Added: 2 years ago
From: HowStuffWorks
Views: 57,562
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:
see all

All Comments (188)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • Apparati. :) Hehe.

  • @learn2316

    He's too cute. I know.

  • OMG i have that book! lol xD

  • why the hell would you upload a video about ASL and not even have closed captioning for us Deaf folks? What a joke!

  • my favorite part is at 1:08

  • And here I was thinking you were British ...

  • that girl is reading pride and prejudice and zombies and that image isn't moving

  • God, he looks like me teacher... that's not cool because that guy (the teacher) is probably a gay pedophile.

  • wait didnt he made the asl party in the usa video??

  • @cpsolarim yes he did, you should check out the fireflies video, it's his best, in my opinion!

  • Dude I love your work and I'm not even deaf! Fan4Life!

  • AHHH! Adorable face and cute voice!

  • his voice is so different than what i expected!

  • Stephen's interpretations are fantastic!

    I'm getting into doing a few songs myself...check out my channel for my newest interpretation of "Secrets" by OneRepublic!

  • at 3:03 you can hear him swallow, he is a really good person for what he does

  • @ME

    I love this song

    #1 is @ME

  • Woah. That is almost exactly how I thought you would sound.

  • worst. asl. interpreter. ever.

  • @pridekatzy Why do you say that?

  • Comment removed

  • @emmashine4 Tracy's reading a book. How can deaf people watch this video? I can't read her lips, too. ;-(

  • was just so amazed how you get through the song by your hands. swell

  • are u death or u can talk

  • I'm deaf... Diagnose me cannot read your lips. ha ha if you wish learn some American Sign Laugnage skill. Just Go to university class. Teacher will never have you exaclty to keep point out of it. that's mean you're leaper of thought. limit mouth of point forward to the princple will warning not easy life. :)

  • So when you sign a song, you sign it in direct English and not in ASL form?

  • @ballettgirl4544 This is my question too... I know people who sign songs but they sign the meaning of the lyrics and not so much word for word. Bc ASL is not word for word English.

  • I was in ove with this guy before, but now that i see him in a Portal shirt..... HE WILL BE MINE!!!n <3 <3 <3

  • how come that little window in the bottom right isn't someone sign-interpreting what he's saying?

  • @treesa200 Good point. Maybe because the "HowStuffWorks" people are to stupid.

  • Creo que es una muy buena entrevista es un gran personaje, yo tambien soy interprete de lengua de señas, queria comentarte que este video me sirvio para poder tratar de aplicar la informacion expuesta, aqui en nuestro pais.Y me gustaria que entrevistaras a keith wann que es otro gran interprete destacado y a el cual estoy seguro que podremos aprenderle mas. GRACIAS FELICITACIONES POR TU BUEN TRABAJO

  • Creo que es una muy buena entrevista es un gran personaje, yo tambien soy interprete de lengua de señas, queria comentarte que este video me sirvio para poder tratar de aplicar la informacion expuesta, aqui en nuestro pais.Y me gustaria que entrevistaras a keith wann que es otro gran interprete destacado y a el cual estoy seguro que podremos aprenderle mas. GRACIAS FELICITACIONES POR TU BUEN TRABAJO

  • thats what im doing :D

  • goodbye signingsavvy, hello aslpro :)

  • @HisBabyGirl1000 I used to use Signing Savvy too! I'm totally checking out this webstie now~

  • HEY THERE!

    So my dad send this video to me in an email and said he knows you. His name is Dave. Pretty awesome videos. I am fluent in ASL and I am an intpreter at a college in Hayward, CA. I am also an instructional assistant co-teacher in a way and we use ASLPRO.COM as well. I <3 that website. Anyway, keep up the good work.

    Sara Kjono

  • Fabulous work Stephen. I'm hearing and just love your energy and committment.

  • "I hit up google" XD haha!

    "apparat-I" :)

    inspirational = you! <3

  • i think what your doing is amazing...i am teaching myself ASL and what you do really did inspires me to keep at it..thanks :D

  • On the bottom right. why is there a person reading the book?

  • Watching your videos really made me love signing to songs, you really inspired me

  • Hi I am a BSL interpreter originally from Calif doing ASL. I just wanted to touch on something you said. YOu said you rehearse to be able to make the signs the same each time. I just thought I would mention that varying the way you say it each time, using different signs, like 7 reasons hate you! maybe next time 7 horrible things hate about you or whatever, adds texture and colour to the language. I think you are good and my little girls LOVE watching your Miley Cyrus Party in the USA. !!!!

