Fingerspelling tips - Auslan
So I was creeping about on the sign language tag and I found this [link]Â which is about ASL, but pretty well applies to Auslan so you should check it out! Also, I think the dot point that says "Don't panic" is really good! For reals, if I panic everything just blurs past and no matter how many times I ask for a repeat I just get more flustered and less likely to understand (and then I finally get it and feel like a total muffin.)
So, anyway, it made me think of all the amazing advice I've been given about fingerspelling and I am putting it here both to share and to remind myself. Bear in mind I am a student and not AT ALL fluent or very good at fingerspelling, but I am working on it and a lot of this advice is from my teachers.
Learn to recognise common letter combinations/word endings eg. -ING -ION -IOUS CH -CK TH etc.
When you know that a word doesn't have a sign and is commonly fingerspelled try to remember that. I keep a list of words that are usually fingerspelled, so I can practise them.
Watch out for the letter C. I'm not even joking about this, I miss the letter C constantly because it's often at the start before you realise a word is being fingerspelled/also it is the only letter that is one handed and it breaks my brain.
If you know that you are having a bad day for fingerspelling reception, try to get a good angle to look at the other person's hands, by which I mean try to stand on a slight angle to them on the side of their dominant hand (Does that make sense? I mean so that you can see more of their supporting hand's palm), which means there is less chance you'll mix up V M N and L because their supporting hand isn't blocking your view.
Practise vowels constantly!
Fingerspell the alphabet backward.
Film yourself or a (willing) friend fingerspelling and watch it.
When you are on trains fingerspell all of the stations as you pass them.
That's all I can think of for now...Â
Call me and be like "Hey Extendedmetaphor, wanna do some fingerspelling practise?" cause I'll be like "Yes, yes I do." Or I'll be like "How did you get my number, also it's three in the morning?"
S and U! Look at them! They look the same sometimes! Why is this?! Oh god... Practice both seeing the difference between them and signing the transition S to U and U to S.
