Customer Reviews

Talking With Your Hands, Listening With Your Eyes: A Complete Photographic Guide to American Sign Language

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is an excellent introduction to ASL and Deaf culture issues. There is a manageable number of basic signs and insets providing details about being deaf in a hearing world, information on famous deaf people, and technological advances useful for the deaf. The introduction also contains a concise history of deaf education. The author is extremely credible, which is something important to me when learning a new language!

From the instruction of a single deaf individual, I have developed a rudimenary knowledge of sign language: the alphabet, numbers, various greetings, some nouns and adjectives. This book has helped me to reinforce what I know, clean up the sloppy signing I had been doing, and learn new things. I have had trouble learning signs from books in the past because I would often miss something important. With this book, I've felt very comfortable with the new signs because of the format. The combination of specific written descriptions with pictures gives a very understandable way to learn new signs. The added bonus of mnemonic devices to remember which sign is which is very helpful. It's embarrassing to admit, but I kept confusing the signs for "yes" and "no" until I read the helpful hints in this book - not a good thing to get wrong!

There may be books with more words in them, but I would recommend this book for all beginners, and advanced beginners like myself. Once the signs here are learned (and as in my case cleaned up considerably), then start looking for more comprehensive works. I've been practicing about 30-100 words a night depending on how many I already knew and feel very confident that I'm finally doing them correctly.

Looks like I get to be the first negative review for this book. I'm guessing the author has lots of colleagues/friends/family/students.

I got this book so I could learn ASL to talk with a deaf friend.

The good: It contains a fairly comprehensive set of signs. There were only a couple signs I tried to find and couldn't.

The bad: For starters, while there are photos for the facial expressions, the other head and face movement components of the signs are not indicated. Nor is there any text to describe the shown facial expressions, so one has to guess as to whether or not any facial expression is actually necessary and what its intention is. These are vital parts of ASL signs that are mostly left out of this book.

When I started going through this I found that some of the signs conflict with 3 other ASL books I had been using. When I showed this book to my deaf friend she said the book was wrong. We both went through Chapter 2 together, counted, and 25% of the signs were signs that she said were wrong, and my other 3 ASL books, for the most part, agreed with my friend. I had at first attributed this discrepancy to regional variation, but the problem is too pronounced. Either regional variations in ASL are mutually unintelligible (in which case they wouldn't be regional variations of the same language) or this book is using the wrong signs a quarter of the time.

It should also be noted that many of the signs in the book that we classified as correct are actually only just "close to correct". Many of them are simplified versions of the real ASL signs. Important hand (and head) movements are quite often omitted in both the photographs and the text.

Even more disappointing is that this book contains absolutely nothing about ASL grammar. It's just a dumping of signs, a categorized dictionary. This book provides no instruction for learning the actual language. A language is much more than just the vocabulary. If all you want is a dictionary, there are numerous free ASL dictionaries online which will show you the signs, many showing signs with videos so you get all the information needed to PROPERLY make those signs, and those dictionaries are at least as accurate, most are more accurate, than this book.

I recommend you save your money for something else.

One of the best sign language learning books available. The pictures and desciptions of how to make the sign are excellent. However, no one book has every sign. Buy this for your personal library, it is the clearest book on how to make a particular sign. Even books that I consider very good such as "The American Sign Language Sign Book" by Louie Fant sometimes leave me confused by unclear drawings or descriptions. Gabriel Grayson's book is a great cross reference for times like these or for building your vocabulary to the point where you can move on to learning phrases and grammar.

This book edges ahead of others in that it features clear photographs, has words listed topically, and explains deaf history and culture throughout the book. It is much easier to use than books with a "dictionary" layout. The author has the experience and backing to know what works. I highly recommend it.

This is the best book I have found to learn to sign.
I kept the copy from the library checked out for so long, and kept going overdue, and was wearing it out, I figured I'd best go ahead and purchase my own copy.
I tried other books, but they were useless to me.
I purchased a dvd set from amazon, but the dvd set was horrible - and if your looking for sign dvd's, you'll see which one (set) I warn you about.
A couple copies of this book (you'll will wear this hvy duty book out - from much use) or a hard bound edition will get you communicating w/ your deaf friend quickly - but you have to study.
Money well spent.

This book has quickly become one of my favorite sign language reference books. Though I prefer a dictionary when searching for a particular sign (Perigee and Random House are my favorites), this book is excellent for studying and increasing vocabulary. My favorite feature is that there are two pictures per sign in most cases. You can see how the sign starts and how it finishes versus trying to discern the motions from arrows in other books I've used. I also appreciate the selections throughout the book on deaf history, culture, technology, etc.

This is a clearly written and helpful guide, authored by the hearing son of two deaf parents. Its breadth of coverage, attention to details, and hundreds of photographs make this book stand out.

I especially appreciated the insets, which added insight into deaf culture.

This is the best sign language book that is in print at the moment. It is very easy to use and my Instructor loves it as well!

I bought this book when I was learning sign language and now as an Interpreter I use it to teach others.
It has great pictures and wonderful memory aids to help you remember why the signs are done that way.
I would highly recommend it!!

The book "Talking With Your Hands, Listening With Your Eyes" is a great book for people wanting to start learning sign language. The photographs of the signs are very clear. I especially like the additional material throughout the book about Deaf Culture and history. I recommend this book and enjoyed reading it even though I have been a student of sign language for 5 years.