Sign Language: Another Thing the Americans are better at Than the British

You can add Sign Language to the list of things the Americans are better at then the British. Actually you can put it right in between food, basketball and good looking women because, yes, American Sign Language (ASL) is that much better than British Sign Language (BSL). In this very biased (obviously) blog, I will be examining some aspects of British Sign Language, reviewing certain signs and comparing them to American Sign Language with the help of lifeprint.com its creator Dr. Bill Vicars of California State University, Sacramento.

First, let’s examine the BSL alphabet. BSL uses the Standard English alphabet interpreted through the usage of hands, much like the ASL system with one very important difference. BSL uses two hands to interpret each letter instead of ASL’s one. Here is a chart of the BSL alphabet from deafsign.com:

Now before I tear apart the BSL alphabet system, I would like to point out a few good things about it. The first thing I can see is that by using two hands instead of ASL’s one hand system, it is easier to make the hand sign look more like the letter it’s representing. For example, if someone were to show me BSL’s sign for Q and then show me ASL’s Q, I would say, “wow, the BSL one makes more sense than the ASL” (Same thing for BSL’s sign for X). Other than that, why would I want to use two hands when ASL is much easier and simpler? Spelling my name (Satapana) with BSL would not be fun at all.
**Actually according to livingdeaf.com, BSL might be the only popular form of sign language that uses both hands to sign letters, what’s up with that?

Next, we will examine the BSL number system as seen on this video by Paula Cox and videojug.com. First thought that came to mind, the BSL three is makes a lot more sense than the ASL three (sorry Dr. V, I will always continue to make my ASL three look like a backwards six every now and then). That might have been the only good thing that came to mind when I was analyzing this video (see, I’m not always about negativity!) The BSL ten, shown by Paula, uses both hands (much like the alphabet). This is definitely a big hassle if you were to count one through nine in BSL and then be forced to use both hands at ten. Also, the only number that uses both hands is ten, another one of those “what’s up with that?” moments. From eleven to 100, BSL uses one hand (definitely good), but the signer is forced to move their hands left and right representing each number. Compared to the ASL number system where the hand is always kept at one place (except for double numbers such as 22, 33, 44, etc) this is very non-efficient and would eventually hurt the signer’s wrist, forearms, and elbows (yeah, it could get that extreme if not performed correctly).

Lastly, we will look at some common signs from BSL. We will analyze another video by Paula Cox from videojug.com that explains BSL signs for family. The first sign is “family”. Very much like the ASL sign for family, BSL uses their “F” sign to describe family, with the arms moving in a circle to represent an enclosed group of people (where as ASL uses the “F” sign to trace a circle shown here on lifeprint.com). One very important thing that stood out was mom/dad/grandmom/granddad. The ASL grandmother is based off of the ASL sign for mom, just with one extra step (same thing for dad and grandfather, shown here and here). This makes absolute sense that these two signs are related. Paula shows the BSL grandmother/grandfather signs at different places than the BSL signs for mom and dad. This to me is not logical at all, which makes these BSL signs harder to learn/comprehend. Another thing, it seems that BSL has no sense of gender, since mom/dad/brother/sister signs are all signed at different locations of the body, where as ASL signs for females are generally around the mouth are and the signs for males are around the forehead area.

In conclusion, Americans might not be as good as the British when it comes to Soccer (or Football, whatever), fish and chips, tea or driving on the left side of the road, but, as proved in this blog, American Sign Language blows British Sign Language away. My thanks go out to Dr. Bill Vicars and his ASL 2 class, lifeprint.com, Paula Cox from Sunny Signers, videojug.com, livingdeaf.com, deafsign.com, and everyone who uses British Sign Language (thank you for having a sense of humor). Every form of communicating thoughts, feelings, emotions and ideas from one person to another are all beautiful, British Sign Language is definitely a gem and should be cherished and advanced by the world wide deaf community. Please visit Sunny Signers for more information about their services and the great things they have done to further the deaf community in the United Kingdom.



References:
"Bosustow". (2007, Nov. 21). Finger spelling and Sign Language. Living Deaf. Retrieved 5, Apr. 2009: <http://livingdeaf.com/?author=1>.

Cox, Paula. (2006, Dec. 6). How To Sign Numbers 1 To 100 Using Sign Language. Sunny Signers. Video Jug. Retrieved 4, Apr. 2009: <http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-sign-numbers-1-to-100-using-sign-language>.

Cox, Paula. (2006, Dec. 6). How To Talk About Your Family Using Sign Language. Sunny Signers. Video Jug. Retrieved 4, Apr. 2009: <http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-talk-about-your-family-using-sign-language>.

Cox, Paula. Welcome. Sunny Signers. Retrieved 5, Apr. 2009: <http://www.sunnysigners.co.uk/Welcome.html>.

DeafSign.Com. (2000, Dec. 14). British Two Handed Finger Spelling Alphabet. Retrieved 3, Apr. 2009: <http://www.deafsign.com/ds/index.cfm?scn=article&articleID=44>.

Vicars, William. Family-(version b1). ASL University Library. Lifeprint Institute. Retrieved 4, Apr. 2009: <http://lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/f/family.htm>.

Vicars, William. Mom & Dad. ASL University Library. Lifeprint Institute. Retrieved 4, Apr. 2009: <http://lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/m/mom.htm>.

Vicars, William. Grandmother & Grandfather. ASL University Library. Lifeprint Institute. Retrieved 4, Apr. 2009: <http://lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/g/grandpa.htm>.