General Discussion => Accountability and Motivation => Topic started by: caffinatedloz on June 25, 2019, 08:57:12 pm
Title: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on June 25, 2019, 08:57:12 pm
Hey guys, With the school holidays coming up, I thought it was the right time to make this thread! I have done many levels of Auslan through community classes but I find myself losing it as I practice less and less. My goal is to relearn all the signs that I should have learnt (around 1000-1200). Luckily for me, I still have all my notes and lists from each class, as well as videos from the teacher (except for the last level). I'm hoping that along with SignBank (an online dictionary) and my paper dictionary they will come back to me. I would also really like to practice my conversational Auslan and Auslan storytelling as well as understanding others using Auslan. I really love the language and as I'm hoping to pick it up for VCE (and if not at Uni) so I think that it is very important I practice and will give me something worthwhile to do over the school holidays.
So, my goals are: - to practice for at least 20 minutes a day - to learn how to sign along to three songs and film them - to watch this tedtalk without subtitles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou1Me-4GzuE) - to re-learn all of the signs from level 1 and 2 (I have completed four levels of classes thus far.)
I'm hoping to check in every now and then set some new goals after the end of the school holidays.
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on June 26, 2019, 04:59:04 pm
Hello everyone! Today I worked through the first half of my first level of Auslan community class signs (about 120 signs). They were fairly basic and most came back to me straight away. I still have a list of ones that I got wrong or needed to look up which is 20 signs long. These are obviously the things I will spend some more time on later.
I also watched the first couple of minutes of the Auslan ted talk. I understood bits and pieces but found myself constantly trying to lipread her rather than watch her hands. That's also something to work on for the future.
...But I finished my 20 minutes! ;D
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on June 29, 2019, 06:20:23 pm
THURSDAY: I did my 20 minutes. Just practicing some old signs and working on a song I had previously learnt (Waving Through a Window).
FRIDAY: I did my 20 minutes picking some new songs to learn and starting on them. So far my list is Ocean Eyes, Home and Dirty Paws.
SATURDAY: Did some signing at work and found yet another song I want to sign to: Rise Up (The Jack Vidgen version.) I’ve learnt most of it but it needs a little refining.
Plans for the holidays: I hope to film Waving Through a Window and Rise up in the first week of the holidays and possibly also Ocean Eyes. :)
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on July 05, 2019, 09:19:41 pm
PRACTICE LOG: Sunday: Nothing :(
Monday: Still nothing…
Tuesday: *crickets chirping*
Wednesday: Nothing intensifies
Thursday: *yawn*
Friday: Asked about LaTrobe’s Auslan course, and then spent time in the evening signing along to my favourite songs for half an hour. I also decided I want to learn to sign along to Good Mourning by Halsey, or at least the start of it. Oh my goodness I had forgotten a lot! My practice is also at the top of tomorrow’s “To Do” list.
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on July 06, 2019, 05:38:57 pm
Saturday: I spent most of today practising my signing. I worked on my expression and planned out a couple of songs I want to sign along to. I also filmed my first ever YouTube video: an Auslan cover of "Waving Through a Window" from Dear Evan Hansen.
Nervous to share the link because then I become slightly less anonymous but here goes nothing: https://youtu.be/yofqyK3ddJE
laura <3
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: Snow Leopard on July 11, 2019, 12:22:15 am
How are you going with this? Auslan sounds pretty interesting. Is it as hard as it looks?
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: SlowandSteady on July 11, 2019, 01:09:31 am
Although I don't practise the language myself, when you were performing "Waving Through a Window" you looked to be really confident in your signing! Also, I'd like to thank you for sharing the TED Talk in your opening post; it gave me an appreciated insight into the problems faced by the deaf community which I may have neglected to learn later on.
I hope you meet as many goals as you can and I'm looking forward to further updates! :D
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on July 11, 2019, 05:36:02 pm
Today's success!!
Watching myself makes me cringe so hard... but here it is. I guess it's more a way to document my progress than anything else. :-\
Although I don't practise the language myself, when you were performing "Waving Through a Window" you looked to be really confident in your signing! Also, I'd like to thank you for sharing the TED Talk in your opening post; it gave me an appreciated insight into the problems faced by the deaf community which I may have neglected to learn later on.
I hope you meet as many goals as you can and I'm looking forward to further updates! :D
Thanks for your kind words!
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: SlowandSteady on July 11, 2019, 06:07:19 pm
The dance you so masterfully performed at the beginning of the video acted as the perfect accompaniment to the song that followed ;D. Stellar effort on Thursday to make up for Sun and Mon. Keep it up :).
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on July 11, 2019, 06:21:00 pm
The dance you so masterfully performed at the beginning of the video acted as the perfect accompaniment to the song that followed ;D. Stellar effort on Thursday to make up for Sun and Mon. Keep it up :).
