Sign Language On The Radio
Hear more from William Mager as he talks to BBC Ouch about sign language, whether deaf and blind people can be friends and which bits of office gossip deaf people pick up on.
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I was the only deaf person in the class and the look on the deaf teacher’s face when I walked in was a picture – he was used to teaching basic sign language to relatives or colleagues of deaf people, so he must have wondered what was going on.
As we painstakingly finger-spelled our names to one another, I felt like an idiot. But I learned about storytelling, grammar, signs for the weather, how to hold a basic conversation and, finally, things clicked.
Sign language will never be my first language, but I’m so glad I have access to it. I can watch the videos that people post on social media and I can use it to speak to hundreds of people in a crowded room.
I have only one regret – that I came to sign language relatively late in life. Looking back at my childhood, interpreters would have been hugely helpful in the classroom and for socialising with other deaf people. To be able to fingerspell would have helped me with the more complicated words in geography lectures.
What Is American Sign Language
American Sign Language is a complete, natural language that has the same linguistic properties as spoken languages, with grammar that differs from English. ASL is expressed by movements of the hands and face. It is the primary language of many North Americans who are deaf and hard of hearing, and is used by many hearing people as well.
Beautiful In French Beau / Belle
As with Spanish, French has genders for words. So âbeautifulâ in French is either beau for a man or belle for a woman . To simplify it, you could say magnifique , which is used to describe something or someone as very beautiful or striking. Flatter your significant other with Tu es absolument magnifique
You could also tell someone they are joli or jolie .
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Beautiful In Irish Gaelic Go Hlainn
This is also spelt as álainn when used to describe something as beautiful. For instance, âbeautiful womanâ is bean álainn, but âThe woman is beautifulâ is Tá an bhean go hálainn. A small difference, but something worth noting.
Another word for beautiful is taibhseach, which is more like âgorgeousâ or âstunningâ. You could also say galánta to describe someone as an elegant beauty.
The 16 Most Common Synonyms For Beauty
*Organized from innocent to more suggestive of romantic and/or sexual interest
1. Cute can be used to describe a dog, a baby, or a person you are attracted to in a romantic or non-romantic way. To call somebody cute is often the first phase of romantic interest, but it can also be confused with a plutonic/NON-romantic love.
2. Adorable has the same sense as cute, but its a bit stronger. Its a way to talk about a lighter, more playful form of beauty that can be applied to pets, babies/kids, and people for whom you may or may not have a romantic attraction. Adore as a verb, however, means to have a deep love and respect for someone.
3. Attractive is the most generic and objective way to say that another person has a pleasing appearance. It does not necessarily denote romantic interest. This is a word you might use to talk about a person and not to a person your interested in.
4. Good-looking is one of the most common ways to describe a person who is attractive. Although good-looking is a little more suggestive of romantic intentions than the word attractive, it does not necessarily denote romantic interest. It is used to talk about people who have a pleasing appearance. Good-looking comes from to look good .
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Their Empathy Score Is High
Listen to how they talk about the less fortunate members of our society such as the poor, immigrants and the disabled. Do you notice that they talk in a compassionate way about these people? The fact that they even mention them is a strong indicator of empathy.
People with zero empathy will never talk about the disadvantaged. They will rarely ask you a question about a difficult time or relationship. They will usually steer the conversation back to themselves. These people have zero empathy and in extreme cases, they are psychopaths who never show any feelings towards their victims.
Ways To Tell Someone They Are Beautiful
Have you seen someone you just cant take your eyes off of? Not sure how to tell them what you think of them? Have you already said you think theyre beautiful? If so, then here are some other ways of expressing yourself! More ways to say You are beautiful!
Just remember that some of them you can only use if you are quite close to the other person. If you dont know them well, then choose your words carefully!
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Your Passion Speaks Louder Than Your Looks
Your passion defines you more than your looks. You are so passionate, you radiate an attitude of ambition and enthusiasm.
Having something you are passionate about means you have goals in mind and you are not afraid to go for it. You are striving for success, not sitting back and saying I cant do that, why bother? You dont let fear hold you back, but instead you focus on something that will make you happy.
It doesnt matter if you are a new director who produces films that only a few people view on YouTube. Or that you are just starting out as an actress, who played an extra for a minute in the school play. What matters is your drive and that you are passionate about something and you wont take no for an answer. Determination and passion is what makes you a beautiful person.
