaching the ears sequentially, the language of the deaf is shown and perceived simultaneously. This helps convey more information using a single gesture.

There is no universal sign language for deaf and dumb people in the world. There are more than 100 sign languages ​​used for communication between people with speech and hearing impairments. People using different gestures will not understand each other. Deaf people can, like speakers, learn or forget the sign language of another country.

The use of sign language is expanding every year, making a primitive system of communication a suitable area for expressing a variety of thoughts and ideas. Sign language is used in the educational system, on television, video lessons. Russian sign language is used only for interpersonal communication of people.

In Europe, the language of the deaf appeared in early XVIII century. Before his advent, deaf people lived and studied in isolation from others. The first school for the deaf and dumb appeared in 1760 in France. The main task of teachers was teaching deaf children to read and write. To solve this problem, the old French sign language, which appeared among a group of deaf-mutes, was used. He was slightly modified. Specially designed learning gestures were added, which were used to indicate grammar. In training, the “mimic method” of transmitting information was used, when each letter was indicated by a separate hand gesture.

This system of education later began to be used in Russia. In 1806, the first school for the deaf was opened in Pavlovsk. And in 1951, the World Federation of the Deaf appeared. Members of the organization decided to create a standard sign language. It was to be applied to deaf professionals and public figures participating in the congress.

To standardize sign language, experts from many countries, having analyzed similar gestures used by different nationalities, developed a single language for all. And in 1973, a dictionary of sign speech was published, which was prepared by the World Federation of the Deaf.

Shortly thereafter, at the 7th Congress of Deafness in America, the International Language of the Deaf was created and approved, which was used for communication between deaf people from different countries who took part in world-class events.

Sign Language Linguistics

Despite the prevailing opinion about the language of the deaf as a primitive language, it has a rich vocabulary and is not at all easy to use. A linguistic study was conducted, which proved the presence in the language of elements that are present in full-fledged oral speech.

Gesture words consist of simple components - hirem, which do not carry a semantic load. There are 3 elements that describe the structure and difference between gestures:

• The location of the gesture to the body of the speaker;

A gesture can be used in a neutral space for it, on the same level with a part of the body without touching it.

• The shape of the hand that performs the gesture;
• The movement of the hand when performing a gesture.

The movement of the hand in space and the movement of the hand or fingers with the same position of the hand are taken into account.

• The movement of the hands in space relative to the body of the speaker's body or to each other.

Gestures are schematic in nature, invented in the course of communication and have a distinctive connection with the visual designation of the word. The language of the deaf has its own grammar to facilitate communication on diverse topics and is not a visual repetition of ordinary language.

Distinctive features of the structure of sign language

• specificity;

There is no generalization in the gesture, limited by the sign of the object and action. There is not a single gesture in which the words "big" and "go" are used. Such words are used in various gestures that accurately convey the signs or movement of a person.

A gesture is capable of depicting an object. Sounds or letters that make up words, independent of the characteristics of the object, can be conveyed by a special movement of the hand. For example, for a picture of a house, the hands show a roof, and for a picture of friendship, they show a handshake.

The origin of the names of things in speech is sometimes impossible to explain. The origin of gestures is easier to explain, since their history of creation and emergence is known. But even it is erased over time and becomes more schematic.

• Imagery;

Thanks to the imagery, gestures are easier to remember and learn. It makes gestures clearer for deaf people to communicate with each other.

• Syncretism;

Gestures have the property of unity in the transmission of words different in sound, but the same in meaning. For example, fire, bonfire or video, shooting. To designate synonyms in a gesture, additional features of the subject are used. For example, to designate a picture, the word “draw” and “frame” are shown.

• Amorphous;

Sign language consists of concepts, but it is not capable of expressing such forms of grammar as case, gender, tense, number, aspect. For this, gestural mimic speech is used, which from a small number of gestures receives the usual combinations of words. This happens by gluing (agglutinating) the word in a certain order:

1. A person or object is a designation of an action (I - sleep);
2. The ongoing action is denial (to be able to - no);
3. Designation of the subject - quality;
4. The state of an object or person (a cat is sick, slightly).

• Grammatical spatiality.

Gesture speech conveys several phrases and words at the same time. An expression transmitted in this way contains, in addition to gestures, non-manual components. This is the facial expression of a speaking person, the movement of body parts, a look. This type of information transfer is used, as well as intonation in oral speech.

The language of deaf people is non-linear. Grammar is transmitted along with vocabulary, the speaker's gesture can be modified during communication.

Teaching Russian Sign Language

Learning sign language will take the same amount of time as learning any other language, special video courses will come in handy. In addition to the theoretical part, practice is required. Without it, it is not possible to master the language. Understanding deaf and dumb people is much more difficult than showing something yourself. The test speech contains words or expressions that do not have a translation into Russian.

