All Articles
Misconception: There is only one sign language
Question: Is sign language universal throughout the world? ...and if not, why don't we just make it that way since it would make the world have at least one language that everyone could understand and use?
Answer: Unfortunately sign language is NOT universal throughout the world. There is American Sign Language, British Sign Language, Spanish Sign Language, Japanese Sign Language, Ausian (Australian Sign Language) and many more. In fact, there are even multiple sign languages used in the United States (American ...
Addressing Top Signing Misconceptions
My next few blog posts are going to focus on the "TOP MISCONCEPTIONS" or questions that I seem to get asked about on weekly basis either in person or from users of the site. For those of you that go back and read old blogs these may sound familiar but they still seem to come up, so I thought I would readdress them and maybe word them a little differently to see if we can make them more easily ...
Browse Signing Savvy on Android!
We are happy to report that, in addition to all of your favorite Apple iOS devices, Signing Savvy should now work with your Android devices (Android OS 2.2 or newer with Flash support)!
Just fire up the web browser on your Android device and give it a try. We just got it working so let us know if you are experiencing any ...
Enhancements to Word Lists
Creating Word Lists and Sharing Word Lists, when combined with Flash Cards and Quizzing, are our most popular full member features. Today, we added a minor enhancement to creating word lists and a new shared word list of our own.
Creating word lists that are sorted by date
You can now create word lists that sort the word list by the date the words were added to the word list. This is in addition to the previous options of alphabetically or ...
The Mysterious Confusion Between Deafness and Blindness
"Oh, so you work with deaf people...so does that mean you know Braille?"
I am sure many of you who have told people you are interested in sign language have heard a question similar to the one above. Although Braille is used by the blind, people often confuse it as a tool for the deaf. As a former teacher of deaf and hard of hearing children, I have witnessed confusion between deafness and blindess several times in my career. ...
Happy Holidays!
The beginning of 2011 will mark the end of our second year of being live on the Internet, and once again, we are very grateful for the support of all of our users. We particularly are thankful for our full members who allow us to continue to grow the site. And grow the site we will! We have several exciting things planned for Signing Savvy in 2011.
From all of us at Signing Savvy, we wish you joy and ...
Sign language meets dance on DWTS finale
Sign language was an integral part of Christina Aguilera's dance performance last night in the season 11 series finale of Dancing With the Stars. Check out the performance below.
Don't you think the signing really enhances the emotional impact of the song and the ...
Signing is like being a thesaurus
I am often asked "I can't find the sign for....." And it will be words like FINALIZATION or SUMMARIZATION. My answer is often...."It is there." You may not get a result when you search for FINALIZATION, but that does not mean you are out of luck.
Unlike the spelling in the English language where one spelling is equal to one word, sign language is different. There are many signs that can mean more than one word. We ...
The Importance of Facial Expressions
Facial expression plays a very important part in the meaning of a sign. The same exact hand-shape and movement can totally change meaning because of the facial expression that is used to accompany it.
One example of this is the word MUCH. The degree of how much can totally be determined by the facial expression alone while the sign stays the same.
Other examples would be the words INTERESTING and FUNNY. Both of these words can be changed to ...
The difference between ASL and English signs
One question many new signers ask me is: "What is the difference between ASL signs and English signs?" and "What does it mean to have an initialized sign?" These are two really good questions. It is important to understand the difference, particularly when signing to a member of the Deaf community.
Some background information
You may have noticed that sometimes people are referred as deaf (little d) and other times as Deaf (big D). ...