“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring. forth a son.They shall call his name Immanuel;” which is interpreted, “God with us.”
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Here is a very often quoted and very controversial verse: John 14:6.
“Jesus answered. I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
When I began this introductory ASL class, I started with the 12-week curriculum program, which you will see as a separate button on the website. It is VERY beginner-driven. We start with the alphabet, and with numbers, then add simple words and phrases. Over the years, people have asked me to add Bible verses, which I have done, just as a service, because I also enjoy the challenge of translating verses.
I would caution new readers to my website to understand that the Bible verses are a separate pursuit from the original context of the 12 week curriculum. Enjoy them if you like, but the verses that people have asked me to translate are not beginning level. Not at all.
Enjoy.
Joy
Someone asked me about Philippians 1:27. A great verse.
As these verses get more complicated and outside of the “kid range” that my site is generally skewed toward, I spend more time talking about why I choose one sign over another. I think it’s important when talking about God’s word, to be clear about why I am choosing the signs that I choose. And, again, I emphasize that American Sign Language is not a word-for-word English transliteration. For instance, in this verse it says “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ”…..for us to really drill down, we have to understand what this means…and I think Paul is saying here that you have to live a life worthy of and considering the gospel (sign “good” plus “news” or you will see an acceptable initialized sign). With that in mind, my sign choices are “life” plus “your” plus (move forward) plus “know” “worth” “gospel”…..of course this doesn’t make sense in English, but we are wanting to learn ASL. Not English on your hands (Seeing Exact English SEE).
I enjoy it when someone asks me about a verse that I have actually, already translated!! Here it is:
I have added a short video…short for me is hard. I am a talker. And I understand that in ASL, there are many ways for us to interpret from the written word into American Sign Language, so I always feel like I have to spend some time talking about that….nevermind that we ALSO can get sideways when we just interpret what we THINK a verse means. So, there are many opportunities here to misunderstand or to disagree. My feeling is UNITY FIRST. If you disagree, no worries. There are plenty of resources online. I recommend that we help one another and spend a little time trying to figure things out and then make our own decisions. All of the verses I am interpreting are based on my own interpretations on what the scripture verse is attempting to say to us about our lives and how we conduct ourselves.
Enjoy!
I recorded a new verse for you.
Here is your verse for next class. If you have any questions, shoot me an email.
Well, that depends. If you were in class today you learned that the difference in signing verbs as opposed to signing nouns is: the motion of a sign designated as a noun-say “CHAIR”- is short and choppy. The verb, “TO SIT” would be signed in a more long and sweeping fashion. “AIRPLANE” short and choppy; “TO FLY” long and sweeping.
Here are the notes from our discussion.
Welcome! We have made it through Week 7. How are you doing? We are really being able to make a few sentences here and actually have a conversation or two. That’s always fun once you can get started having conversations.
Today we went over verbs-how they are signed differently from nouns (nouns are signed slightly shorter and choppy, while verbs have a more long, sweeping “vibe”). Another interesting thing about American Sign Language-in its truest form- is that it does not include the verb “to be”…..remember as a young person when you had to conjugate verbs “I am, he is, she is, it is, you are, we are, you (pl) are, they are….” The good news is that ASL does not conjugate verbs, and since the language is very much based in the present-where you stand is present and today you learned how to indicate past and future; so these signs replace the need for the conjugated verbs and for the “to be”….now, people will tell you there are signs for “is” and “are” and “were”…but those have been added to ASL in order that deaf students can become proficient in English, but they are not a part of American Sign Language.
The students in my Friday class wanted to learn the Pledge of Allegiance, so I have added it here if you are interested.
Here are the notes from our discussion.
American Sign Language - Joy's way 