#deblearnsauslan — Public Fediverse posts

Week 5, lots of vocab. More amusing throwbacks to the 1880s again (“rich” is fluffing an imaginary fur coat). You FOSS folks will be pleased to know that “free” (as in beer) and “free” (as in speech) are distinct signs. #DebLearnsAuslan

Tonight’s class was animals and families and relationships. I regret that Teacher Des does not know what a red panda is, and nor did a number of my co-students.

We learned so. many. animals.

Also a ton of relationship terms. Des was careful to point out not to confuse “straight” with “sad”, and the slides missed “bisexual” so here’s the sign for that. Also that sign in the notes for “trans” is antiquated, here’s the current sign, and also here’s the sign for LGBTQI+, see how it’s almost the same sign as “rainbow”.

#DebLearnsAuslan

Yesterday’s #DebLearnsAuslan class largely covered time and colours. Auslan‘s origin in 19th Century British colonialism is evident in so many of the signs.

MORNING: Oh, that comes from the 1800s when people would tuck the morning newspaper in their armpit.

BLACK: Oh, that comes from the 1800s when everyone had to chip the soot out of their fireplaces.

GREY: Oh, that comes from the 1800s when coalminers had dirty smudges on their cheeks.

SUNDAY: Oh, that comes from the 1800s when everyone went to church.

Signs learned in class 1: A through Z, 0 through 999, HELLO, GOODBYE, THANKS, WHAT, NAME, DUCK, BIRD, DOG, PHONE, NUMBER, HOUSE. #DebLearnsAuslan

I've received the course notes for my upcoming six-lesson course on Auslan, the national sign language of Australia. I'm scanning ahead in the notes. It's pretty intensive and pretty hands-on. I'm going to be exhausted.

(The class is the in-person stream of Expression Australia, https://www.expression.com.au/)
#DebLearnsAuslan