Learn Sign Language: 400 Words In 30 Minutes; Sign Language For Everyone

Sign language videos continue to proliferate with wild abandon and wild abandon seems to the be the governing principle of many of the offerings. Learn Sign Language: 400 Words in 30 Minutes carries an obvious contradiction in the title since one neither learns "sign language" nor 400 words in 30 minutes. Produced and presented by Shelene Robinson, the program's heart is in the right place, since the funds from the tape sales are intended to go towards a program called "Supporting Independent Living for the Deaf," a prototype of which has been up and successfully operating for four years in Baldwin Park, CA. After a brief introduction, Robinson begins signing the words which do, initially, fall into logical subject groupings (greetings, male signs, female signs, days of week, color, etc.). The lion's share of the tape is given over to sentences, which are spoken, signed, subtitled on screen, and demonstrated twice. Some sentences make perfect sense ("What's your name?" What time is it?"); others seem to emanate from Mars ("They don't want to wash the dishes.") During much of the tape, a TV or radio soundtrack is present in the background lowering the technical quality of the production considerably. Not a necessary purchase. Sign Language for Everyone is also inappropriately named. Produced by the Bill Rice Ranch, a non-profit organization "dedicated to the purpose of helping deaf people learn more about the Bible," this 4-hour EP-recorded lecture by Cathy Rice is definitely aimed at a Christian audience--and a Fundamentalist Christian audience, at that. Based on her book of the same name, Rice's course offers some 600 words, reviewed twice. The subject groupings are semi-logical with, of course, a number of religious shadings thrown into the word choice and sentences. For example, the word "punish" is linked with the following sentence(s): "Grab him by the collar and punish him with the rod. Give him a good spanking." Viewers are advised to practice their signs by singing hymns such as "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Sweetest Name" (hymn lyrics are not included in either the video or the book, but can be purchased separately from the Bill Rice Ranch). Basically what we have here is a technically shoddy, totally inappropriate program for libraries. Not recommended. (Learn Sign Language is available from: S.I.V. Inc., 675 Fairview Dr., #246, Carson City, NV 89701.) (See BASIC BEGINNING WOODWORKING for availability of Sign Language for Everyone.)