You can learn sign language on your own, with the help of video lessons or a dictionary. Using video training, you can learn how to use in practice when communicating with deaf people such simple, but necessary words like "thank you", "sorry", "love". The word "thank you" in the language of the deaf will come in handy in life when meeting deaf people.

Using video lessons, it is easier to learn and remember information, to understand how to correctly perform a gesture, to practice by repeating movements. Learning the language of the deaf, with the help of dictionaries, lectures or video lessons, solves the following tasks:

• Improving speech skills through the use of sign language;
• Expansion of knowledge about the linguistic component of the language;
• Formation of knowledge about the language of the deaf as a natural form of communication between people, the presence of similar and distinctive characteristics with other languages;
• Acquaintance with the history of the origin of the language and the stages of development;
• Formation of the importance of language learning and understanding of the role of Russian and sign speech in the life of society.

Learning a language with the help of a special program or video lesson contributes to the development of communication in different living conditions, with informal communication with friends, parents, strangers or when talking in a formal setting.

In our classes, we devoted more and more time to the history of the creation of writing. But this time I wanted something different, more unusual and modern. So the idea came up to tell children about other languages. Already in the plans are:

Sign language;
- the language of spies;
- programming languages;
- Braille cipher.

Gestuno is the language of people with hearing impairments.

Deaf people communicate using gestures - quick hand movements accompanied by a lively facial expression. These gestures, like any other language, need to be learned. They quickly convey information to the interlocutor. Where hearing people need many words, for example: Shall we go across the bridge?, one gesture is enough for deaf people.
This possibility is also used where it is impossible to hear: under water by divers or in space by astronauts working outside the spacecraft.
International alphabet of gestures. Each language has its own system of naming letters or sounds.

The sign languages ​​of the deaf and dumb differ in different countries. There are TV programs in which the text is "translated" for the deaf. Then, in the corner of the screen, you can see the announcer, who silently gesticulates, i.e. speaks in sign language.
There are more than 13 million deaf and hard of hearing people in Russia. The birth of a child with hearing impairment in the family is a difficult test both for parents and for the child himself, who needs special teaching aids and, most importantly, communication with peers and relatives. Fortunately, the Russian Society of the Deaf is actively working on this front. Thanks to the activities of its branches, people with hearing impairments unite and communicate with each other without feeling excluded from the social process.

There are also problems: the lack of educational institutions that accept people with hearing impairments, the lack of sign language interpreters and teaching aids, allowing to master the sign language.
Russian Sign Language is an independent language unit used for communication by people with hearing impairments.

Sign language does not consist only of a static figure shown by hands - it also contains a dynamic component (the hands move in a certain way and are in a certain position relative to the face) and a mimic component (the speaker's facial expression illustrates the gesture). Also, during a conversation in gestuno, it is customary to "pronounce" words with your lips.

In addition to this, when communicating with people with hearing impairments, you should be extremely attentive to your posture and involuntary hand gestures - they can be misinterpreted.
The basis of sign language is the dactyl (finger) alphabet. Each letter of the Russian language corresponds to a certain gesture (see picture).

Knowing this alphabet will help at first to overcome the "language barrier" between you and a person with a hearing impairment. But Dactyling (spelling) is rarely used by the deaf in everyday speech. Its main purpose is to pronounce proper names, as well as terms for which their own gesture has not yet been formed.

For most words in Russian Sign Language, there is a gesture that denotes the whole word. At the same time, I want to note that almost all gestures are intuitive and very logical. For example:

"Writing" - we kind of take a pen and write on the palm of our hand. "Count" - we begin to bend our fingers. "Grandfather" - very reminiscent of a beard, right? Sometimes in gestures for complex concepts, you simply marvel at how accurately the essence of the subject is noticed.

The structure of sign language is not complicated at all. The word order corresponds to the usual sentences of the Russian language. For prepositions and conjunctions of one letter, their dactyl gesture (a letter from the alphabet) is used. Verbs are not conjugated or declined. To indicate time, it is enough to give a marker word (Yesterday, Tomorrow, 2 days ago) or put the gesture "was" before the verb.

Like any other language, Russian sign language is very lively, changes all the time and varies greatly from region to region. Benefits and educational materials updated at a snail's pace. Therefore, the recent publication of a primer for children with hearing impairments has become a real event.

The basic gestures with which you can communicate with deaf people are quite elementary:

The main difficulty is not even in mastering gestures, but in learning to "read" them from the hands. Gestures are complex - they consist of several positions of the brush, following one after another. And out of habit it is difficult to separate the end of one gesture and the beginning of another. Therefore, learning gestuno takes no less time than learning any foreign language, and maybe more.

