Online dictionary of the deaf and dumb. How to learn sign language easily and quickly? Step-by-step description and recommendations

Our world is diverse. It cannot be said that there are people who are exactly alike, both externally and internally. Thus, another universe, which has its own properties, is also inhabited by those who are usually called deaf-mute people. Their perception of the environment is many times different from how a person who does not have such physical disabilities understands reality.

But it is important to note that the sign language of the deaf and dumb has the same versatility and colorfulness as that of a healthy person. The dictionary contains more than 2,000 gestures. And gesture signs are entire words, so showing and learning some of them will not be difficult.

Nonverbal sign language

Before getting into the dictionary of sign language, it would be appropriate to note that one of the misconceptions about it is that it depends on the verbal language that we use every day (sound and written) or that it supposedly originated from the latter, and even that the language of the deaf was founded by a hearing person. Moreover, it is generally accepted incorrectly that gestures of a silent language are accepted as fingerprinting of letters. That is, letters are depicted with hands. But that's not true.

In this language, dactylology is used to pronounce place names, specific terms and proper names. It is very easy to get acquainted with its basics since there is an established alphabet. And you will be able to easily communicate with a deaf-mute person by spelling out the word using gestures. Sign language for the deaf in Russian dactylology has 33 dactyl signs.

Sign language lessons

More detailed information about the language of the deaf and mute can be found in the book by G.L. Zaitseva. "Gesture speech" Let's take a more detailed look at the most common gestures.

If you are asking the question: “Do I, a healthy person, need to know such a language?”, the answer is simple - sometimes there is not a lot of knowledge, sometimes it is not in demand. But perhaps one day, thanks to them, you will be able to help, for example, a lost deaf-mute.

• 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 have memorized the entire sign language dictionary does not give you the right to translate, for example, in such a situation, if you saw 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 person is involved in an incident, a professional and certified sign language interpreter must be called upon.
• Hearing people acquire knowledge of language 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 spoken words, which a hearing person takes for granted. Never assume that if a deaf-mute person does not write as well as he or she does, that means he or she is less intelligent than you. Know that when you communicate using sign language, you are also far from perfect.
• If you are learning a sign, don't assume that a deaf person should be ready to take a break and start helping you learn the language and hone your skills at a moment's notice. If you want to meet a specific deaf person, be polite. Say hello if the situation allows it, but do not get involved in the person’s personal circumstances.
• There are a huge number of sign communication systems, such as 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, that is, by hearing people for the deaf and dumb. These are not natural languages ​​for meaningful and effective communication.
• Deaf and mute people value their personal space no less than hearing people. If you are learning signs, please do not stare at deaf families or groups of people in restaurants or other public places. Even if you look at the use of language with admiration, it is still very unnerving.
• Never invent signs yourself. ASL is a universally recognized language, not a game of mimicry. If you don't know a symbol, spell it out and ask a deaf person to translate it for you. These gestures were invented by the deaf community, and it would be very strange if a hearing person started 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 - “to thicken” (two hands folded in the shape of the letter C at chest level are clenched into fists). Remember that many different characters can be the same as one English word, and vice versa.

How to learn sign language? This question has worried people for a long time, because there have been deaf and dumb people at all times.

It is more difficult for such people to adapt to society and to lead a full life. In the old days, in many European countries, people with hearing and speech impairments were not considered normal. They were sent to psychiatric hospitals for compulsory treatment. Society treated them negatively.

Before answering the question “how to learn sign language?”, let’s consider how the situation has changed over time and learn the background to the emergence of deaf pedagogy and dactylology.

Bonet system

Fortunately for the deaf and dumb, there were also positive-minded people who felt sorry for them and wanted to help. Such a person was, for example, the priest Juan Pablo Bonet. He lived at the beginning of the 17th century. One day, Bonet was hired as an assistant to a wealthy family, the head of which was an important official. This gentleman's son suffered from deafness; no one could teach him writing or arithmetic.

Soon the priest created his own training system for this boy. He came up with a special symbol for each letter in the alphabet. The question of how to learn sign language did not even arise with this deaf-mute boy; Bonet began to work with the child with enthusiasm and great enthusiasm.

Very soon the boy learned the entire alphabet. After this, rumors about the Bonet system spread throughout Spain. The priest published a book in which he described his method in detail.

School of Michel Charles de Lepeux

Michel Charles de Lepeux became famous for organizing and opening the world's first school for educating deaf and dumb people. He took the book of Juan Bonet as the basis for his method. By the way, in Paris at that time there already existed a semblance of sign language in Old French. However, Michel de Lepe adapted this similarity into modern French, and communication between deaf-mutes began to consist of more than just individual words. Now people could communicate for real, build a smooth and coherent “speech”.

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet School

Thomas Gallaudet, after visiting the de Leppe school, returned to the States and opened his own educational institution. The method was borrowed from a French colleague. At Thomas Gallaudet's school there were real "lectures" on how to learn sign language, adapted into English.

