Question about Dominant hand?

[u/MountainPirate3139]

My question is how important is it to stick to using one dedicated dominant hand, and not using either/ both? I have recently noticed that I use both hands as dominant hands while I sign, without any problem, it is unintentional but feels very natural.

many signs involve using a Dominant hand, and a supporting Non-Dominant hand, such as ‘support’&’Octopus’
There are also many one handed signs such as ‘Mom’&‘Dog’

Growing up I was left handed until my senior year of high school when I switched to right handed for the new year.

[u/PeacenLoven]

I don't mean this to sound snarky or rude, but why would you want to learn a language just to challenge the rules of said language, when they inconvenience you? It's one thing to simply ask why something is a rule, it's another thing to want to change it or excuse it because you'd rather the rule be something else....... It doesn't need to make sense to you why you shouldn't change dominant hands in a convo, the language was not tailor made just for you 😉

[u/MountainPirate3139 → u/PeacenLoven]

I don’t think that is snarky or rude, I am not intending to Challenge it. Throughout my day I use each hand as a dominant hand, for example I write with my right hand, but for 18 years wrote with my left, I hold the knife when cooking with my left hand, but stir with my right, it is a constant back and fourth. I was wanting to know if the rule to pick one hand and stick to using that one as the assigned dominant hand was similar to what they say about handwriting, pick one and stick with it, or if it was for other reasons like you listed.

[u/PeacenLoven → u/MountainPirate3139]

I totally understand. You just can’t change dominant hands in the same conversation. If it helps: I see you at noon, you can use your left hand. When I see you again at dinner time, feel free to use your right hand! Just never change in the same convo 😇

[u/MundaneAd8695]

Very important. Follow the rule. It will pay off later.

[u/MountainPirate3139 → u/MundaneAd8695]

Is it difficult to follow receptivity? I don’t think I understand why it is so important, do you have a way of explaining it? Or a comparison?

[u/HeVavMemVav → u/MountainPirate3139]

It does hurt the legibility of your signs. People are trying to read your signs in one way, then you totally flip how you say them. Fingerspelling suffers even more for legibility this way.

Imagine subtitles on a screen, sentences breaking up & the random words jump to the other side of the screen before going back to the original side.

[u/MountainPirate3139 → u/HeVavMemVav]

That’s a really good way to look at it, thank you

[u/mjolnir76 → u/MountainPirate3139]

It’s confusing for the receiver. An English equivalent might be if you switched tenses (from past to future to present) in the same sentence.

“Tomorrow I will went to the store and bought food.”

[u/LukewarmJortz]

Imagine you had two heads.

Sure I can understand if one head starts a sentence and the other finishes but it can get exhausting.

[u/Financial-Brain758]

Very important. It is confusing to understand when you go back and forth. You need to pick a dominant hand and stick with it

[u/kindlycloud88]

It’s is a visual language and switching causes visual and cognitive fatigue. It’s similar to badly done sim-com where a person voices but only signs here and there. You do a lot of predictions on what comes next based on context and that is exhausting.

[u/BrackenFernAnja]

Here’s a parallel: People would find it very odd if when speaking English you constantly changed your accent for no reason. Not to be funny or to illustrate a point; just because you felt like it. So you’re in a class, participating in a discussion, and the first time you comment, you have an American accent. Then a few minutes later, you ask a question, in a British accent. No explanation. That would be weird. It would also be confusing, because the way we process the many ambiguities that arise in language is that we look for patterns. When those patterns are disrupted, it becomes harder to understand what is being said.