We often see people with hearing impairments in the subway and on the street, in cafes. These are cheerful, shining people, completely ordinary, just having other ways of communicating. Deafness does not prevent them from being happy - having friends, a favorite job and a family. They can even sing in tin and dance - yes, yes, people with hearing impairments still hear music,

It all started again with the series. Although, to be completely accurate, then from a beautiful interior. I was looking for series with interiors from Greg Grande, the same one who was the artist on .

So I came across the series "They were mixed up in the hospital."

It is about two girls who were mistakenly confused by doctors in the maternity hospital, and the families found out about it only when the daughters were 16 years old. This is where the series begins, and then everything seems to be as usual: first love, conflicts with parents, disputes between the parents themselves, rivalry at school, parting and trying on. Oh yes, all this in beautiful interiors.

The trick is that one of the main characters is deaf.

She became deaf after an illness at the age of two and now wears a hearing aid, goes to a school for the deaf and speaks sign language. And the plot twists around it too.

I became seriously interested when I started watching interviews with actors and found out that some of the actors are really deaf.

Actress Cathy Leclerc, who plays the title character, has Ménière's disease, whose syndromes include hearing loss and dizziness. The disease does not prevent her from working, but it helps to talk about this diagnosis in an interview and more people go to the doctors to get tested.

Even at school, Kathy learned sign language. Imagine, in the States, you can easily choose a sign language as a second language for learning.

One of the episodes of the series is filmed entirely in sign language, not a single word is used in it. At the very beginning, the two main actresses appear, who warn the audience, they say, do not worry, everything is in order with your TV, but some of the scenes will be filmed in complete silence.

It's so cool! Talk about people with special needs, not through short commercials or tear-jerking speeches.

I watched the series and realized that people with disabilities are not only the people we imagine in wheelchairs.

Oh, this stereotype, firmly settled in my head thanks to the sign on the windows of cars and on the pavement of parking lots.

And so I ran into a deaf company at a crossroads. I remembered that at the age of eight I myself suffered a serious otitis media with the risk of losing part of my hearing. The organizers of the event, who invited me as a speaker, asked me to speak louder, as there was a participant in the hall with a hearing aid.

It felt like the universe was desperately hinting to me, “Would you like to learn sign language?”

I entered into the search "training in sign language" and very quickly found in St. Petersburg school of sign language "Image". The school is located on the territory Pedagogical University Herzen, which means that at least twice a week I find myself in the very center of the city.

The university campus that I need to completely cross - from the checkpoint with a strict security guard to building 20, our teacher Denis Aleksandrovich - “So, you already learn these gestures at home, now there is no time to spend on this” (in fact, he is very cool!) - all this brings me back to the nostalgia for the student past.

Training twice a week for two months. This is an express course, the regular course lasts four months. The session goes on for an hour and a half. What you need to learn something new and not get tired. And most importantly - no sportswear hated by me in a bag, changing clothes and showering in open booths. In general, one hundred thousand five hundred times better than sports.

There are many students in the group. One of my classmates born in 2000. Imagine! I thought they were still somewhere kindergarten and they are already in higher education. It's hard for me to believe this. But there are also older students like me.

Most of my classmates ended up in class for the same reason I did. Interesting.

Only a few classes have passed, and I can already tell about myself, what my name is, what I do, how old I am and what year I was born. I can talk about my family and keep the conversation going: “Do you have a dog?” "No, I don't have a dog, I have a cat."

It's funny, but incredibly exciting.

Some interesting things about sign language

• The sign language in different countries is different, in our country it is Russian Sign Language (RSL). For some reason, this is terribly disappointing for everyone, so, they say, they could agree on one language and they would have super-strength.
• Dactylology is a form of speech where each letter is transmitted as a sign, but it is not a sign language. For example, you can dactylize a name or a foreign word for which there is no sign yet.
• Deaf people read lips, so it is important for them to see not only the hands that show gestures, but also the lips that pronounce words.
• Sign language has a different grammar and therefore uses a different word order. For example, a question word is always placed at the end of a sentence.
• A sign language is not a tracing-paper from a real language, but a full-fledged language with its own linguistic features, structure, and grammar. In sign language, the form of the sign is important, its localization (the same gesture at the forehead and at the chest means different things), the nature of the movement and the non-manual component (facial expressions, turn of the body, head).

What I like most about my studies is that for the first time I try not to be an excellent student.

There is no need to write down anything in the lessons - I put the notebook out of my bag after the first meeting. Yes, there are homework assignments, but I don't always do them. No grades or tests. I remember well what they say in class and that's enough for me.