  • u have a really cute!!! =]

  • His voice is so cute, just like himmmm! (:

  • this isn't set out to be offensive or anything, but my friends and i were wondering if hes gay or not?

  • At a quick glance of the small picture in the suggested videos column, I thought this was going to be a video of George Clooney teaching ASL.

  • ... i didn't know you could...speak...hahahaha...sor­ry!(:

  • Stephen! Your videos really helped me with a project I am trying to do outside of the asl class room. My friend would like me to sign next to her as she sings "Everybody" by ingrid michaelson for a choir concert. I could really use some help trying to figure out the best way to present myself on stage in accordance with her singing... is that doable ? Like, would it be ok for me to be signing like I was "singing" a duet with her because I'm not an interpreter just like sing signing the song ?

  • Try trakax for video editing ..great program.. And ASL is a becautiful language, you can only sing with words, but with ASL you can sing and dance with your words..

    I dont know sign language , just the alphabet ..and some words like emergency, and , red, a few others.

  • Hey. I think you are truly full of talent. This really means a lot to me. I would really like to talk to you about what you do. If there is anyway possible that, I would really like that. So let me know. Just finding a way to get ahold of me.

  • He's wearing a Portal shirt. That makes him even more awesome than he was before!!

  • Wow he's popular. I basically watched all of his videos when I found a JoCo song ASL by him. He is so awesome.

    The facial expressions are almost perfect.

  • you're a really cool person, stephen!

    nice portal shirt by the way ^_^

  • he's soooo adorablee(:

  • How is this video not captioned?? It's about ASL, and I'm deaf. I'd like to see what he has to say....

  • @bananas4pets he basically says: a song gets stuck in his head he thinks hey this would be a good motion for this lyric/line looks up the song lyrics, pastes um into a word do, opens a translation site for words hes forgotten, memorizes and fixes synchronizing in Ivideo on his pc, akes him 10 or 15 times to get a video right than he talks about it being even harder to do miley cyrus 7 things

  • I can't stand when songs are just signed English but he actually signs the concept of a verse rather than just going line by line and signing English.

    I use ASLpro sometimes but it rarely helps so I just ask my teacher who graduated with her Masters in ASL at Columbia University. I showed her his videos and she enjoyed them a lot so there can't be much wrong with them like you all are saying.

    I like his videos and I think he does a great job and that's all that matters.

  • You can call it ALMOST whatever you want, but this is not ASL. I'm not trashing you or what you do, but ASL is a language completely separate from English. To bring up ASLpro and piece together signs into linear strings of utterances is not ASL, not even close. Appropriate NMGS (Non-manual grammatical signals/facial grammar) tonal inflection within signs, and a plethora of other linguistic components are lost in videos such as these. Please, stop calling this ASL.

  • @italianjoey04 OMG, So what if he signs SEE is some of his videos, besides, if you actually watched some of them, he gets more and more ASl as he goes along.

  • @peafowl1994 I promise I'm not here to argue, nor am I trashing the guy... As I've stated in my first comment.

    Your cutting remark about my 'actually watching them' shows you're defensive. Please, we can discuss this without getting too involved.

    I'm not saying his videos are completely devoid of ANY ASL features. I'm just saying, what ASL is, used to be, hopefully will be, is something entirely different from what these videos are.

  • Comment removed

  • @peafowl1994 I didn't read earlier comments

    ASL is a deaf language. Music is a hearing form of expression. In order for the two to be combined, both will lose a little bit of their pure form. He's one of the best music interpreters on youtube as far as incorporating both in a way that makes sense to both cultures. My deaf husband, and myself being hearing, both LOVE him. Don't knock it until you can post better. When you do, send it my way. I'd love to see what you would consider better : )

  • @italianjoey04 Thank you!! I agree completely. If you want to sign songs or play around with language, that's fine, but it's frustrating to see something like this labeled "ASL" when it clearly isn't. It's even more frustrating knowing that there are many people watching these videos to try to learn something about ASL... it's hard to see ASL misrepresented like this. Feel free to watch/make any videos you want, but also look at videos of actual ASL and recognize the difference.

  • omg so nerdy! but so cute!!!!!

  • He's so nerdy I love it! :)

  • It's so weird hearing him talk... haha But it doesn't make him any less adorable. <3

  • aslpro is pretty awesome. Also, very cool that he puts so much process into his vids.

