American Sign Language (ASL)

First of all:

Dear ASL Hero,

I'm glad you are here. You can learn ASL!

Learning American Sign Language is fun and can open the door to a new world of friends and interesting people.

ASL is a living language. It is a visual-gestural (eyes/hands/face/body) language used by members of the Deaf Community throughout North America, much of Canada, and many other places too. (But not everywhere.)

ASL is not English on the hands. It uses a different grammar system. Some people confuse ASL with "Signed English." Much of the vocabulary is different. They are two separate ways of communicating. Some people who think they are signing ASL are actually using Signed English.

Unless you are a young child growing up in a "Deaf household" chances are you are going to have to put some serious work into learning this language.

I assure you it will be worth it.

Let me make a few quick suggestions and point out a few things:

1. While taking this course, during your everyday life, you should constantly be striving to think in ASL.

2. Signs vary from region to region. No two Deaf people sign exactly alike. While in this course focus on learning the signs that your instructor uses. That doesn't mean the signs you learned from your "friend" are wrong, it just means that there is variety out there and you are choosing to add to your vocabulary the signs that your instructor prefers. He or she is the one giving grades.

3. As with any living language, ASL changes over time to meet the needs of the people who use it. Stay flexible.

4. Seek out Deaf people to converse with:

"Learning to sign without interacting with Deaf people,
is like learning to swim without water."   -Bill Vicars

Technically you can learn to swim without getting in the water, (but it is much more fun to get wet). And you can learn ASL (to some degree) without spending time in the Deaf community, (this website is working proof). But, still, you ought to strive to meet and interact with Deaf people.

5. Work hard and have a good time.

Optional Reading:

Deaf:   When spelled with an uppercase "D" refers to the status of being culturally Deaf. This is not the same as being physically deaf. Don't worry if as you take this course you see me using a lowercase "d" to refer to the Deaf Community. It is not an issue. I "strive" to be consistent but it simply isn't something to get hung up about--unless you are actually discussing the differences between physical deafness and cultural Deafness.

Learning: "Perfect practice" It is possible to learn to swim without water. It is also possible to learn almost any number of other skills without actually physically being involved with the related activity. For example, many prisoners of war come home with abilities they didn't have previous to captivity. Their cell mates taught them how to play musical instruments or use sports equipment that existed only in their minds.   Sports psychologists, Olympic athletes, and peak performers of all kinds are familiar with the concept of "perfect practice." Doing a thing perfectly in your "mind's eye" until you are able to do it near perfectly in real life. If you don't have easy access to the Deaf community you can still learn quite a bit of ASL by practicing on your own--but remember--those POWs put in many hundreds of hours of mental practice to become good at their new activity.

[used by] Note: ASL is not "universal." There are many different sign languages in use throughout the world. It would be a safe bet to say though that ASL is the most widely used gestural language in the world.

[learning 2] Note: What I mean by this is that young children are "wired" for learning languages. Their brains pick up language much better than the brains of adults. I believe so-called "natural methods" of learning a language are more applicable to young children than they are to adults. I also believe that visiting another country doesn't constitute an "immersion" method. People in other countries know "some" English. An "American" visiting Germany will pick up German very quickly because he has to use it frequently. It is important to note though that he is NOT in an immersion environment. He is actually in a "mixed language" environment. Many of the shopkeepers, waiters, and other "front line" Germans know quite a bit of English. They may speak to him in German but will provide ready support in English if necessary. My point here is that I'm not convinced "NO ENGLISH" and "Target Language Only" classrooms provide the best language learning environment.

[serious] Note: How long does it take to learn ASL? Deaf kids growing up in Deaf households learn it in a few years. I've seen college students learn how to communicate "visually/gesturally" using a combination of signed English and ASL within about 10 weeks. Does that mean they "know ASL?" Heck no. It just means they know how to mime, point, fingerspell, gesture, mouth words, and sign some English with an occasional ASL phrase thrown in to the mix. And you know something...communicating is a bunch of fun! I occasionally take groups of students on "silent" trips to Disneyland. I try to get a mix of about 8 hearing and 4 deaf. Most of the hearing students have had about 30 hours of ASL instruction, but some have had only "six hours" before getting on that van! It is amazing. From Utah, the trip takes about 14 hours, (including rest stops). By the time we get there the newbies are signing up a storm. Are they using ASL? No. They are not. BUT, they are communicating, and they are learning at an amazing rate! If they keep it up they will eventually become skilled in ASL.

Let's face it though, learning a language, ANY language takes time. It takes years to learn ASL. It takes 60 to 90 hours (plus some "practice" time) to memorize a "book" of signs. Most students can then string those signs together using English syntax (word order) and have a "passable" conversation with a Deaf person. More often than not the conversation succeeds because the Deaf person is bilingual and can understand the signed English being "thrown at" him by the hearing sign language student. If that student keeps studying and keeps having conversations with Deaf people, he will eventually learn ASL.

[vary] If you are not sure about how a sign should be done and you don't have access to the Deaf community, an alternative method to figuring out the "right way" to sign a concept is to go to a large library that has lots of ASL books. Lay ten of them out on a table and turn in each to the sign you want to master. Compare each author's version of the sign. If you notice nine authors are doing the sign one way and only one author is doing it the "other way" then you can pretty much bank on the "majority rule" approach. But just because 10 books say it is a certain way doesn't mean that other ways aren't also right. I recommend instead of asking your instructor how to sign "something" you instead ask him (or her) to show you "some of the ways to sign ______." That way he will be more inclined to elaborate on the various ways a concept can be signed.
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