Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Sign Language

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Yesterday, one of my students brought to class a copy of this book. I teach Sign, and about Deaf culture. I, myself, am hard-of-hearing. Just for starters, on the first page, we looked at an alphabet full of errors! It was as though someone who didn't know the fingerspelling alphabet had played "cut and paste." Hand-shape letters were not near the same designated printed letter. And one hand-shape, looking like no letter in particular, drawn without a thumb, was included in the mix. Looking further through the book, drawings were expressionless. It was difficult to recognize motion or direction in the drawn signs. ...And I know what the signs should look like! Looking for background on the authors, I read that one is an interpreter. Yikes! :-(

I have read other "complete idiots guides" and they can be good resources for beginners. However, this one falls short. It's unclear, easily misinterpreted and inaccurate in places. It gives an slightly less than OK assessment of deaf culture and does not even begin to give the reader an understanding of ASL.

Well, the book's not all bad . . . For example, the attempt to describe Deaf culture is successful on a very basic level, and the illustrations are attractive, if not particularly useful. That, however, is the main problem- the uselessness of the illustrations. It's as if a textbook on French wrote "gkhukyf" instead of "bonjour"! There's also relatively little on grammar, other than an acknowledgement that there is such a thing as ASL grammar (which is a good first step but by no means the last. Try A Basic Course in American Sign Language by Humphries, Padden, and O'Rourke. And definitely practice with native signers!

I have read the reviews on this book and they are all very low...too low. I am a teacher of ASL, have taught Deaf children for 10 years, have a Deaf foster son, have my masters in Deaf Education, etc. Needless to say I am in the Deaf community. I have found this book very helpful for my students and was looking to buy it for my sister when I saw the poor reviews.

I find the information on Deaf culture, history, etc. easy to read and right on. Having said that, the pictures are not very good. I find that ASL dictionaries are often wrong due to regional variations, ASL changes across time (like all languages do...think about it, 20 years ago no one knew what the word Internet would mean, but now...), and it is VERY hard to make something that is 3D understandable on something that is 2D. Therefore I would tell all people who are trying to buy an ASL dictionary to really think twice. DVDs, VHS and online dictionaries where you can see the movement of the sign are a MUCH better way to go. Dictionaries make for good reminders and if you are using this book to remind you how to sign something, it does a good job with the limited vocabulary it includes.

This book, however is not trying to con you into believing it is a dictionary. You know this but how much writing it has compared to pictures. As a textbook I find it great! I really love it. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because it does have a lot of line drawings that are not the best. I gave it a 4 for all of those poor people who are thinking they can do the impossible by learning to sign by reading a book. ASL just doesn't work that way.

The illustrations are poorly drawn, and often don't even match the descriptions (when it says to use an "s" shape, it shows an "a" shaped hand).

Page 185 shows the sign for "Day" over the word and description for "Second" and "Second" where "Day" should be. On page 202 the illustration for "white" (Which doesn't look like the sign "White" at all even if it was in the right place) is over both the words "white" and "brown".

Some of the alphabet is wrong. The sign for "P" for example, has the tip of the thumb touching the tip of the middle finger (similar to what you would see in the sign for "tea"). It is ironic considering a few of the author's short rants on the mistakes of others (her husband signing "hamburger" instead of "wife", once, or a common mistake between the signs "work" and, well, as the author puts it "making out"), and using words like "clumsiness" to describe their signing. If they were meant to be jokes, they were poorly written. They came off as put downs.

This book be discouraging to a new signer, who needs the confidence to go out there and use what he's learned, not to feel the need to constantly apologize for not being fluent. It's intimidating enough as it is.

I thought this book was a terrific summary of basic sign -- not for the Deaf culture, who presumably already know the language -- but for those who wish to learn the basics. I found the drawings charming and helpful, and the writing fun and instructive. I learned a lot!

This book seems to wish to accquaint the reader with Deaf culture and American Sign Language. Lamentably, it fails to do either. It's infantile drawings of signs fail to include the full face and upper body motions of most signs and thus exclude the primary sources of meaning in American Sign Language, eye gaze and facial expression. Obviously this book was highly influenced by hearing individuals with minimal contact with the deaf community as it reflects only a surface familiarity with ASL. I even found the famous Gallaudet University misspelled as "Gallauden University" only two lines under a properly spelled name of its founder Edward Miner Gallaudet. Truly this is an idiot's guide in every sense and only recommended if you with to appear as an idiot in Deaf culture.

what the hell were these people thinking!! What an insult to the Deaf Community, and REAL users of ASL. when I saw the title of the book, I was scared, then I actually looked through it, and realized the people who wrote this knows nothing about Deaf culture, or sign language and are just idiots for thinking they could get away with this. How pathetic! :(

I bought this book for my daughter, who is eager to learn sign language. It's a good book and is very informational. It's easy to read, and anyone who picks it up will be able to learn something. It has the alphabet first, then phrases. This book is a good tool, and would probably be a complimentary book to another sign language book.

If you want to learn about Deaf culture, this book is not *too* bad. Yes, it has some inaccuracies, but most of the information is OK and easy to understand.If you want to learn sign language, don't even bother with this book. In almost 300 pages of text, there is not one example of a complete sentence in ASL. Not even sentences as basic and important as, "Hello, my name is Mary. What's yours? Nice to meet you!" or "Could you repeat that again slower, please?"Even as a guide for learning individual signs, this book is poor. The illustrations are often unclear or inaccurate, and the written descriptions of the signs often don't match the illustrations. Furthermore, many important basic signs are not shown at all. The book jacket says that you will learn how to use sign language when... making introductions, telling time, ordering food, asking or answering a question, celebrating special occasions, telling a joke, communicating with kids, expressing emotion, making small talk, asking for travel directions. And that it gives you essential signs for handling emergencies. Bull-oney!!! No way in heck will you be able to do any of these things after reading this book. Ask an ASL student how long it took (how long it is taking) him or her to learn how to do all of these things, and you will realize the folly of thinking that you could learn all of this from one brief book for idiots. Even a well executed book for idiots couldn't deliver what this book promises. If you want a book to help you learn ASL, buy "American Sign Language the Easy Way" by David Stewart. It's not for idiots, but it's 10 times better and a wee bit cheaper. And of course, you gotta practice with skilled signers. Practice, practice, practice! You can't learn a language solely from a book! Duh!