  • Sooo Cute! I wanna merry him and never share ;-P maybe someday!

  • soooo hott! I wanna meet him and I don't wanna share :-P

  • Bah. Such a cute and talented gamer geek. Doesn't get better than a man who is talented, focused, geeky, and a gamer. :D

  • YOU ROCK STEPHEN!!!!!

  • he's so cute!!!

  • He is just so adorable & so sweet!

  • i think this guy is truly amazing

  • He's amazing!!!!!

  • Eh, ASL Pro makes me kind of nervous... They use very little facial expression, which is ESSENTIAL for ASL, and some of their signs are just plain wrong. The way they sign "car" really makes me nervous because they use a classifier instead of the actual sign (in English, it would be kind of like arbitrarily substituting the word "thing" for the word "book". Asking people if they've seen your red thing would not be very helpful (and sounds kind of wrong in this context)).

  • @kash1123

    That's not entirely true. The classifier generally used for car doesn't mean just any "thing". It refers to "car" quite often. But I generally will spell car if I need to show contrast between say a truck sitting next to it, or else just show like im driving the car.

  • @kash1123 My problem with ASLPro (or other websites) is that they don't take conceptual accuracy into account. If a person is trying to translate English into ASL based on the words instead of the concepts, they will not be correct. Further, ASL measures of degree (e.g., "slight improvement" vs. "drastic improvement") cannot be learned via the internet. If you are only using websites to learn the language, you will frequently be wrong and have no one to teach you the appropriate signs.

  • @gw002m ASLPro is a good website in my opinion. You can't expect a website to tell you exactly how to sign something. The great thing about ASL is that it is so open to individual interpretation. I think the average person could figure out how to tweak the sign IMPROVE to mean a huge vs. small improvement via facial expression and how much sign space it takes up. ASLPro is good for the basics that you as an individual can build upon. There is never just one way to express something.

  • He's so hot!

  • Dig the Portal shirt.

  • Uhhh... I am deaf and I wish this had captions... Yeah :)

  • @JDLewisFilms Check out the transcriptions from the interview in the description. :)

  • I love the songs... great job..I am LoveStuck! Would you marry me?

  • Dear Stephen Torrence, You're adorable. 

  • Comment removed

  • Thanks for the advice ... ASL beginners class ... this is fantastic info!

  • it's exciting to hear your voice! haha

  • Will you marry my daughter?

  • I really like him!! 素敵です!!Just amazing!^^

  • you are so hot

  • a renaissance man!!! hahaha

    totally jaw dropping!

    i want to be like him!

  • Lol thanks! You are great and I love watching you sign. My best friend is a coda and my sign is still really shaky.. So with watching you sign it makes it alot easier for me to connect signs with songs. I loved fireflies. =D Again thanks!

  • @Iwalktheearth lol A guy who does music videos of Jonathan Coulton songs in sign language? A nerd? Preposterous!

  • god you're so adorable :D apparati haha

  • i use the exact same process. i love aslpro.com. hes so fantastic.

  • QTx1000

  • HE'S WEARING A PORTAL SHIRT!!!! SQUEEEE!!!! what an awesome ASL nerd! <3

  • you are amazing! love it

  • GEZZ !

  • hes 22 and a college grad. O: cool!

  • yeah pretty hot nerd. agreed.

  • My fiancee is hard of hearing, and she went to Galludet. She laughed her ass off at his videos, and thought he did very well. Sign is never just about the sign but about body language and facial expressions as well. Both of which he captures pretty good. trying to sign everything exactly as the words are is pretty damn near impossible anyway.So ppl should just sit back and enjoy it. Life's too short to always find something to bitch about

  • @angeluscrzy Well said. I think he's doing a fun thing and people should just enjoy it and stop complaining.

  • @angeluscrzy Heh really? Because I'm a student at Gallaudet, and have only seen people laugh at these (and similar) videos and brush them off... very rarely do people ever send me a youtube video with accompanying compliments. And my friends are not ASL purists by any means.

  • @angeluscrzy "life's too short to always find something to bitch about" -- You sir, havent bet the trolls. but GREAT comment. <3

  • he's the best : ) i like how when he talks, he uses his hands a lot too. taking an asl class, i do that now too : )

  • You are so hot ...