And again this method enjoyed great success and popularity.

Oralists opposed such a system of education. According to their beliefs, such a technique separates deaf people from the hearing community, and there is actually no benefit from it.

Alexander Graham Bell and his school of oralists

Here they taught writing and reading using a completely different system. Each speech sound (depending on the position of the lips) was marked with a written symbol. Initially, this method was supposed to be used to correct diction. But in the process, Bell taught the deaf and dumb in the same way.

The first deaf pedagogical schools in Russia

In 1806, the first school of deaf pedagogy was opened in Pavlovsk (near St. Petersburg). They taught here according to the French system.

In 1860, such a school opened in Moscow. In the capital, the German method was used as the basis for teaching how to learn sign language for deaf and dumb people.

Gradually, researchers and scientists began to appear in our country who were interested in such a training system.

Lev Semenovich Vygotsky

At first, he did not particularly believe in the benefits of sign language; he considered it very limited. But some time later, in one of his works, he called sign language extremely complex and diverse. The scientist considered it richly developed and recognized its undeniable benefits for deaf and dumb people.

Rachel Boskis and Natalia Morozova

We studied Vygotsky's works. In their work on speech development, they concluded that the grammar of simple Russian and sign language is different.

It was mistakenly believed that deaf people cannot learn sign language on their own, and also learn verbal speech at the same time.

Victor Ivanovich Fleury

He was a teacher and worked as a school director in St. Petersburg. He conducted a deep analysis of “deaf-mute speech” and came to the conclusion that sign language, Russian, can be learned by every person with hearing or speech impairment. In addition, he noticed that in certain companies and societies of the deaf, sign language has its own characteristics, differences and subtle patterns inherent specifically to that society. Just as in “our” (verbal speech) there is jargon and specific words, so in “silent speech” this is also present.

He wrote the book "Deaf and Mute". In this work, the teacher collected all the gestures and signs known to him.

There were other people who contributed to Russian education of the deaf: I. A. Sokolyansky, L. V. Shcherba, A. Ya. Udal.

So how do you learn silent sign language?

Let's look at this question in more detail. Below are step-by-step instructions.

Introduction to dactylology

First you need to get acquainted with dactylology. This is the name of a special form of speech. Dactylology includes the fingerprint alphabet. In it, each letter of the alphabet has its own designation - a sign made of fingers. These signs are called dactylems.

Many people are deeply mistaken that sign language and the dactyl alphabet are one and the same thing. There is a difference: dactylems convey words letter by letter, while sign language conveys whole words.

There is also manoral speech. With this form of communication, words are read from the lips, gestures only emphasize hard and soft, deaf and voiced consonants.

Finger placement technique

When learning the fingerprint alphabet, you should not rush. You need to remember well and practice the technique of placing your fingers. At first your hand will get tired. But after two or three workouts, your fingers will begin to get used to it and bend better.

Fingering speed

Having perfected the technique of forming dactyls, we move on to the speed of placing fingers. In deaf pedagogy, proper names, surnames, and geographical names are shown letter by letter.

The dactyl alphabet can be found in the form of a picture or use a more visual video tutorial. By the way, sign language and dactylology are different in each country. Unfortunately, there is no single language for the deaf and dumb.

Practice

Having mastered all the dactylems, you should practice. Learn basic words, names or titles. Videos, films can help with this, there is even a special application for Android.

Counting and numbers

Once you have a little practice, you should master counting. It is advisable to immediately learn to show at least the simplest numbers. This will greatly advance the study of sign language.

Sequence of study

Let's move on to sign language itself. It contains about 2000 different symbols. How to quickly learn sign language with such a volume of signs? In fact, everything is not as difficult as it seems.

You should start learning gestures with simple words “hello”, “goodbye”, “sorry”, “thank you”. You should learn them gradually, without chasing quantity. It is better to learn a small number of gestures in one training session.

And the last recommendation. If you are seriously thinking about learning the language of the deaf, it may be worth looking for such courses in your city. They are not widespread, but you can still find them. Such courses are good because here you can get practice in live communication, hone your skills and language proficiency.

Few people have encountered the problem of communicating with deaf people. Even fewer people understand what such speech is based on. One of the misconceptions is that deaf sign language was invented only by hearing people, and that it depends on ordinary speech. Actually this is not true. The second misconception is that sign languages ​​include fingerprinting of letters, that is, drawing letters with hands.

Dactylology shows words one letter at a time, while sign signs show them as a whole. There are more than 2000 such gesture words in dictionaries for the deaf. Some of them are quickly remembered and easily depicted.

The concept of "sign language"

The sign language of the deaf is an independent language that arose naturally or was created artificially. It consists of a combination of gestures that are made with the hands and are complemented by facial expressions, body position, and lip movements. It is most often used for the purpose of communication among deaf or hard of hearing people.

How did sign languages ​​originate?

