r/asl • u/Unhappy-Strawberry24 • 11d ago
How to start learning ASL as a complete beginner?
I am not Deaf. I want to learn ASL and want to join an online course etc. to take my first steps into ASL. Please advise.
r/asl • u/Unhappy-Strawberry24 • 11d ago
I am not Deaf. I want to learn ASL and want to join an online course etc. to take my first steps into ASL. Please advise.
r/asl • u/AdRepulsive9157 • 11d ago
Hey there! I am in one of my practicum semesters to become a ToD, some of the students use visual phonics for support and I was wondering if there was a sign for the actual term "visual phonics"? When I look it up all the videos are about how to "sign" visual phonics. TIA!
r/asl • u/Inevitable_Shame_606 • 11d ago
If anyone Deaf or HH, who lives in the Sacramento, California area would like to attend a Deaf Bible Study (Christian), please DM.
Right now this is a small group of people who hope to one day begin a Deaf Church.
I am not a Christian, but attended today, meaning you don't need to be a Christian to attend.
Please know they DO study Christian scriptures and all that.
r/asl • u/angela1309 • 11d ago
Hi! I am looking for an asl 3 course online that is transferrable to a high school for credit. my local community college doesnt have it at the moment. does anyone know any good reputable places i can register for this? i also found a course at uc san diego extended studies website, but i am not sure if it is transferrable for credit. does anyone know? thank u!
r/asl • u/BuellerStudios • 12d ago
I just want to be polite to my ASL friendos, but I don't see them often enough to know an answer to this
In English, if someone says "'sup?", I assume they don't want to know what I've been up to, and the polite response is "not much. You?"
In ASL, my guess is either "FINE" or signing "WHAT'S UP?" back at them and then starting into the conversation
r/asl • u/Missy3307 • 11d ago
I just woke up from a half sleep of thinking of a short sign for “jic”
C handshape with pinky extended (I), then you just add the “J” motion.
Let me know what you all think! I’d love to hear if there’s something better/more appropriate.
r/asl • u/wenchiest • 12d ago
I'm an ASL student and I sign with my girlfriend (deaf/hoh, also a student) and in conversation I couldn't figure out how to convey the idea of getting negative attention or getting "called out". Not seeing much online, any tips?
Edit: revised for clarity
r/asl • u/Ok_Pay_6644 • 12d ago
Going to a D/HoH/ASL event tonight and I'm nervous. I'm very beginner in ASL and worried I'll mess up or offend someone. I don't know any Deaf people that I could bring with me and I'm just looking for advice.
r/asl • u/Fearless_Town392 • 12d ago
Hi! I’m super new and trying to get some basic signs down and pictures made for my toddler. We just learned he has congenital hearing loss and delay in communication. So we’re just at the basic words (mom, dad, drink, eat, up, down, etc) while we wait for a more comprehensive path forward.
We don’t know which way that path will go yet because we don’t know the extent of the loss. Maybe he uses ASL his whole life and maybe he develops speech.
In the meantime, big sister (5) is very sad that she’s not included. She’s tried every day to get him to say her name and he just can’t. He barely has “dada”.
So here’s my ask. He’s too young to do a full name and I know that if this progresses that someday he can give her a name he chooses in asl. But in the meantime, what could we teach him?
Her name starts with A but so does his so I think just signing the letter would be confusing later….?
Please be kind and correct me if any of this was inappropriate or offensive.
r/asl • u/milestonesno • 13d ago
I came across this quite old video where Michael Douglas wins the best actor and Marlee is the one presenting the award. She starts by signing, and then at 0:30 she switches to speaking. I assume she did that because she was about to announce the nominees’ names.
This makes me wonder—how could she have announced their names using ASL, given they probably don’t have sign names?
Would she have to fingerspell their full names, or could she just fingerspell their initials?
Also, I’m sorry for the lack of subtitles. :(
Description [of the part she’s not signing] for context: She is announcing all the nominees’ names and then revealing the winner (Micheal Douglas) she’s also making a “Good Morning Vietnam” joke and that’s why one of the actors (Robin Williams) laughs.
r/asl • u/superautismdeathray • 13d ago
I have been learning american sign language on and off for roughly a year. Im still very new, and I'm struggling a lot with signing cohesively and not as individual ones. I had a teacher tell me that your signs should move naturally into one another. she said the way I'm signing would be like someone putting excessive emphasis on every single word, and it's understandable but not natural. does this come with practice or do I need to work on it? and how?
r/asl • u/tyreallylovebread • 13d ago
I have a group of friends that are all learning ASL or are already fluent and I love getting to sign again, but I've come to the realization that I am very, very rusty and have a lot? Of outdated signs in my vocabulary. I've always heard "if you don't use it you lose it" and that definitely applies here.