  • He doesn't even do his own translations?? But uses a website signing dictionary to pick out signs - no wonder many of them are horribly out of context. He may be incredibly popular (I have no idea why), but he is NOT A GOOD SIGNER. Ask any deaf/Hard-of-hearing native ASL signer, like from Gallaudet University. They would laugh him out the room in a second. There are so many other far more talented ASL/sign performers out there (deaf AND hearing). Kudos to him for trying, though.

  • @paradoxied if you'd listened he said he uses the signing website thingy when he doesn't remember the signs from his classes...so likely he occassionally refers to it as any linguist would if they are having a harder time translating something.

  • woow the person who did this his name is stephen torrence.. like STEPHEN king and his book 'the shinning' the fathers name is jack TORRENCE

  • just found all your videos and you just bring a smile to my face watching you. I would love to meet someone like you in person.

  • thank you so much. I used to be in plays and signed performances at ASU and at the Neumann Ctr at ASU , i was in "Silent Impressions Productions" and did "ONE" from Chorus line and "Hello Dolly"!! I then was in Silent Praise, a Christian group of signers to songs and did Amy Grant's 'Arms of Love" and Oh I love this so much and miss it. I used to be an Interpreter for the Deaf at the Univ. of Mich. hospitals too but was in a bad car accident in '02 and now i have nerve hearing loss & 2 aides!

  • You rock, man. Thanks for all you do!

  • yes he is so hot

  • cool

  • @frontenginedragsterd hahah. that's funny. when he said he uses asl pro I thought, eww, I don't like aslpro. I like signing savvy. Then I thought about recommending it to him, but decided it didn't matter...

  • He is still awesome but people who can't hear can watch the videos and SEE lol AWESOME

  • whaaat? hes not deaf?!

  • woah i use asl pro also.heyy i'm in asl 1 at my high school and i need to make a music video type thing..i also need any song ideas that are really fun and not hard to sign.can u please message me for song ideas?

  • Stephen,

    Good job! I enjoy seeing your works.

    Keep on doing it.

    You make ASL a cool things for kids to learn.

  • ASL Pro ftw

  • AH

    lmao

    I love aslpro

  • Stephen you made me laugh so hard when i watched this ("excuse me, 'apparati' ")

  • haha apparati! That was hilarious!

  • He is so awsome as a signer! He has a true talent of signing. He has helped me a ton because I'm homschooled and he was my language class. Love him and his work. I like the new songs that he has put up so much. He has an awsome mix for the songs that he does too. He's awsome!

  • ...you do know they aren't his songs right? he just signs to them

  • is he wearing his Portal shirt? =D <3

  • Portal :D

    didnt even notice :P

  • Hey,we get to hear his voice,lol!He still talks with his hands even when he's not signing,lol.;-)

  • Yah he does. :)

    Because he is very fluent (Not sure how to spell) in signing

    if you notice his hearing aid, helps him hear. :)

  • thats an earpiece so he can hear the girl asking the questions.

    he also has a neck-mic, doesnt mean he has a problem with his throat..

  • Really?His profile says he's Hearing...?

  • Captions, dearie?

  • @sign4uall there's a link to the transcription of the interview in the vid's description :P

  • Stephen Torrence is soo Cool!!! Hes is amazing with ASL I am in ASL class (im 14) and i had to do a song project and during the process I went to ASL pro and I watched his video to help me. :D way cool..

  • Ah, but if he is working with ASL, one would hope his video is captioned so those of us who cannot hear can have an idea of what's being said.

  • soooo cute!!

  • I love the portal T - Shirt =D

  • dear stephen, youre adorable. thanks for doing this. love, amb and mev

  • do re mi fa so so so so so so HOT!!!!!

  • hottest  nerd ever!

  • I totally agree

  • @elliottcnc hes not a nerd XD why do you call him a nerd XD

  • ASL browser has a lot of English signs instead of the American signs that ASL pro uses. I prefer ASL pro, but to each his own ^_^ hope to sign with you one day

  • apparatus/apparati---I totally need to marry him

  • Wow... Your amazing... I am going to be an interpreter when I grow up (I am 14) I am in ASL class and I love your videos! <3 :))

  • I wish I'd started that early!!!!(i'm 17 and it gets tougher to learn a language the later you start) GO YOU!!! Keep at it!!

  • YOU ARE SO CUTE

  • Bravo!

  • PLEASE CLOSE CAPTION THIS VIDEO! Argh. I know you can read it elsewhere, but [CC] would be so much better.