While ASL and similar non-verbal means of communication are complex, a few basic signs are easy to learn and could be life-saving. So let’s talk about it. Alright guys, so today on the channel we have Tamara who’s our resident ASL sign language expert. She doesn’t like being called that. What is your background with ASL? My grandmother was an interpreter for the deaf when I was growing up. So I grew up playing with deaf kids and being around deaf people. So as a family we picked up some signs. And you brought this to my attention. You said, I have an idea for a video and it’s something that maybe I had thought of at some point.

We’ve talked about hobo signs on the channel, we’ve talked about morse code, but I think having some way to communicate in a way that doesn’t involve your voice can be very useful in a survival situation. As you know, I’m a big fan of The Walking Dead and there was a whole season where they encountered a deaf group. And at first they were like, they could cause trouble for us or hold us back from doing things. But it turned out that their ability to sign actually saved them from quite a few situations.

I mean militaries use these kind of signals, tactical hand signals as they call them. So one use case I can think of is communicating over long distances. If you have a drone or if you have binoculars and maybe you don’t want the person shouting and alerting people for miles around that there’s people in a place. And if you don’t have a big piece of cardboard or a whiteboard and a marker, you’re going to need some means of communicating, right? Yeah, for sure. My sister and I have used it like if we go to a loud concert and I want to tell her that I’m going for a beer, do you want one? All the survival essentials.

If you’re in a crowded situation, it’s frenetic, it’s frenzied, there’s people running around screaming, there’s noises, there’s explosions going off. Having someone in your line of sight and being able to communicate is a useful tool to have. What about communicating across different languages? Obviously the person would have to have some knowledge but you had some sort of cheat sheet to let them know some of the basics. Yeah, definitely. And you can make up your own signs within your group. And it’s nice too because other people might not even notice what you’re doing. And if they do notice, they probably don’t understand what you’re saying.

So you can do it discreetly and you could even do it maybe in a way that doesn’t attract any attention at all. That’s one of the things that I like about ASL is that a lot of the signs are nice and small. So these could even be good for like a hunting situation where you have to be quiet and you have to alert your hunting partner of something. Maybe you are on the offensive and you have to be quiet, right? Or maybe you’re trying to evade capture. If you’re in a situation where you’re using it as a team, you’re focused on those signs.

Like in the military, they give a sign. There’s no argument. It’s unambiguous. There’s no interpretation. It’s what it is. And so for that reason, it builds cohesion. And I think it also, it’s a great exercise to kind of unify your group and just provide you a common language of preparedness. So what we’re going to present to you today is a compilation of the most useful words that might come in handy in a survival or emergency situation. And they’re very easy to remember. So one of the first things I think a person could do is just learn the basic ASL alphabet.

From there, you can make up your own signs or even finger spell. Like there isn’t a word for prepper, but you could do P-R-E-P-P-E-R. I’m not sure if I’m going to get that far into this world of things, but we’ll see. So one of the most important signals I think is help. So how do we sign help? So you have one hand flat, put your other hand in, you’re helping. So then you can incorporate other signs like help me, or do you need help? A person could customize this so if you only had one hand, you could maybe just remove the hand, the palm part.

Like I was saying, it’s kind of counterintuitive because thumbs up typically means great, things are going well. But if you have that shared language within your group and everybody knows what it means, they’re going to be looking for those signs. So that’s going to make it a lot easier. So there is also a universal sign of duress. This is often used if people are kidnapped or victims of violence. So basically what it is, it’s tuck, trap, and open, and just repeat that over and over again. So if you ever do see somebody in public doing that, you know that they need help.

Okay, so what about danger? There’s actually a lot of different signs for danger, but this would be the easiest one. So just like this. Just like that. We’re going to be making all kinds of weird stuff for references here. Help, danger. Use your bottom hand to help. So help me, I’m in danger. There you go. Wow. What about stop and go? Go is two fingers and you’re going. And it’s helpful if you point in the direction that you want the person to go. Okay, that’s pretty straightforward, pretty intuitive. What about stop? Stop, just like that.

Splat. Yep. Like you fell off a skyscraper and are both to be scraped off the pavement. I think the military one is this, which is good too. Obviously food, water, medicine, shelter, all those things are important in prepping. If you wanted to signal to somebody that you found water or maybe they need water, how would you show water? This is the sign for water. This is the W. Water. Like this? Okay, that’s simple enough. So then you can say you need water? This is need. This is weird. Okay, what about food? Food, okay.

So if you need to, like I said, request food, or somebody needs help and they need food, or maybe there’s food at a certain location, that could be a way to indicate that we point and then there’s food over there. The next word is where. So if we’re trying to ask somebody, where are the supplies? Where is the danger? How do we ask that question in sign language? Where? So this one’s kind of counter because I just associate that with no. So now you can ask, where’s the water? All right, now if you want somebody to stay put, how do you communicate that? Okay, this is the sign language for stay.