Most of us are inclined to believe that deaf sign language actually originated among hearing people. They used gestures to communicate silently. Be that as it may, people with speech and hearing impairments use it.

An interesting fact is that only 1.5% of people in the world are completely deaf. The largest number of people with hearing impairments is found in Brazil, among the Urubu tribe. There is one deaf child for every 75 children born. This is the reason why all Urubu representatives are familiar with sign language.

At all times, the question has been about how to learn the sign language of the deaf and dumb. Moreover, each region has its own. The problem of the emergence of a common language over large territories began to be considered in the mid-18th century. At this time, educational centers designed for children with hearing problems began to appear in France and Germany.

The teachers' task was to teach children the written form of their native language. For the explanations, gestures used among the deaf and dumb were taken as a basis. On their basis, a gestural interpretation of French and German gradually emerged. That is, sign language is largely artificially created. Anyone can understand and use this language.

Teaching the language of the mutes in the past

Each country has its own sign language for the deaf. This is due to the fact that the gestures taken as a basis could be interpreted differently in different states. For example, in the USA, teachers from France were invited to create their own school for the deaf. It was the teacher Laurent Clerc who developed this trend in America in the 18th century. But Great Britain did not adopt a ready-made language, adopting only the methods of deaf pedagogy. This is precisely the reason why American for the deaf is similar to French, but cannot have anything in common with English.

In Russia, things were even more complicated. The first school for the deaf appeared here at the very beginning of the 19th century. In Pavlovsk, the knowledge and practice of French teachers was used. And half a century later, an educational institution was opened in Moscow, which adopted the experience of German specialists. The struggle between these two schools can be traced in the country today.

Sign language is not a verbal tracing. At the same time, its structure and history were not studied by anyone for a long time. Only in the second half of the last century did scientists appear who proved that the language for the deaf is a full-fledged linguistic system. And it has its own morphological and syntactic features.

Gesture communication

In order to understand a silent language, the gestures of which vary depending on the state, you need to decide where it will be needed. In particular, Russian dactylology has 33 dactyl signs. A book by G. L. Zaitseva entitled “Sign speech. Dactylology" is suitable for studying the sign language of the deaf and dumb in Russia. Learning words will take time and require a lot of practice.

As an example, here are some descriptions of gestures and their meanings:

• hands raised to chin level and bent at the elbows, connected by the fingertips, mean the word “house”;
• circular rotations simultaneously with both hands in the hip area mean “hello”;
• the bend of the fingers of one hand, raised to chest level and bent at the elbow, means “goodbye”;
• the right hand folded into a fist, which touches the forehead, means “thank you”;
• a handshake at chest level means "peace";
• smooth movements of two parallel palms looking at each other from left to right should be understood as an apology;
• touching the edge of the lips with three fingers and moving the hand to the side means “love.”

To understand all the gestures, it is better to read specialized literature or watch video tutorials. However, even here you should understand which language is best to learn.

The tongue is gesturing

The problem of understanding among deaf people around the world became very acute only in the last century. In 1951, after the emergence of the World Federation of the Deaf, it was decided to create a universal silent language, the gestures of which would be understandable to participants in all countries.

Work on this issue bore fruit only in 1973 in the form of the first dictionary of simplified sign language. Two years later, international sign language was adopted. To create it, the languages ​​of England, America, Italy, and Russia were used. At the same time, the methods of communication among representatives of the African and Asian continents were not taken into account at all.

This has led to the fact that in addition to the official one, there is also an informal sign language in the world.

Dactyl alphabet

Gestures can show not only words, but also individual letters. This is not exactly the sign language of the deaf and dumb. Words consist of individual letter gestures, which makes communication difficult and takes longer. Using the dactylic alphabet, which is what this method is called, common nouns, scientific terms, prepositions, and the like are designated.

This alphabet has its own differences in different sign languages. It is quite simple to study it, since it consists, as already mentioned, of 33 dactylic signs. Each of them corresponds to the image of the corresponding letter. To understand Russian speech, you should study the corresponding dactyl alphabet.

Non-governmental non-profit institution
"VOG Educational and Methodological Center"
(UMC VOG)

Since 1961, the VOG UMC has been carrying out educational activities to train and improve the professional competence of sign language interpreters for the deaf (sign language interpreters) and is the training base of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf.

Currently training of sign language interpreters carried out at three levels:

At the 1st basic level of the training course “Sign language is a means of communication for the deaf” The basics of sign language (SL) are studied, including the sign language system, varieties and “morphology” of sign language, manual alphabet, counting, sign vocabulary, which makes up 1200 sign signs, introduction to the specialty of sign language interpreter, etc.

At level 2 of the training course “Technology of Sign Language Interpretation”, on the basis of knowledge of the 1st level, knowledge and skills are formed in the implementation of sign language interpretation (theory and practice of sign language interpretation), expansion of the sign dictionary and its use in the translation process (qualification “Sign language interpreter of Russian sign language”).