Thursday, November 11, 2010

Because I Can't Resist: BSL

Continuing on the topic of my last post, this is possibly the most fascinating British-ism of all (at least, for me): British Sign Language!

No, I have not made contact with any deaf people yet in the UK - I honestly think I'll be too busy, although there's a big deaf event in London at the end of November that I might (very, very slight chance) go to, if I have nothing else to do that weekend. But my interpreters here both know some BSL, although they're predominantly ASL interpreters, and I've been curious enough to learn the BSL alphabet. This is almost the extent of my BSL knowledge, but I feel like I've picked up on it quickly - and I've been practicing! (Yes, only for my own amusement since it hasn't served any communicative purpose thus far. But still.)



For anyone who knows any amount of ASL, the above video probably seems a bit ridiculous. For me it is. I mean, a two-handed alphabet, seriously, when in ASL I can rip off a word by flicking a few fingers? This isn't fingerspelling, it's hand-spelling.

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