How can I learn to read lips?

March 9, 2006 10:36 AM

I want to learn how to read lips. I'm not deaf or hearing-impaired in any way (quite the opposite, actually.) I just think it would be a cool skill to pick up. So... where do I start? Any tips or pointers?
posted by madman to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (7 answers total)

Watch TV with the sound off, or maybe on DVD so you can do a couple of re-watches.
posted by Orange Goblin at 10:40 AM on March 9, 2006

My housemate is doing this now. He said he started by watching TV with the sound very low, and then with just subtitles. He also spoke to himself in the mirror to watch how his lips moved.
posted by Idiot Mittens at 10:40 AM on March 9, 2006

I second watching TV with sound off/low and Closed Captioning on. Most newer TVs these days have CC.
Things to be aware of:
1. Bs, Ms and Ps all look VERY similar. So "ball", "mall" and "paul" all look just about the exact same.
2. People with mustaches or who do not enunciate will drive you nuts.
3. Each person that you try to lip-read, will at first, be difficult until you get used to them. You might find that you have to ask them to repeat themselves (if it's a real person standing in front of you and you have your ears plugged).
4. This will almost be like learning a whole new language, so take your time and be patient with yourself.

(Kinda off topic, but... My wife is deaf and can lip-read really good. I have, on many occations, asked her to tell me what the people are saying over there in the booth at a restaurant. Much fun.)
posted by UnclePlayground at 11:11 AM on March 9, 2006

I've never studied lipreading, but in the past I've spent a lot of time with Deaf and Hard of Hearing signers, who have had a lot of experience with oral instruction and lipreading. From what they've said, lipreading isn't so much a discrete skill as it is a holistic examination of body language, facial expression and actual lip and moth movements. The problem, as it has been explained to me, is that only about 10 percent of sounds used in speaking can be discretely 'read' from the lips or mouth. Everything other than those 10 percent must be assumed, inferred, or interpreted. And that's assuming the speaker is in clear line-of-sight, isn't obscuring his or her mouth with their hands (as many people do during speech), and doesn't have a moustache that obscures the lips. And that doesn't even touch on individual differences in speech and accents, which can greatly affect the whole process.

I don't have any specific suggestions other than to consult your library for books on deaf instruction written in the oral tradition, which would probably have a lot of the information you're looking for.
posted by Eldritch at 11:11 AM on March 9, 2006

(And I should point out that other than for your sort of inquiry, books on oral-only instruction for Deaf folks should be roundly ignored, as they are, for the most part, offensively wrong in nearly every way, linguistically, culuturally and morally)
posted by Eldritch at 11:15 AM on March 9, 2006

Study phonetics. You can't typically see the manner of articulation if it's in the mouth, but half the time you can spot the place of articulation. By understanding how your mouth moves to make noises, you'll have a big advantage trying to read lips.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 12:58 PM on March 9, 2006

As Eldritch said, no matter how good you are, you're going to miss at least 40 percent of the words, so don't let that throw you -- don't go for complete comprehension when you're practicing, just try to get as many words as you can.

Actually, I think if you get 60 percent of a conversation through lipreading, you're doing better than most people who are actually listening to the speaker, who porbably tune out after they get the gist of what's being said.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:02 PM on March 9, 2006