So you could do that with one hand too. That one you could do with one hand for sure. They’re both the same. So how would I say stay low? Stay low. Okay, so low is. I think that one’s a military one. And just so people know, the universal acknowledgement that you understand is this, right? Yeah, in the military, they have to respond to each hand signal either okay or I don’t understand. Yeah, it’s kind of like Roger that over and out. What about follow? Okay, so you want somebody to follow you? Yeah, we’re in a crazy crowd of rioters and looters and I want somebody to follow me.

So this is the sign for follow. Thumbs are kind of up. Okay. And then you just move one forward like. So it doesn’t matter which one? It would be your dominant. Say follow me or I will follow you. That one seems like it’s a lot for one word. Why not just like that? Because there’s movement. It’s showing movement. You want the person to move. Okay, how about come over here or come this way? Well, you can do it with two fingers or come. Okay, so. See, you got the face this time. That’s good.

Yeah, the face is important. So those are I think the main ones that people would use. There’s all kinds of other tactical hand signals. Not every situation is going to be one where you’re walking around larping with a gun. What about numbers? This one is super easy and everybody should know this. Because you can do all the numbers with one hand. So how do I do that? One, two, three, four, five, six. Turn your hand around. Seven, eight, nine, ten. Okay, so let me see if I remember that correctly. So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

You did it. I did it. Good. Yes or no are the answer to half of questions. How do I do that? So this was one where the military, they shake yes or no. But it generally has to be very exaggerated so that they can see. But if you want a more low key one, the ASL yes and no is yes. Like knocking on a door? Like I’m nodding my head. Okay. Yes. Or no. No, like a velociraptor biting at your ankles. And make your face. So like angry face, no. Yes, smiley face. Yes. What about be quiet? That’s the great thing about learning some signs is that there’s some that are just obvious.

So everybody knows quiet. That’s going to go across any language, any culture. I wonder if it would though, because we think that in the West, but I’m sure there’s some country out there. If you do this to somebody, you get punched in the face. You’re wrong. No, that’s universally recognizable from here to Ethiopia. Yep. If you do this, they notice shut the hell up, hey? They do. Okay, so. Would you look at that? That was pretty good. That was a combination of five. See, it’s easy. Now let’s say I’m flying my drone. I’m looking for my teammate.

They want to communicate to me that they’re injured. Maybe it’s a non-threatening life injury. Maybe it’s a life-threatening injury. How would we communicate that we’re injured in a really simple way? Well, this is the sign for injured. So if your bones are like twisted up. Then you could point to whatever part of your body is the injured part. If it’s a bad injury. So how would I communicate that if I’m with one hand? Because let’s say my arm is injured. So just like this. So kind of like the flip. Yeah, I mean, we’re just giving people ideas here.

There’s a thousand and one ways you could do your own. You can use ASL. You can do military, as I said. But we’re just kind of giving you a sense of ones that you should generally have in your repertoire. In such case that the need arises. Now, what about a gun? That’s an easy one. Universal gun signal. What about a person? Like if we want to indicate that there are five people over there. How would we say that? So this is the sign for person. So if you want to say there’s five people over there.

So there’s ten people over there. What about gasoline or fuel? How would we say that? So this is your gas tank. Okay, so look. There’s cars with people with five people and it’s danger. Okay, I’m getting the hang of this. What about ammo? Ammunition for your guns. That one’s a little bit more complicated. This is the sign for ammo. So you could do a gun, ammo. So almost like if I was to go like gun like that, would that be… I think that would probably work. You could. What about medicine? Like you need medicine.

This is the sign for medicine. Middle finger? Yeah. Have your other fingers out. How do you say I’m injured, bad, I need medicine. Okay, so I’m injured, bad, bring medicine. Okay, so you have the facial expressions going along with it. Now what about names? That would be something that’s highly personalized. So you might want to have a certain gesture for everybody in your group. In the deaf community, they will usually come up with a name sign. So like my grandmother’s name was Norma. So we would do an N and we loved her. So her name sign was like for you.

I don’t know, you could do Nate. What does that mean? I mean, I’m like really cool. I’m slicking back my hair. You have no hair. Well, thanks a lot. Thanks for reminding us, Tamara. What about rendezvous? I mean, I know in the military, I was referencing the predator early where Arnold does that thing and all the guys kind of descend upon the point. Apparently, this is the rallying point. That’s probably a good one. You could use or in ASL to meet. All right, guys. If you have any questions, post them in the comments section below.

And if you have any suggestions with respect to how you might incorporate signing into your preparedness repertoire. All that said, thanks for watching, guys. Take care. The best way to support this channel is to support yourself by gearing up at CanadianPreparedness.com, where you’ll find high-quality survival gear at the best prices, no junk and no gimmicks. Use discount code PreppingGear for 10% off. Don’t forget the strong survive, but the prepared thrive. Stay safe. [tr:trw].

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