| 21:08:15 |
WeeHands |
hello again! |
| 21:08:42 |
WeeHands |
how is everyone tonight? |
| 21:09:06 |
carolynfmarcus |
doing great. |
| 21:09:06 |
mommytocali |
we are good over here on the east
coast :) |
| 21:10:37 |
WeeHands |
ha! just trying to type in bed
with my 23 month old beside me - who is supposed to be asleep! |
| 21:12:11 |
mommytocali |
i am NAC |
| 21:12:14 |
mommytocali |
lol |
| 21:12:32 |
mommytocali |
(nursing at computer) |
| 21:13:10 |
carolynfmarcus |
I must confess, I'm not yet a
Mom, so I have it much easier for now |
| 21:14:07 |
carolynfmarcus |
I'm new to the group; what's the
format? Can I just start asking some questions? |
| 21:14:19 |
WeeHands |
ask away! |
| 21:14:26 |
WeeHands |
we are very casual here! |
| 21:14:55 |
carolynfmarcus |
Great. It may take a little while
as I type the question... |
| 21:16:25 |
carolynfmarcus |
I'm really wanting to teach signs
with my future children. Here is the situation, though. I'm also
wanting to speak my native languages with my children. The plan
(at least in theory) is that I'll be speaking French with the
children when I'm alone with |
| 21:16:56 |
carolynfmarcus |
them and we'll speak Spanish as a
family. Should I then words in both languages? |
| 21:17:22 |
carolynfmarcus |
Or should French be the signing"
language? Does that make sense?" |
| 21:20:23 |
WeeHands |
I have quite a few families in
our classes speaking two languages (e.g., English paired with
French, Japanese, Swedish or German) and using ASL with their
children |
| 21:20:55 |
carolynfmarcus |
And they sign in both languages? |
| 21:22:08 |
WeeHands |
they are speaking English and
signing American Sign Language or speaking, e.g., French, and
signing American Sign Language |
| 21:23:59 |
carolynfmarcus |
And when signing ASL do they sign
specific words as they speak or speak and then sign the full
sentence in ASL? (Or maybe different people do it differently) |
| 21:26:17 |
WeeHands |
for the most part I find that
people are speaking in full sentences in whatever verbal
language they are using and signing the key words of those
sentences, e.g., the verb, nouns or important descriptors |
| 21:27:02 |
WeeHands |
myself when I'm signing with
babies, I might say Do you want juice?" but only sign the word
"juice"." |
| 21:28:20 |
carolynfmarcus |
That makes sense. But what might
be the best way to try to teach ASL grammar to the children? |
| 21:29:31 |
WeeHands |
if you're goal is to teach ASL
grammar to your child then you should be just using ASL with
them, immersing them in the language |
| 21:31:23 |
carolynfmarcus |
That's my problem. I would love
for them to learn both French and ASL (and Spanish from their
Dad). |
| 21:32:36 |
WeeHands |
Are you fluent in ASL? |
| 21:33:34 |
carolynfmarcus |
I've been learning it for a few
years and am hoping to keep increasing my fluency. |
| 21:35:55 |
WeeHands |
if you want to teach your future
babies :) all three languages then you're husband would speak
Spanish to them, and you would at times speak French and at
other times sign ASL to them with no speech. This is really
interesting! |
| 21:38:31 |
carolynfmarcus |
Yes that would be the
arrangement. And in your opinion, having specific French" times
and "signing" times would work better than, at all times, saying
something verbally and then signing the same exact thing right
away (speach-sign-speach-sign...)?" |
| 21:40:16 |
WeeHands |
I agree. Although you could still
key word sign while you're speaking French or Spanish. I'd love
to see this in action! |
| 21:41:10 |
carolynfmarcus |
Yes, I'd love to see this in
action too :) |
| 21:42:22 |
carolynfmarcus |
Hope it's doable and does not
result in very confused children! |
| 21:43:00 |
WeeHands |
No, I don't think it will result
in confused children. Just let it happen naturally. |
| 21:43:07 |
WeeHands |
What area of the world are you
in? |
| 21:43:45 |
carolynfmarcus |
I live in California right now,
but I'm originally from Switzerland. |
| 21:44:55 |
WeeHands |
i had a feeling you were coming
from a multilingual background! what was your experience with
language growing up in Switzerland? |
| 21:46:21 |
carolynfmarcus |
I actually come from a
multilingual family, even for Swiss standards. My mother tongue
is Spanish (my mother is from Ecuador), the family language was
English (father is American) and the language of the environment
was French which is the language I |
| 21:46:31 |
carolynfmarcus |
became most fluent in when I
started school. |
| 21:47:44 |
carolynfmarcus |
I'm just wanting to provide a
similarly multicultural environment for my children, because I
know children can soak in languages so easily. |
| 21:50:03 |
WeeHands |
so you are learning your 4th
language with ASL - wow! |
| 21:52:31 |
carolynfmarcus |
I just find it to be such a
beautiful language. And obviously very different from the
others. And also very useful, as I work in the field of mental
health. |
| 21:52:56 |
WeeHands |
it be so great for the signing
time videos to remain visually as they are but to have the
option to hear english, french, spanish, etc.! |
| 21:53:12 |
WeeHands |
how did you find out about this
chat? |
| 21:54:09 |
carolynfmarcus |
I was actually looking at a baby
signing webpage (can't remember the exact name of the site) and
saw a link to the group. |
| 21:54:48 |
carolynfmarcus |
are the videos available as DVDs
as well? Then it would be fairly easy to have a choice of
languages as they have for movies. |
| 21:55:40 |
WeeHands |
yes, they are on DVD |
| 21:55:58 |
WeeHands |
was the website my site
www.weehands.com ? |
| 21:56:40 |
carolynfmarcus |
I think the weehands.com site was
a link on the website I initially found. |
| 21:57:41 |
carolynfmarcus |
I think the site might have been
www.signingbaby.com |
| 22:04:33 |
WeeHands |
that's a very good comprehensive
site. if you joined their Yahoo! group it may be through that
that you found out about the chat |
| 22:05:20 |
carolynfmarcus |
Yes, exactly. |
| 22:06:57 |
WeeHands |
thanks for a great chat - it's
great how every week brings new things to chat about on this
wonderful subject of signing with your baby! |
| 22:07:18 |
WeeHands |
See you next week! Sara Bingham
from www.weehands.com |
| 22:07:20 |
carolynfmarcus |
Thank you so much for taking the
time to answer my questions. And it was great to try out this
chat group for the first time :) Have a goodnight everyone! |