Beautiful In Portuguese Bonito / Bonita
Portuguese words for beautiful are similar to Italian and Spanish. Like in Spanish, bonito and bonita means âbeautifulâ or âprettyâ for masculine and feminine nouns respectively. You can also say belÃssimo for âstunningâ almost the same as Italian.
Other words you can use are belo for âlovelyâ, formoso for âhandsomeâ, and gracioso for âgorgeousâ. As with other Romance languages, youâll need to follow gender rules here too, with âoâ being the masculine ending for adjectives, and âaâ being feminine.
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Ways To Say Beautiful: Synonyms Slang And Collocations
Do you have a hard time finding different ways to describe beautiful and attractive things, experiences, and people?
English has so many ways to say the same thing. This rich mix of different tongues and the evolution of English has made English the beautiful mélange that it is today. Pay attention to the Etymology of some of the words below.
Your native language probably has an elaborate selection of words to describe beauty and attraction, but you probably only know a few in English. By creating a rich vocabulary, you enrich your English and sound much more natural.
Learn How To Fingerspell Like A Pro
Once youve learnt how to fingerspell each letter of the alphabet, its time to polish your form! Check out these tips to improve your fingerspelling:
- Pause between spelling individual words. This improves the comprehensibility of your signing.
- Keep your hand in one place while spelling each word. This can take practice, but it makes it much clearer for others to read back. An exception to this is when you are fingerspelling an acronym. In this instance, move each letter in a small circle to let people know not to read the letters together as a single word.
- If you are fingerspelling a word that has a double letter, bounce your hand between those two letters to indicate the repetition of that letter. You can also do this by sliding the letter slightly to the side to indication it should be doubled. It can be difficult to not bounce between every letter when first learning to fingerspell. You can use your free hand to hold your write to help steady it while practicing. Eventually, youll get used to keeping your hand steady by itself while fingerspelling.
- Keep your fingerspelling hand at the height of your shoulder. This is the most comfortable position for your signing and the other persons reading.
- Keep your pace consistent. There is no need to race through when spelling a word. Its more important that each letter is clear, and the overall rhythm is consistent.
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Reasons To Learn Sign Language
First off, what is sign language? For deaf or hard of hearing people, sign language is the way they communicate visually. Using their hands and certain gestures, fingerspelling, etc, the deaf community has created not only a language but a language style all their own.
In the United States, there are two main types of sign language. American Sign Language and English Sign Language. ESL is based on written English. It has the same pattern as in the green tractor. It also has signs for small English words like I and the. ASL, however, is strictly its own language. Yes, it is in English, but the grammar and structure of the sentences is different. For example, instead of saying the green tractor ASL users would say tractor green. Some things are flipped, and some are missing. A lot of small words are not used and there are a lot more gestures than finger spelling.
One difficulty in learning sign language is that different areas have different signs. Where three fingers on the cheek can mean the color grey in Texas, it can mean black in Florida. There are standards, sure, but variations are abundant. The beauty of sign language, however, is that you dont have to be accurate. Your facial expressions and movements mean way more than the words you say. Its almost like being a mime. You have to tell a story without ever saying a word.
Look For Evidence Of Perseverance
A powerful indicator of grit and tenacity is when a person persists and never gives up when they really want to achieve a life goal. Look for evidence of them keeping going in spite of enormous difficulties.
Great achievements by scientists and inventors all bear the hallmark of perseverance. We only have to think of Einstein, Edison and Nelson Mandela to get inspiration. The US Department of Education is in no doubt about how grit, tenacity and perseverance will be key success factors for youth in the 21st century.
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Learn English With Friends: Rosss Beautiful Cousin
5. Beautiful is the classic way to describe a feminine beauty , which often expresses both outer and inner beauty. Calling a person of the opposite sex beautiful is more and more suggestive of romantic interest because it could denote attraction to their whole being.
This is, however, different than saying you look beautiful . Its also important to keep in mind that a woman often compliments another womans physical beauty without romantic intentions, as a man may . But its rare to hear a heterosexual man describe another man as beautiful.
*Important Cultural Note: With romantic intentions, beautiful is generally used to describe a feminine or very intimate beauty. So, in English speaking cultures, its not common for a woman to call a man beautiful unless she was describing a more delicate type of beauty. While a man would call a woman beautiful, a woman would call a man good-looking, cute, or even handsome. Also keep in mind that beautiful is not just used to describe people, but also places and things, which is much more universal.