"so masterfuly" - very tactfully put ;D
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: r1ckworthy on July 11, 2019, 08:11:48 pm
All that effort is paying off, seeing the way you express yourself in that video. Great job!!! Also love that dance at the beginning 10/10 would watch again, you better have it at the beginning of each video you post ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: brothanathan on July 11, 2019, 08:36:39 pm
Lookin sharp :D
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on July 11, 2019, 08:45:55 pm
All that effort is paying off, seeing the way you express yourself in that video. Great job!!! Also love that dance at the beginning 10/10 would watch again, you better have it at the beginning of each video you post ;D ;D ;D
Perhaps. I think that including it once was all the embarrassment I needed.
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on July 15, 2019, 11:39:55 am
The Check-In: My goals were... - to practice for at least 20 minutes a day - to learn how to sign along to three songs and film them - to watch this tedtalk without subtitles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou1Me-4GzuE) - to re-learn all of the signs from level 1 and 2 (I have completed four levels of classes thus far.)
I think that on the whole I achieved the second goal (as I still have a song filmed and left to post), and made progress on the first and fourth. I think that during Term 3, my goals will be: to practice for at least 20 minutes a day - to watch this tedtalk without subtitles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou1Me-4GzuE) - to re-learn all of the signs from level 1 and 2 - to film and upload a song cover a fortnight
Daily Practice: Friday: 45 minutes
Saturday: 10 minutes
Sunday: 0 minutes
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: Joseph41 on July 15, 2019, 01:46:09 pm
Not sure if this is a silly question, but what's the most difficult part about learning this?
Not a silly question at all. I think that the biggest thing is trying to do it in a way that is respectful of Deaf culture. Auslan is its own language with its own grammar and there are certain things that are and aren't considered appropriate when signing. Some people in the Deaf community find song covers frustrating as they are often done by hearing people who have very little understanding of Deaf history or culture. I want to do it in a way that honours Auslan and doesn't make the Deaf community feel disrespected. (I also made sure that I had a basic level of Auslan proficiency and awareness of Deaf culture before I started filming and posting things.)
I'm not really sure if this makes sense. Sorry if it's a bit of a ramble.
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: Joseph41 on July 15, 2019, 05:03:37 pm
Not a silly question at all. I think that the biggest thing is trying to do it in a way that is respectful of Deaf culture. Auslan is its own language with its own grammar and there are certain things that are and aren't considered appropriate when signing. Some people in the Deaf community find song covers frustrating as they are often done by hearing people who have very little understanding of Deaf history or culture. I want to do it in a way that honours Auslan and doesn't make the Deaf community feel disrespected. (I also made sure that I had a basic level of Auslan proficiency and awareness of Deaf culture before I started filming and posting things.)
I'm not really sure if this makes sense. Sorry if it's a bit of a ramble.
Brilliant. Yeah that absolutely makes sense. How do you go about learning grammar etc. (apologies if covered already)?
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on July 15, 2019, 05:13:44 pm
Brilliant. Yeah that absolutely makes sense. How do you go about learning grammar etc. (apologies if covered already)?
I learnt Auslan through community classes, and so as soon as we were learning signs, we were learning the proper way to construct sentences. Some of the major grammatical differences in Auslan are the way that many joining words aren't used (is, a, the, an ect.), the word order (today shop go instead of I'm going to the shops today), and the lack of tenses (danced/dance/will dance is all the same word).
I still don't really understand the grammar rules, but generally, while I'm signing I do what feels right and follow the sentence construction of whoever I'm talking to.
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: Joseph41 on July 15, 2019, 05:24:36 pm
I learnt Auslan through community classes, and so as soon as we were learning signs, we were learning the proper way to construct sentences. Some of the major grammatical differences in Auslan are the way that many joining words aren't used (is, a, the, an ect.), the word order (today shop go instead of I'm going to the shops today), and the lack of tenses (danced/dance/will dance is all the same word).
I still don't really understand the grammar rules, but generally, while I'm signing I do what feels right and follow the sentence construction of whoever I'm talking to.
It really is a fascinating language (as are all languages!). Thanks so much for sharing this thread. Always enjoy it!
EDIT: Touched on Auslan slightly through my Linguistics degree, found it interesting then, too.
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: Owlbird83 on July 15, 2019, 06:57:41 pm
What made you decide to start learning Auslan? I was taught Auslan from grade prep to 2, but then my primary school stopped it, I only remember the alphabet and a few random signs. It's such a unique skill! Do you have others around who you practice with? Well done on your progress so far!! ;D
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on July 15, 2019, 08:26:05 pm
What made you decide to start learning Auslan? I was taught Auslan from grade prep to 2, but then my primary school stopped it, I only remember the alphabet and a few random signs. It's such a unique skill! Do you have others around who you practice with? Well done on your progress so far!! ;D
I went along to the Auslan group at my local library after teaching myself to fingerspell, and they recommended some community classes. I signed up and fell in love with the language. My teacher, Gaz, was incredible and so were all the people in the class. We decided to continue working through the levels together and formed a strong bond. I still meet with them regularly to practice. There are other community groups that meet regularly and practice, so I often go along to those. I also sign with one little gem I work with and use some key signs with others, so it comes in handy and that keeps it fresh.
