This might sound really dumb, but if you know sign language can you help me out? I'm watching my nephew and I'm teaching him the normal eyes, nose, mouth thing and the other day I taught him nose. It didn't hit me until after I did it, but it seemed like a sign I've seen somewhere, and I just want to make sure it's nothing bad because of course he picked up on it right away. I pointed to my nose, and pulled back [if you get what I mean] and said nose. If you can help me out I'd really appreciate it. I tried Google but when you don't really know for sure what you're looking for it's kind of difficult. Thank you so much if you can help me out.

I like signingsavvy.com... You can just type a word in and see a video clip!

Hey,
I am deaf, i just looked http://www.handspeak.com/ online, this might help you out some. or what bobbi just said (the one with the star), suggesting - go to the library check out an ASL sign lang book, those might help you, they have pictures and good defention of how-to-do. Or, find a deaf vedio (i have one - had it when i was a kid) little story movie, short ones, and they sign through the entire thing, however, there is voices to tell you what they are saying. perhaps check that out? my vedio mus be at lest 20 some years old, it had the 3 little bears, and the pig story.

you could study online, you could take some classes, books. there are many ways, better yet, if you have a IRL friend that knows sign language. online most likly will not teach you the bad words. not that i know of, maybe try youtube.com?

good luck

I'm deaf and ASL (American Sign Language) is my main method of communication.

This is a pretty good site: http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro.cgi

the main site: http://www.aslpro.com/

They use a video to show the examples/signs.

Hope this helps!

hey i was wondering, considering different english speaking countries use different styles of signing, would someone that uses asl be able to communicate with someone that uses auslan for instance?

They would be able to communicate because sign language in general is an universal language then they have the "strains" for each country. I've gone to a deaf school in Mexico and seen kids sign MSL (Mexican Sign Language). We were able to understand each other to some context because some of the signs were similar then there were those signs that I couldn't understand. Then when I went to France in high school, I saw a couple signing in French Sign Language in Paris. I couldn't really understand exactly what they were saying but could get the gist of the conversation.

A couple years ago, there was a deaf guy in the Olympics from Australia, he was signing in an interview and I could understand only a little of it but not much. (The Closed Captions helped)

yeah from what i gather auslan is related to the british sign language, and that asl and bsl/auslan aren't really relatable. you'd think they'd come up with a universal one, or does signed english count? i don't know much about signing., but it must be odd knowing someone understands english but not being able to understand what they sign.

I've seen BSL sign language and it is not close to ASL at all. ASL and French sign language are pretty similar because ASL is derived from FSL. I guess I wasn't telling the entire truth when I said I signed ASL because I really don't sign ASL. I sign PSL (Pidgin Sign Language), it is when I sign mostly ASL in the english grammar structure. For example:

ASL would say:
Store, I go.

PSL would say:
I'm going to store. (We don't sign "the" - that is for SEE -- Signing Exact English, which is rarely used these days)


And another note: ASL has several different strains/accents. When I went to school back east, in NY (I'm from WA state, on the west coast), their sign for "garbage" was the same sign as our sign for "lettuce".

yeah it's like that here too with auslan. queensland and nsw differs with some words from the rest of the country.

I'm sorry I need to correct myself - it's supposed to be PSE, not PSL. PSE for Pidgin Signing English -- it's between SEE and ASL.

So you have three "sign languages" used in America:
SEE (Signing Exact English)
PSE (Pidgin Signing English)
ASL (American Sign Language)

SEE is what I was first taught when I started learning sign language (and it's probably why I'm one of the few deaf people who have good grammar - I learned how to write in the formal sentence structure because of SEE. Some of my other deaf friends learned ASL and their grammar isn't as good, it's harder for them to learn proper English grammar skills -- I tutored a deaf girl in college that had the reading level of a 4th grader).

I don't know why I just explained all that.

i'm glad you did :) i've always wondered how it works elsewhere. i now how to say hi and ask someone how they are in auslan, as well as other random things lol.

I just realized - I didn't answer your question. Sorry about that!

The sign for "nose" is when you put your index finger to your nose then pull back. That is the correct sign for "nose." I don't know any bad signs that involves the nose. However, the sign for "penis" could be similar to that - you make a "p" with your hand then touch your nose with the middle finger. That is the sign for "penis" and that is the only "bad" thing I can think of.

damn i had no idea bloop is deaf!

i'm deaf in one ear, and hard of hearing oin the otehr, but tis fine. works for me, i don't have to pay attention to anyone and i have an excuse! lol

The signing i know is dead , fish, dead spider, and dead bird- bec obviously those are very important to know!

sowwie no help HEAR lol

The sign for "girl" pulling away from the nose means "bitch". ;D

My parents are both deaf, and I grew up using australian sign language. I used to make up my own signs when I was little for some reason, from the ones I was shown, but I did change to proper signs and can't remember the old ones (only when mum reminds me and laughs at me for it)

Not exactly sign language, but don't Japanese people point to their nose to say "me" the way we point to our chest? That's what what you did reminded *me* of.
And saying "why don't they come up with one sign language" is like saying "why do we bother having other spoken languages?" *grin* They're different languages for different cultures, saying different things, and thank god for differences.

Well I would think that because Australia and America speak the same language, one would be forgiven for thinking the sign language should be the same.