Not A Universal Language
There is no single sign language used around the world. Like spoken language, sign languages developed naturally through different groups of people interacting with each other, so there are many varieties. There are somewhere between 138 and 300 different types of sign language used around the globe today.
Interestingly, most countries that share the same spoken language do not necessarily have the same sign language as each other. English for example, has three varieties: American Sign Language , British Sign Language and Australian Sign Language .
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Sign Language Words And Grammar
ASL sentences use a topic structure. The topic of an ASL sentence is like the subject of a sentence in English. Using the object of your sentence as the topic is called topicalization. Often the topic of an ASL sentence is a pronoun, such as I, you, he or she. An ASL speaker may sign a subject pronoun at the beginning of a sentence, the end of a sentence or both. For instance, if you were to say I am an employee in ASL, you could sign I employee,employee I, or I employee I. All three are grammatically correct in ASL.
The comment section of an ASL sentence is similar to an English sentences predicate it says something about the topic. You might see a third element added to an ASL sentence structure to indicate the tense of the sentence. You would normally structure such a sentence as time topic comment. Depending on what you are trying to communicate and the style your receiver is used to seeing, you may alter the order of your signs for clarity. ASL grammar is not strict when it comes to sign order for time, topic and comment sections of a sentence, though many speakers feel that whatever order is least like English is the most appropriate. Expressing the time frame for the sentence at the end can be confusing most speakers avoid it.
In the next section, well talk about some basic rules of etiquette when conversing in ASL.
Dont Use Facebook As An Indicator
You will be relieved to know that graphology is no longer considered a reliable test of a persons character. Neither is Facebook stalking, fortunately. A study showed that Facebook use of foul language, sexual innuendo and gossip were not reliable indicators of a candidates character or future performance in the workplace.
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You Are Yourself Around Others
You dont let others hold you back from being yourself. To many people, showing your real face to others is terrifying. But you are always yourself.
You dont let others opinions scare you into being someone else. Instead you choose to be you, flaws and all. You are truly a beautiful girl if you possess this quality. People can often sense when you are being fake, or notice if you are reserved and afraid to speak. To be able to be yourself is inspiring and beautiful, because you are putting yourself out there .
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9. Lovely is a synonym for what is generally a feminine beauty that describes an elegant and/or radiant beauty. You can also use it to describe things and events . This is used a lot in posh British English.
10. Exquisite means to be beautiful in a very delicate and refined way. Similar to the word lovely, when describing people, exquisite denotes an extreme feminine beauty. Employing similar qualities , we can use exquisite to talk about food, wine, an experience, and anything else that demands a keen/sensitive attention to details.
11. Stunning is a surprising and/or shocking appearance, which supposedly may even cause the loss of consciousness. It is commonly used to describe feminine beauty, but can be used to describe a man too.
12. Foxy is another word that is used in English to describe a very attractive woman or man. You can say shes foxy, or She is a fox, although this word is not used so much nowadays . The literal meaning of a fox is a wild animal , and the origin of the British word is foxismonitism, which means young and attractive.
Check your translations: When I was a beginning Spanish speaker in Mexico, I learned that the literal translation for fox in Spanish was zorra. So I was on a date with a foxy woman one night, and everything was going really well until I looked her in the eyes and said eres muy zorra and she surprised me with a slap in the face. Apparently zorra means prostitute in Spanish.
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‘the Language More Beautiful Than Words’
This week is sign language week in the UK. As debate continues about whether British Sign Language should be taught in schools, See Hear series producer William Mager reflects on what signing means to him.
I’m not a native sign language user. I didn’t grow up signing from an early age and I didn’t have any deaf friends as a kid. I went to a mainstream school where I was the only deaf child in class but I could get by with speaking and lip-reading.
But if a deaf person had met me 20 years ago, they would have been shocked at my inability to communicate with them.
Learning sign language changed all that and brought many benefits to my life.
In my early 20s, I took my first tentative steps into the deaf world in London. Deaf people would gather at pubs in train stations every month to chat away in sign language, knock one another’s pints over and terrify the bar staff caught unawares by a sudden invasion of a seemingly alien race who communicated mostly through their hands.
I would go to these gatherings and try to communicate. I could use some basic gestures and spoke clearly so people could lip-read, but I wasn’t a signer in any way, shape or form and I think they often just humoured me.
Then one Friday evening, at one of these nights in a pub in Victoria, I saw a beautiful blonde girl chatting to a friend in sign language. I nudged him and asked who she was. He looked at her, then back at me, and shook his head. “No chance.”