This post has been brewing for a little over six months. And finally, I got around to finishing it and summing it up.

There are more than 13 million deaf and hard of hearing people in Russia. The birth of a child with hearing impairment in the family is a difficult test both for parents and for the child himself, who needs special teaching aids and, most importantly, communication with peers and relatives. Fortunately, the Russian Society of the Deaf is actively working on this front. Thanks to the activities of its branches, people with hearing impairments unite and communicate with each other without feeling excluded from the social process.
There are also problems: the lack of educational institutions that accept people with hearing impairments, the lack of sign language interpreters and teaching aids that allow them to master sign language.

The idea to learn Russian sign language and help as a sign language interpreter came to me a long time ago. But since then and to this day, I can not find the time. Materials have already been found, all the necessary information has been obtained, but there is still no time. Well, okay, let's start small - with the primary educational program, so to speak.

Russian Sign Language is an independent language unit used for communication by people with hearing impairments.
Sign language does not consist only of a static figure shown by hands - it also contains a dynamic component (the hands move in a certain way and are in a certain position relative to the face) and a mimic component (the speaker's facial expression illustrates the gesture). Also, during a conversation in gestuno, it is customary to "pronounce" words with your lips.
In addition to this, when communicating with people with hearing impairments, you should be extremely attentive to your posture and involuntary hand gestures - they can be misinterpreted.
The basis of sign language is the dactyl (finger) alphabet. Each letter of the Russian language corresponds to a certain gesture (see picture).

Knowing this alphabet will help at first to overcome the "language barrier" between you and a person with a hearing impairment. But Dactyling (spelling) is rarely used by the deaf in everyday speech. Its main purpose is to pronounce proper names, as well as terms for which their own gesture has not yet been formed.
For most words in Russian Sign Language, there is a gesture that denotes the whole word. At the same time, I want to note that almost all gestures are intuitive and very logical. For example:



"Writing" - we kind of take a pen and write on the palm of our hand. "Count" - we begin to bend our fingers. "Grandfather" - very reminiscent of a beard, right? Sometimes in gestures for complex concepts, you simply marvel at how accurately the essence of the subject is noticed.
The structure of sign language is not complicated at all. The word order corresponds to the usual sentences of the Russian language. For prepositions and conjunctions of one letter, their dactyl gesture (a letter from the alphabet) is used. Verbs are not conjugated or declined. To indicate time, it is enough to give a marker word (Yesterday, Tomorrow, 2 days ago) or put the gesture "was" before the verb.
Like any other language, Russian sign language is very lively, changes all the time and varies greatly from region to region. Manuals and training materials are updated at a snail's pace. Therefore, the recent publication of a primer for children with hearing impairments has become a real event.
The basic gestures with which you can communicate with deaf people are quite elementary:




Forgive me for the handicraft execution, I literally made the plate "on my knee" based on the materials of the 1980 textbook. I note that the word "I" is often shown with the letter I from the alphabet.
But the main difficulty lies not even in the basis of gestures, but in learning to "read" them from the hands. At first, I had to face the fact that gestures are complex - they consist of several brush positions following one after another. And out of habit, it’s damned difficult to separate the end of one gesture and the beginning of another. Therefore, learning zhestuno, in my opinion, will take no less time than learning any foreign language, and maybe more.
The materials on the study of gestuno, which I managed to find on the net, are rather scarce. Nevertheless:
1. Textbook "Learning gestuno" 1980 edition
2. Dictionary of gestures, approximately the same age as the textbook
3. Training on the knowledge of letters - they show you a gesture, you enter a letter. Entered incorrectly - the face is upset.
5. Relatively new video tutorial on Russian sign language. Archived into a five-part multi-volume archive. The password for the archives (it was apparently set by the author of the manual) is wonderful - Balrog. Attention: the manual does not open on 64-bit Windows =(
Piece 1
Piece 2
Piece 3
Piece 4
Piece 5
6. Translation review literature on the meaning of gestures and facial expressions

All materials for safety were re-uploaded by me to Yandex and also duplicated on the hard disk. On the net, you never know if you can find this or that book again.
Well, in conclusion, I want to say one more thing. I often see people with hearing impairments in the subway and on the street, in cafes. These are cheerful, shining people, completely ordinary, just having other ways of communicating. Deafness does not prevent them from being happy - having friends, a favorite job and a family. They can even sing and dance on zhestuno - yes, yes, people with hearing impairments still hear music, perceiving its wave vibrations.
But at the same time, the thought does not leave me that simply by mastering a couple of gestures, society can make their life much easier and more convenient. I will think, if I do take up the study of gestuno and it does not annoy the friends too much, gradually publish simple phrases in gestuno for everyday use - so that they can be studied and applied if necessary.