Such a shame to hear your school stopped teaching it. :(
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on July 21, 2019, 05:08:16 pm
Monday: 15 minutes
Tuesday: 5 minutes
Wednesday: 0 minutes
Thursday: 0 minutes
Friday: 0 minutes
Saturday: 5 minutes
Sunday: 20 minutes
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: Ionic Doc on July 21, 2019, 05:23:41 pm
Unfortunately, I was busy and tired this week. However, I am aiming to really pick it up this week. There is a community group of signers meeting next Sunday. Please yell at me if I don't go.
I filmed this last week. It is quite different to what I've done in the past.
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on September 19, 2019, 08:10:14 am
I have not been using my auslan nearly as much as I should. :(
However, last weekend I had two really great experiences which have shown me just how useful having auslan can be. Firstly, when I was working with a deaf girl on Saturday we were able to sign the names of all of the animals we saw at the farm which she really enjoyed! Secondly, when I was helping out at a festival on Sunday, there was a lady there with her interpreter. Being able to have a conversation with her one-on-one was really wonderful!
I should definitely be doing more, but I think that this pause may continue a little until after exams are over. Summer is always a good time to pick up an old hobby.
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on September 26, 2019, 07:11:05 pm
I had heaps of practice today. An hour and a half of conversation after using sign language with a little friend I work with all day. ;D
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on November 20, 2019, 07:32:07 pm
Someone yell at me! I haven't done any auslan since I last posted. I just don't even know where to practise anymore, because all of the groups I was in have kind of dissolved after classes finished for good. There are two local community groups, but both are full of retired people who speak fluent auslan and I just feel left behind.
At the minute, the only signing I do is key signing at work.
My mum knows some auslan, so I was thinking about forcing her to practise with me but she's not keen.
Things are not going well.
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 08:31:34 pm
Someone yell at me! I haven't done any auslan since I last posted. I just don't even know where to practise anymore, because all of the groups I was in have kind of dissolved after classes finished for good. There are two local community groups, but both are full of retired people who speak fluent auslan and I just feel left behind.
At the minute, the only signing I do is key signing at work.
My mum knows some auslan, so I was thinking about forcing her to practise with me but she's not keen.
Things are not going well.
If you're the least skilled person in the room it'll probably be very uncomfortable initially but you'd probably learn fast?
Would you be able to find an internet group and do video based practice?
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on November 20, 2019, 09:06:56 pm
If you're the least skilled person in the room it'll probably be very uncomfortable initially but you'd probably learn fast?
Would you be able to find an internet group and do video based practice?
I have treid to go to these groups in the community a fair bit, but I often find that I don't learn fast, I just don't learn anything. A lot of the conversation is about specific people in the Deaf community and I don't know enough about the culture to understand it, even if they sign slowly. I know that there's a school super close to me that offers auslan, so I'd love to somehow connect with students from there, but they had the same issue at the community group and so stopped coming.
An online group could be the way to go! I'll have to keep my eye out on all of the auslan facebook pages! ;D
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: K.Smithy on December 23, 2019, 12:36:38 am
Omg. I'm so annoyed that I've only just found this thread!! This thread is so awesome! ;D
I've been wanting to learn Auslan for over a year now and I've been trying to figure out how to start. Random side note... I'm also trying to learn German (ich habe ein bisschen Deutsch gelernt). I think that every school should offer opportunities for students to learn Auslan. Personally, I would have much rather learnt Auslan instead of Japanese. I don't have any plans of going to Japan, but there are tones of members in my community who may be hard of hearing (also, I'm like really bad at Japanese... no matter how hard I tried, it just didn't click with my brain). So yeah, I think it would have been nice just to have an option to learn it...
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on December 23, 2019, 06:06:53 am
Thanks so much! Auslan really is such a useful skill and I totoally agree that everyone should have the option to learn it at school. I found it heaps easier to learn than Italian and there have been heaps of times when it has actually been useful to me outside of the classroom!
If you’re looking for resources to learn, check out the VCE Auslan board. It’s fairly quiet but there are some useful bits and pieces! ;D
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: J_Rho on December 23, 2019, 08:04:30 am
Laura this is so amazing! I agree that Auslan should be available as an option to learn at school as it is such a valuable skill and how much you know is so impressive!!! I taught myself some basic Auslan as there is one lady who (when I was working at McDonald's) would always visit and it felt horrible having to try and 'guess' what she wanted by what she was pointing to/gesturing at. I can't wait for further updates!!!!
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: K.Smithy on December 23, 2019, 11:44:39 am
If you’re looking for resources to learn, check out the VCE Auslan board. It’s fairly quiet but there are some useful bits and pieces! ;D
Awesome! I'll be sure to check it out! :D
Title: Re: laura needs to practice!!
Post by: caffinatedloz on January 27, 2020, 05:09:38 pm
I went on an Auslan tour of the NGV for Chinese New Year! I found it really interesting, and luckily there were some other people just learning there too, so they were signing slowly. I'm going to try and do things like that more often. ;D