Alright, Hey!
It's Signing Eli!
Umm first off I'm not gonna be signing the
entire video because if I sign and talk at
the same time I know for sure that either
my speech is gonna be really... bad or that
my signing is going to be really bad and I
don't really want either or both to suffer
so I'm just gonna voice for this one.
And, obviously, captions are gonna be a thing
:) so no worries
So I've never done like a real "introduction"
of myself on here before and I think that's
kind of- I should've.
I should.
Now that we're at over 1700 subscribers (hit
1800 today!)
I think I should say something so obviously
I'm Eli.
Um..
So just some general things about me: I'm
in college, I have a cat, I like horror movies,
I like to read and play video games and listen
to music.
Obviously music is a big thing.
Um I have some questions that- not a ton but
a couple that I can answer which would be
good.
The main- a really big thing that I do get
a lot is "when did you learn to sign, why
did you learn to sign" all that kind of stuff.
So, my great grandma was deaf, I never met
her but I mean there's that connection there.
So when I knew I was gonna be starting high
school and I was gonna have to take a foreign
language I had the choice of sign language,
Japanese, Spanish, or French and so I opted
for sign language because I thought "oh it
looks cool!
It looks fun, it's probably the one I'll be
the most interested in".
Like actually interested in learning.
I probably would have liked the other ones
but from probably day one, it was freshman
year of high school which was 5 years ago
maybe?
So, from day one I loved it and the love just
kind of grew and so the whole- so obviously
I took classes, all the classes I could in
high school which was ASL 1-4.
And now that I'm in college I've taken ASL
3 and I am currently in ASL 4 but it's like
a different level.
And then I've taken one Deaf Culture class
and I'm gonna take another Deaf Culture class
and then some time in the future I plan on
taking more classes, maybe some interpreting
stuff um.
So I plan on continuing this for a while.
So the whole thing where why I sign to music
is- firstly (I'm not sure that's a word) I
love music and music is really important in
my life.
It just is a really huge part of my life.
The main reason that I sign to songs (weird
throat noise) is that in high school my teacher-
part of her curriculum for us would be in
ASL 1 and all the way through- all the way
through the ASL classes there was- every semester
you had to- every semester being for every
ASL class- she would have you sign to a song.
And the whole idea is that ASL 1 you're doing
a pretty basic song by ASL 4 you an do almost
anything so the first time we did it I liked
it but I wasn't as- a huge fan of the song
that I did but in ASL 2 I did a song by myself
because no one really shared my music taste
and I didn't really know people that well
so I decided I'd do it on my own and my teacher
was okay with that as long as I was okay with
it.
And I was nervous, people in the class were
I think a little bit like "huh, I wonder if
this is actually going to be good".
Someone doing it by yourself, because the
whole thing is that if you do it in a huge
group and it's bad you're in a group so people
aren't just focusing on you.
People aren't just being like "Oh wow I can't
believe that was terrible" they're like "oh
that was so terrible but it was so good" you
know?
After I did it people were clapping really
hard and I was just like what's going on?
I wasn't used to being like "noticed" um that's
silly but.
I guess I just didn't think it would be- I
didn't think people would like it to the extent
that they did like it to where- like years
later.
Like that was freshman year and then in junior
year kids were still talking about it or people
would, from that class, would come up to me
and be like "man, now I always connect you
with that song, oh my gosh."
I knew that there were other people on YouTube
doing that- making videos where they sign
to songs so I decided I'd do it too and it
was more for the reason of my family always
asks me, you know, parents and then also like
extended family always asked me- they want
to see me sign.
And that I get really shy and nervous to just
sign in front of them.
So now, if I sign videos and put them on YouTube
where they can see it whenever, then I don't
have to feel that like weirdness.
They can just watch my videos whenever they
want.
So that's just kinda how it started and then
when I started getting actual subscribers
I was kinda like "really?
Really, you guys wanna see this".
And so then at this point I've kinda just
accepted it that people want to see they want
to see all of this.
Which is, I don't know it's still just really
mind blowing to me that you want to see me-
anyway we're not gonna get into that um.
One person asked if I sing which I don't have
a very good singing voice.
People will argue differently but I'm not
confident in my singing voice.
If ever at any point I get confident in my
singing voice I'd love to sing for you guys!
But for now I'm gonna stick with the signing.
I get asked to do tutorials almost- basically
every video by different people.
And I'm not saying- I'm not calling anybody
out I'm just saying I don't really do tutorials.
I don't feel like, you know, because I'm not
a teacher so I feel like if I'm teaching you
to do this- I'm not a teacher.
I don't even know if- you know I could be
signing it completely incorrect.
But if I'm signing it completely incorrect
but I'm doing it for myself like I'm doing
it on my channel it's just me.
Like that's one thing.
But if I'm teaching you guys how to do it
I just feel like that's not.
You know, I know you guys want to learn and
that's great I just don't think that I'm the
best.
Obviously I'm still going to put the um ASL
translation of the song in the description.
But always remember, that's MY ASL translation,
that's my interpretation of it.
And if you would sign it differently, sign
it differently.
Because every person signs songs differently
you know.
You get a group of- because that happens on
here, right?
Like, I just recently did Shape of You by
Ed Sheeran.
Lots of people have covered Shape of You on
YouTube but every single person's is different.
And that's why it's amazing is because every
single person's is different because everyone
interprets it a little bit different and everyone
adds their own little, like, flair to it.
So I also want to put in that I- clearly from
this- I've been considering doing "vlogs"
more often and I don't know.
Um my only problems would be I don't know
what you guys want me to talk about.
I don't know what you want to hear me talk
about.
So if there's anything, and it can really
be anything it can be if you want me to talk
about a specific band or how I you know found
certain bands, I don't know I can only ever
think about music related things.
Just ask me questions!
Suggest things that I could do that you guys
would find fun.
I don't know how good this is gonna be but
let me know.
Also, if you guys don't want this to be a
thing, vlogs to be a thing, let me know.
I won't be offended I just thought it might
be cool.
So that's, that's me.
(Internal suffering) I'm gonna try that again.
Thank you guys for watching, I'll try and-
if this becomes a regular thing I'll try and
think of an outro or bleh I don't know.
I don't know.
So been really great talking to you.
And hope everyone has a really good rest of
the week.
The week's kinda almost over (it is over).
Have a really good week, hope your future's
good, hope things go well for you, all of
you.
Thank you so much.
Love you guys <3
The thing is I have all these ideas and then
I turn on the camera and then it's just gone
(Internal screaming)
