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HOW TO STUDY KOREAN SIGN LANGUAGE

long story short: search for 수화 배우기 on youtube

BLOG BREAKDOWN:

INTRO

HELPFUL VOCAB

KAKAO CHATS

NOTES/TIPS

YOUTUBE RECOMENDATIONS

WHAT LEVEL SHOULD I BE?

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「 Intro 」

Korean Sign Language is recognized as an official language of South Korea :) They call it 수화 but thesedays, many call it 수어 (수화 + 언어)

수화 can also just mean "sign". i have never been corrected, so idk if im right or not.... but when i want to be shown a sign I ask "this라는 수화 어떻게 할까요?" "how should i sign "this"?" and im at least answered so who cares if its wrong😅

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「 helpful vocab 」

before i give you sources, lets look at some helpful vocab~

얼굴 표정-> facial expression

청각장애인 / 농인 / 농아인

->all of these mean "deaf" most ive encountered use 농인 but each deaf person has their own preference!

--> non deaf cultured koreans will be familiar with 청각장애인

---> you can replace 인 for things such as: school for the deaf

청각장애학교 / 농학교 / 농아학교

---> idk whats more popular, but the 농인들 in the chat im currently in uses 농아학교 (it is shorter than the first and rolls of the tongue better than the 2nd lol)

청인 -> a person who can hear

(저는 미국 청인이에요 i am a hearing american)

-> non deaf cultured koreans ive encountered dont know this word and assume it is an abbreviation for deaf.

지화 -> this refers to the more minute signs. i think its "finger spelling" except idk if "finger spelling" includes the number system as well. 지화 is spelling and numbers

지문자 -> (지화 + 문자...I assume lol) this is the spelling. do a search for 지문자 on youtube and youll get videos teaching it

지숫자 -> (지화 + 숫자...I assume lol) this is the numbers. do a search for 지숫자 on youtube

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「 kakao chats 」

-> I have one that is mostly filled with fellow korean students so we can encourage eachother but it has a couple of Koreans and one deaf Korean. so you can ask questions and maybe get answers

the code is suhwa

-> I cant find the one I used at first... but if you search open chats for 수어 and 수화 there are a few :)

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IMPORTANT NOTES

-> you may see users teach different signs. its important to know if they learned in university or are deaf. just like with ASL, theres "official" signing and then signing the deaf actually use (kinda like proper speech vs how we actually talk)

ASL and KSL differences

KSL tends to be a little slower and more precise than asl when spelling! you dont spell fast like in asl!! each movement is distinct and must maintain a level plane! you kinda visualize the top and bottom characters within a "block" like for 한 you would move down for the ㄴ to show its a 받침

DONT FLIP PEOPLE OFF SIGNING BROTHER😱

-> a common mistake with beginners (myself included. woops) is to sign brother incorrectly. your index finger is kind of raised and IS NOT LEVEL with your middle finger

-> this incorporates the sign for a mountain (based on the 한자-> 山 ) so to get a feel for it.. hold your hand flat. now curl in your thumb, pinky, and ring finger. your index finger and middle finger are still out. now, imagine the middle finger is flat land. bend your index finger until it forms a mountian! now face your arm outward. TADA

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「 youtubers 」

listed in no particular order

KSLdeaf

농인: he has friends from other countries so he offers more than just KSL. since he is learning English, most of his videos have english subtitles. he actually has a video on real signing vs "official"

DEAFiN

idk for sure that ALL are deaf. but most are. They have stories and just regular dialogues:) some vids have no subs while others have tons of options. This story is a traditional folktale with english and korean subs!

HiRuby

청인: a bit expressionless and expressions are super important! but her entire video is subbed so its extremely helpful for those with bad listening like myself😜 shes very soft spoken and pleasant to listen to as well^^ she actually does well showing you how to visualize the spelling. moving to the side and up and down and staying level.

손사탕

청인: I love her channel. she has a variety of content and i find her videos entertaining. she also emphasizes the importance of epression. she usually has a big portion of her video subbed. what i love most is she has videos for vocabulary so you can learn one word instead of watching a 10min video lol

dreamwebs

청인 (?): i only assume cause of how well he speaks but that doesnt mean anything. he can also be bland like hiruby (facewise). captions pop up for signed words, but his explanations are not subtitled. he breaks the signs down really well though so you can still understand easily^^ ive always only watched the guy i linked, but theres other people on the channel too so check them out~ the video also has a sample signing dialogue that is captioned

꿈꾸는손

청인: he is also good about facial expressions! all of his videos will either start or end with "sign language is a habit" and you can tell he means it. I mainly watch cause I love his enthusiasm. I dont know how well beginners can learn from him but hes still fun to watch^^ He also has like little mini convos with himself so its also great practice vs just getting random words shoved in your brain

susan raymer

an american and korean friend! they dont have alot of videos but ones they do have contain both asl and ksl :)

「 random 」

here is a video with lots of vocab and a sample dialogue

and a playlist of verrrry slowly signed convos for you to try deciphering as you learn

「 extra 」

these are just my main sources. if you search 수화 배우기 on youtube you will find lots of others^^

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「 what level should I be? 」

most at least have the vocab captioned so all levels can learn. i think upper beginner will be easiest because you will already have some basic vocab knowledge and wont have to look up as much info

intermediates have the easiest time learning cause they can communicate with deaf people in a chatroom to have their questions answered and theyll understand some of the explanations as well. i was intermediate when i started so idk 100% how it is for a beginner, but i think alpt of these people demonstrate well enough that it should still be easy enough to learn (as easy as sign language can be anyways😅)