How do you improve your reception skills by communicating with hearing people instead of talking to deaf people on video chat?

Answer 1

The Deaf will always be the best place to learn from, however fluent hearing signers are also a great place to get some practice.

You don’t have to make it anything too formal, but just by carrying on normal conversation with voices off (just signing) will help both your reception and expression. If there’s anything you miss, or don’t understand don’t be shy to state it. Ask them to repeat, perhaps slower or in a different way. Fingerspell what you need, but I definitely recommend asking the hearing person to specifically NOT fingerspell right away when you don’t understand.

That may sound intimidating, but when they act out the concept of a sign instead of just spelling the English equivalencies, it helps you use your deduction skill and it also helps concrete the meaning of the sign to you. You’ll definitely remember that sign more than you would versus if they just fingerspelled. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

While the Deaf are definitely the best resource we have for learning to communicate in sign, here are a few tips that might help you improve your reception skills through practice with another hearing person:

1) Have them fingerspell to you.

Ask your friend to tell you a story in sign language, but to leave out some of the signs and fingerspell equivalent English words instead. If you miss a word, don’t ask them to repeat it right away; wait, and see if it comes to you later. That will give you practice in figuring out what’s being spelled based on your three best clues: first letter, last letter, and context.

2) DON’T have them fingerspell to you.

If your friend uses a sign you haven’t seen before, ask them to show you what it means without spelling an English word. They can explain it using other signs, or they can pantomime (act it out.) That will help you become less dependent on English, which enables you to communicate more naturally with the Deaf.

I hope these tips are helpful!