A group of youth are chatting-you notice them smiling,nudging each other playfully but some thing's different-this conversation is taking place in complete silence!Nothing can be heard but the sound of the jeepneys passing by and bystander's chit-chat. How are they communicating?Take a closer look at their hands,making fast yet graceful movements accompanied with expressive faces conveying words.

Sign language is definitely an amazing,unique and beautiful means of communication, it is a language with punctuation and grammatical rules. Words have corresponding signs usually conceptual or derived from the meaning of the word combined with the emotion conveyed by the word. Take for example the word 'happy'-

Notice the importance of facial expressions-even without the hands, no one would mistake the sign for sad would they? Just a twitch of your facial muscles would complete the message-one sign could be understood in a number of ways depending on the look on your face. Learning to utilize this 'asset' is one if not the most challenging aspects of learning sign. Imagine frequently frowning,smiling,raising your eyebrows, changing the shape of your lips during a conversation to convey the right message. Embarrassing? Well think of it like this: Would you enjoy talking to a person who speaks in a monotone?Never changes the pace,pitch or intonation of their voice throughout the whole conversation?Definitely not!We naturally add feeling to our speech-increase our pace when exited, raise our voices when angry, change our pitch when asking questions. In sign, your hands are your words and your face is your voice.

Another important factor in sign is spatial referencing.This is especially important when relating stories or experiences.Simply put, spatial referencing is assigning locations(right,left and center) when signing.Traditionally, good elements, qualities or characters are assigned to the right whereas bad on the left.This way characters are easily identified and not interchanged.

Hand shape too plays a vital role in explaining or relating experiences.Your left hand in the shape of number one and your right hand as a number two would mean two people meeting one person.The index,thumb and middle finger(sign for number 3 if vertical) once placed horizontally would indicate a vehicle while the index and middle finger once bent vertically would indicate an animal.These are very helpful when relating stories with multiple characters.

There really are numerous tips-do's and don'ts when it comes to sign.Basically though-the way you speak is the way you sign.Don't believe me? Try learning-believe me you'll have no regrets and the next time you see the scene described earlier, muster up courage and walk straight up and introduce yourself!