As a deaf person, I’m always teaching people to sign, like when I move into a new house, and I do see a difference between learners. Some people don’t know what to do with their hands and end up “tangling their elbows together”, as you so vividly describe, while others have a talent as if they’d been waiting to sign all their lives. But this gap mostly closes after 3-5 months of living together. Even people who were pretty bad at the beginning end up being able to interpret a group conversation for me.
Not to diminish the difficulty—to do anything like interpret a group conversation, the whole group needs to put in some effort to slow down and speak only one at a time, and it’s still exhausting for an interpreter who’s only been learning for a few months. Not to mention the food on their plate goes cold.
I’m just saying. I don’t think a lack of progress necessarily something to scare you, but then again, I don’t know what it’s like to learn sign without someone to sign with. Pretty sure it’s usually a lot faster to become a productive conversator in any sign language than any spoken natural lang—the only thing you really need is the hand alphabet, and then the person you’re talking to can show you the signs for every new word you spell out.
I appreciate this timeline! My emergency plan if I unexpectedly have a deaf baby one day is to find someone fluent in sign language to move in with us and do, if necessary, hardcore sign immersion, and 3-5 months is quick enough that I would not need to worry about the baby acquiring brain damage.
As a deaf person, I’m always teaching people to sign, like when I move into a new house, and I do see a difference between learners. Some people don’t know what to do with their hands and end up “tangling their elbows together”, as you so vividly describe, while others have a talent as if they’d been waiting to sign all their lives. But this gap mostly closes after 3-5 months of living together. Even people who were pretty bad at the beginning end up being able to interpret a group conversation for me.
Not to diminish the difficulty—to do anything like interpret a group conversation, the whole group needs to put in some effort to slow down and speak only one at a time, and it’s still exhausting for an interpreter who’s only been learning for a few months. Not to mention the food on their plate goes cold.
I’m just saying. I don’t think a lack of progress necessarily something to scare you, but then again, I don’t know what it’s like to learn sign without someone to sign with. Pretty sure it’s usually a lot faster to become a productive conversator in any sign language than any spoken natural lang—the only thing you really need is the hand alphabet, and then the person you’re talking to can show you the signs for every new word you spell out.
I appreciate this timeline! My emergency plan if I unexpectedly have a deaf baby one day is to find someone fluent in sign language to move in with us and do, if necessary, hardcore sign immersion, and 3-5 months is quick enough that I would not need to worry about the baby acquiring brain damage.