American Sign Language Demystified

Explains communication using American Sign Language, covering such topics as basic grammar, etiquette, asking questions, body language and facial expressions, and the manual alphabet.

Get your message across using your hands and your body language Want to communicate with the Deaf community but are mystified how to start? With American Sign Language Demystified you'll learn this unique visual language, and a whole new world of communication will be opened to you. At your own pace, you will learn basic grammar structures, discover the nuances of body positioning, master how to convey time, and build a useful vocabulary of signs and phrases. To help you on your way, the accompanying 100-minute DVD features in-depth demonstrations of how to make signs and create phrases and sentences as executed in American Sign Language. This fast and easy guide offers: A DVD that contains all the signs and phrases in the book as well as hundreds of additional vocabulary signs Quizzes at the end of each chapter to monitor your progress Etiquette you need to know when using ASL A helpful history of ASL Simple enough for a beginner but challenging enough for a more advanced student, American Sign Language Demystified will help you communicate in ASL confidently and comfortably.

Unlock the riddle of speaking and interacting in German German Demystified provides you with a solid foundation for building conversation skills in that language. You can go at your own pace as you are guided through the fundamentals of communicating in German. Organized around everyday themes such as meeting people, making plans, and talking on the phone each chapter features an in-depth dialog presented both in the book and on the audio, coverage of essential communication skills (such as asking a question or making comparisons), review of key grammar points, and written and verbal activities to reinforce new communication skills.

Unlock the riddle of speaking and interacting in Spanish Spanish Demystified provides you with a solid foundation for building conversation skills in that language. You can go at your own pace as you are guided through the fundamentals of communicating in Spanish. Organized around everyday themes such as meeting people, making plans, and talking on the phone each chapter features an in-depth dialog presented both in the book and on the audio, coverage of essential communication skills (such as asking a question or making comparisons), review of key grammar points, and written and verbal activities to reinforce new communication skills.

Unravel the mystery of speaking in French! Need a straightforward approach for fast and painless mastery of French speaking and comprehension skills? This easy-to-use guide from the popular Demystified series takes the mystery and menace out of speaking and understanding French by walking you step-by-step through the fundamentals of communicating in the language. French Conversation Demystified lets you work at your own pace and arms you with the essentials of communicating in French in an unintimidating format. Organized around everyday scenarios such as meeting people, talking about yourself, and eating out, each chapter features: An in-depth dialog presented both in the book and on the audio. Coverage of essential communication skills (such as asking a question or making comparisons). Review of key grammar points. Written and verbal activities to reinforce new communication skills. Each chapter concludes with a written and audio quiz that allows you to track your progress, and a comprehensive final exam at the end of the book gives instant feedback on new language skills.

Take the mystery out of effective, fear-free public speaking This latest book in the Demystified series takes theconfusion out of preparing for and delivering speechesand presentations. Public Speaking and PresentationsDemystified walks you step-by-step through the fundamentalsof the subject and provides you withtechniques for effective speaking, avoiding commonerrors, and overcoming stage fright. With these skills,you will feel confident in business and social situationswhen you find yourself in the spotlight.

The Chinese Language Demystified offers a detailed exploration of the features that have made Mandarin Chinese so unique among the major languages of the world, particularly English and other European linguistic forms of communication. While discussing the aspects that contribute to the perception of the language as somewhat ‘mysterious,’ the book also investigates how it is comprehended and used by the Chinese people despite its lack of formal grammatical structure in the conventional terms of understanding.

Winner of the Center for Fiction's 2016 First Novel Prize The hotly anticipated first novel by lauded playwright and The Wire TV writer Kia Corthron, The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter sweeps American history from 1941 to the twenty-first century through the lives of four men--two white brothers from rural Alabama, and two black brothers from small-town Maryland--whose journey culminates in an explosive and devastating encounter between the two families. On the eve of America's entry into World War II, in a tiny Alabama town, two brothers come of age in the shadow of the local chapter of the Klan, where Randall--a brilliant eighth-grader and the son of a sawmill worker--begins teaching sign language to his eighteen-year-old deaf and uneducated brother B.J. Simultaneously, in small-town Maryland, the sons of a Pullman Porter--gifted six-year-old Eliot and his artistic twelve-year-old brother Dwight--grow up navigating a world expanded both by a visit from civil and labor rights activist A. Philip Randolph and by the legacy of a lynched great-aunt. The four mature into men, directly confronting the fierce resistance to the early civil rights movement, and are all ultimately uprooted. Corthron's ear for dialogue, honed from years of theater work, brings to life all the major concerns and movements of America's past century through the organic growth of her marginalized characters, and embraces a quiet beauty in their everyday existences. Sharing a cultural and literary heritage with the work of Toni Morrison, Alex Haley, and Edward P. Jones, Kia Corthron's The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter is a monumental epic deftly bridging the political and the poetic, and wrought by one of America's most recently recognized treasures.