Sign
How are You in Sign Language – Video & Image Include
“How are you?” is probably one of the most common signs that we learn during our first sign language journey. There are many sign languages out there, including American Sign Language ASL and British Sign Language BSL. Today, we’re going to learn to ask ‘how are you’ in sign language, specifically BSL.
Whether you learn sign language online or in-person with an instructor, your user experience will pretty much be the same. That’s what we tried to do here. We’re going to teach you sign language online, one phrase at a time.
As you may well be aware by now, sign language isn’t just the language of deaf people. Hearing people make up a large percentage of people who use sign language. They won’t let language barriers limit them from communicating with their loved ones. You’re probably one of them as you’re already here.
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Table of Content
How are You in Sign Language
Take a look at the video above. The woman in the video is showing us how to say ‘how are you’ in sign language. So let’s break down the process.
British Sign Language, being a language that’s primarily based on gestures, works a bit differently from any spoken language. “How are you?” is an excellent demonstration of just that. So instead of spelling out all three words, we’re going just to spell two, namely: ‘How’ and ‘You’.
Notice, even if we say, “How, you?” in English, the person we’re communicating with will perfectly understand what we’re asking. It’s the same in BSL too.
So, let’s see the steps to sign “how are you” in British Sign Language.
1. First, you’re going to point toward yourself with both hands, like in the image above.
2. Keep both hands flat against your chest. Your palm will rest against your chest while the person you’re communicating with will see the back of your hand.
3. Don’t curl your fingers. Instead, spread them out flat against your chest.
4. Now, curl the fingers on both of your hands like a fist. Only keep your thumbs spread out. If you’re holding a proper gesture, they will point upwards. The rest of your fingers will be inside your fist.
5. Extend your hand slightly away from your chest.
6. Bonus tip: a friendly smile will make you a great communicator.
As you can see from the example above, we can make our gestures slow. However, we can also make it a bit faster. Take a look at the following video.
The hand movements are faster here, but the steps we mentioned earlier are still the same. Don’t worry. Your spectator will still understand you fine.
Conclusion
So, that’s how you ask ‘how are you’ in sign language. It’s a very easy sentence to learn. We recommend that you practice the movements a few times because these are the key markers of communication in sign language. If your movement changes from the one seen here, the person you’re conversing with will become confused.
Also, keep yourself clearly visible. With a few practise rounds, you can easily say the whole thing without any help.
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