Learn Auslan - Feelings

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Here are some signs that describe emotions:

 

Vocab:

• Feel / feelings
• Like
• Don’t like (this is the sign for like but with your facial expression you show the opposite)
• Happy
• Sad
• Cranky/bad mood
• Cry
• Confused
• Angry
• Enjoy
• Smile
• Love
• Hate
• Fun/funny
• Laugh
• Bored (for the handshape, touch forefinger and thumb together to make a ring)
• Pissed off (same handshape as 'bored')

In Auslan, facial expression is very important. A conversation cannot be understood by watching the hands alone. You will see in the video my face changes with every sign. When you are using these signs in conversation, your face needs to show the emotion for the signs to make sense.

In fact, the facial expression can inform the meaning of the sign. The sign LIKE is used for both LIKE and DON'T-LIKE, depending on your facial expression.

It can be difficult for English-speakers to loosen up and learn to use appropriate facial expressions in Auslan - it can feel very over-the-top. However, for Auslan signers, it can seem bizarre that an English-speaking newsreader on television will describe terrible events using a perfectly bland face.

Practise signing the above vocab, using appropriate facial expressions.

Comments

[Sue]

I hope this isn't tedious...but I don't know any deaf people I can ask... I am really interested in language acquisition in deaf versus typical learning. I get how blind people learn language and imagine it's easier than if you're deaf, and the main thing that differs with blind versus typical (besides the general barrier reading body language) is learning a form of reading and writing that is accessible by touch rather than sight. As a hearing person, I actually "hear" words in my head when I read them - this doesn't apply very much to speed reading, but to "normal" reading for me...and when I'm reading poetry then I really slow down and I am most conscious of "hearing" the sounds of the words I am reading, which form a kind of music. From talking to other people, it seems that the faster people read, the less they "hear" the sounds of the words, and some don't at all. So how do words appear in your consciousness? Are the shapes particularly significant? (Shape is also significant in how I experience words, but not as important as "sound".) Do you have associations with words and colours, or any other sensory stuff? And I am wondering if you're a fast reader compared to hearing people (because not slowed down by "sound")?

...the experience of language acquisition would have to be quite different when you're born deaf versus going deaf later...I am guessing most younger people who are deaf were born deaf? Did you learn words pictorially by association of written words with objects and pictures? Do you remember much about the process? ...sorry to have asked so many questions...I just wrote what was going through my head...

[Asphyxia .]

Hi Sue, thanks for all your lovely comments. When I’m reading I don’t hear or think of individual words. It plays in my brain, maybe like a movie. I just see and understand it, no imaginary auditory component. Shapes and colours aren’t really relevant for me either. Since I went Deaf when I was three I could already speak and had already developed strong English language and concepts, but over time my reading has definitely moved away from an aural experience. Cheers, Asphyxia