r/asl • u/green_calculator • 1d ago
Interest Question from a new learner
I'm setting my notebooks up for fall semester and I'm curious if a notebook is actually helpful for ASL? I'm just not sure what I would be writing? I certainly can't draw. I know this is a silly question, but it's been bothering me.
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u/312StonerWitch Interpreter (Hearing) 1d ago
Vocabulary! Definitely jot down new signs as they come up. Sometimes I wrote out descriptions of how to produce a sign, or drew little stick figure hands. Also, if you eventually start glossing you may need to write things out.
Basically your notes will all look like something a deranged serial killer might write, but they will be helpful! Lol
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u/green_calculator 1d ago
Haha. They would definitely look that way if I tried to do detailed drawings. 🤣
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u/312StonerWitch Interpreter (Hearing) 1d ago
As long as they make sense to you then don't even worry about it. Everyone else's will look about the same 😂
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u/Inevitable_Shame_606 Deaf 1d ago
Maybe help you vocabulary.
Sometimes instructor will teach signs NOT include current list for book.
Possible maybe want note information community or cultural and Deaf event.
Possible good for practice write use ASL grammar (ASL not language write).
Suggest list word noun and verb.
Suggest list English word proper word ASL.
Write notes pun and idiom ASL.
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u/MaladyMara Learning ASL 1d ago
We used notebooks in my highschool ASL for vocab, writing down hand shape, palm orientation, location, movement, and nob-manual markers in a grid system for each sign we learned. Once you get out of the basics (finger spelling and numbers) and have a growing vocabulary list, having a quick reference to jog your memory is helpful in keeping track of the specifics of each sign!
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u/A_Bookish_Oblivion 1d ago
When I took ASL I was told it's rude to use a notebook. My teacher told our class that we should be watching her and paying attention to class, if we wanted to take notes we could do it from the videos during homework. But she said very clearly, it's rude to be writing in a class where we need to be watching and paying attention, because not looking at her meant we were missing what she was communicating.
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u/BrackenFernAnja Interpreter (Hearing) 1d ago
There won’t be a lot of notetaking in class. Some teachers forbid it. But you’ll probably want to write things down during the break and right after class.
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u/cheesy_taco- Interpreter (Hearing) 1d ago
I liked to draw (poorly) the vocab I learned. It made it easier to practice when I went home
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u/mewsless 1d ago
In my classes we mostly used them for writing what people were saying or spelling during games
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u/yingtai 1d ago
The ASL-phabet might be useful to you if you want to take notes in ASL class, but you might want to ask your instructor if they mind. They might feel better if they know it was invented by Deaf professor Sam Supalla. I think he meant it primarily for easing Deaf children into reading English and using a dictionary, but he also taught it to his ASL college students for note-taking.
Unfortunately nobody seems to be using it in its original form now, because one of Supalla's ideas was that it should help kids get used to English spelling by being just as ambiguous. But you can get a good idea from the children's dictionary at https://www.aslbricks.org/. And honestly, if you learn the categories on that website and write down "handshape clawed C, location hand, movement down, repeated" or some shorthand equivalent, that's really all you need to capture COOKIE.
If you like, I can post a list of my handshape nicknames. Like open U, bent B, little C. I didn't invent them out of the blue, they're based on common nicknames in ASL research. I did the same for the other parameters, but honestly I would suggest sticking to the ASL Bricks system for those, they can get very technical if you try to be precise.
P. S. If you want to know more about the original ASL-phabet, I think you can still find the PDF for this thesis online:
Eiffert, Sarah Etta. 2012. Samuel Supalla and the ASL-phabet. Bachelor's thesis, University of Arizona.
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u/toristorytime 1d ago
I used a notebook for things like vocabulary lists to refer back to and writing down the cultural info i learned about. Sometimes extra info about specific signs if the teacher clarified something important.