What's Your Sign? - Week 2

Hmm, I actually don't know my exact Zodiac Sign...I was born on a borderline date between two signs, so whenever I read horoscopes, I just read both and choose whichever one I like. Anyways, here's what's happening in my world of ASL signs.

There's a saying in my native language (Korean), which - if I were to roughly translate - says that when people make a strong determination to accomplish something, that determination usually only lasts for three days. A perfect example is on New Year's, when everyone goes to the gym for roughly three days in January and then never comes back.
That loss of determination almost happened to me this week (well, it's been more than three days but still, it was a short time period) with something I least expected myself to be frustrated with: colors.

Dr. Vicars signing "Colors" on lifeprint.com - Done by fluttering four fingers on chin

Colors
Art has been a passion for me basically since I was born. I love colors, spectrums (except in Science class), color mixing, painting, dyeing,  etc. But for some reason, I just can't seem to get a grip on this! And as I said in my previous post, I've been losing track of which words I have memorized, and now I was having trouble with memorization itself. Most signs that I had trouble with, I eventually figured out. But colors? Man, I just couldn't remember these. I think it's because most signs have something to do with the word concept, like the sign for "drinking" just looks like someone drinking out of a cup. With colors, though, you can't really turn your hand into whichever color you're trying to sign. While I was drowning in the pool of hard signs and started to get super frustrated and angry at myself and at the world because I couldn't change the color of my hand like a chameleon could, help came to my way: food and puns.

Food
Food was covered on lesson 7 at lifeprint.com, and this was a beaming light of sunshine on my dying patch of flowers. Food signs were neither harder nor easier than most other signs, but I somehow got a grip on them - super fast. I still can't sign them quickly, but these were easier signs for me somehow. It got me motivated again - although certain signs are hard, sign language overall is a beautiful form of language, and although it requires perseverance for mastery, so does any other topic.
(Maybe there's some crazy science behind food. By the way, if you want to know about actual food science, visit my friend's genius project blog on Modernist Cuisine.)

Puns
Okay, ready?
This is the sign for milk:

GIF from lifeprint.com

Now, what do you think this means if you move this sign across your face?

PAST-YOUR-EYES (PASTEURIZED) MILK!
Isn't it beautiful? (Unfortunately, I don't think there are any other signs that work as puns in English).

Different Dialects of ASL
Now, onto more serious things. My friend Jessica (who is learning Mandarin for her Genius project) was awesome and showed me this article she found about different dialects of ASL. This Washington Post article, written by Frances Stead Sellers, talks about how ASL signed by the Black community, or Black ASL, is different from the ASL that more Caucasian people tend to sign. Certain word concepts have different signs in Black ASL and ASL, and the same signs in both can have different meanings. Some differences include signed by one hand instead of two and different areas of the body the word is signed at. Research shows that Black ASL has to do a lot with Ebonics, and is similar to how segregation in American history has changed some differences in language. Signers of Black ASL are proud of their language because Black ASL is a legitimate language; it just has differences like British Sign Language and ASL does. If you want to know more, just click on the link here or the one above.

Video

I said last time that I wouldn't have videos but...here it is. I thought it was unfair to not have a video showing my progress. I tried to come up with my own sentences and use at least one word from each lesson. I'd imagine this is the kind of stuff I would sign if I ever met someone who signed ASL.
In the past, I've recorded my voice during German class to hear how I sound, and I remember hating it because I sounded terrible. Well, in this video, I'm signing super choppy and slowly, and sometimes you can't really tell what I'm signing, so I didn't really like this either. However, this gave me a chance to see what I could improve on and how to sign certain words more natively.

So I tried to follow the tips on the comic strip thatdeafguy.com...

That Deaf Guy told me to use bright light when recording sign, so I tried to follow that tip. I did not realize how dark my room was before I did. I got all my lamps to brighten the view, but it still came out pretty dark. I got an extra LED lamp, but it wouldn't stay standing on my bed, so I got my Biology textbook. My computer started to get heated up, so then I got my Social Studies textbook...sorry. This took long, as I expected. It took me about 25 attempts, and in one of the attempts, I accidentally said my name was "Aana". Nevertheless, I still think this was definitely worthwhile.

Behind-the-scenes...When in doubt, use a textbook.

What do you guys think I should say in my next video? Talk more about myself? Narrate a short story? Show a few lines of poetic ASL I might use for my TEDTalk? If you want me to to something relating to poems, name a poem or a song that you really like. I'll try to do what works!