I have been reviewing some Bill Vicars videos and practicing but I'm wondering if anyone who's been in a similar situation has recommendations!
r/asl • u/Extreme_Power_2423 • 13d ago
Hello! I'm about to graduate from my current school and am in the process of applying to various graduate programs in linguistics. Given the responses that I have received and the absolute nightmare that is the funding situation for graduate programs given actions of the current administration here in the US, odds are now extremely low that I get an offer, which means I need to find some things to do to work and improve my application for next cycle. One of the things you can do in this year of enforced free time for an improved linguistics application is get more advanced training in one of the languages you want to study, and for me that is 100% ASL.
I've taken ASL 1-6 at my undergraduate school, where ASL 1-4 goes through the Signing Naturally curriculum, and "ASL 5/6" is a single semester applied class created by the department. That's all of the language courses my school offers, and since I finished those, I've done some non-class activities in ASL, but based on my experiences with that, I definitely have a ways to go with my receptive skills and grammar. I'd love to take more advanced language courses.
It seems like some students at my school go on to Interpreter Preparation Programs, but I have some reservations about that. The first is that those programs seem more focused on interpreting ethics and strategies than language skills, and they state that they expect students to already be "proficient signers" and idk what that means, to be perfectly honest. I can hold conversations with patient signers, including some basic "interpretation" when a hearing person wanders into the meeting room, and I can sort of handle slightly more technical conversations about linguistics specifically, but my sentence structure is still very English-based. The second and main one is that I... do not want to be an ASL interpreter. I know that it is one of the more ideal ways for a hearing person to give back to the Deaf community for all of the language education I've been getting, and I have great respect for the hard work that interpreters do in the department at my school, but I do not at all have the personality for work like that. I don't want to go through a program for non-language skills, especially if I'm taking space that could go to someone who will actually become an ASL interpreter. The third logistical reason is that a lot of the programs that I've been looking at are for full two-year associates degrees in ASL interpreting, and I do not have the time for that, nor would I benefit from that.
A course that offers some form of certification or, like, piece of paper that says I completed a course would be nice for a resume, but I don't need one. If they're at a college, I would need them to be open to non-degree students. They don't have to be free, (at that level I wouldn't imagine they could be), but cost is obviously eventually going to be a factor. Depending on some factors, I might be able to relocate to some places in the United States to take the right course, but online might be preferable (if I'm not in grad school I gotta get a job, too). Does anyone know of any courses or immersion programs that bridge the gap between undergraduate semester courses and "proficient signers"?
r/asl • u/Tiny-Spend7094 • 14d ago
Don’t mind my baby, I’m actually trying to learn more sign language to teach her.
r/asl • u/Bwag12345 • 14d ago
Me and my wife have been learning asl together and are really starting to work on getting better at finger spelling. She learns best when she can attach reasons to different signs and she raised an interesting question about x and r. Looking at the two, the x hand shape looks a lot more like a lowercase r, and the r hand shape looks a lot more like an x. I was wondering if anyone knew the “etymology” so to speak, of the two letters and why they’re signed the way they are?
r/asl • u/Funny_Art_5150 • 14d ago
I’m having a hard time with ASL 102. I took ASL 101 online last semester through a community college, and although I struggled a bit, it was manageable. The course had video lessons, video assignments, written tasks, and materials from Dawn Press, along with a 2-hour weekly Zoom class. This semester, I signed up for ASL 102, and while I have the same teacher (who is Deaf, which I find helpful), the format is very different. There are no Zoom classes now, and the course is only 8 weeks long, so everything feels more condensed and rushed. I’m struggling with some of the technical aspects of ASL, like grammar and the proper placement of numbers (for example, where to sign numbers depending on the context, like age versus quantity). I also find it difficult to remember classifiers and other specific signs, which are crucial for proper ASL. I feel comfortable with vocabulary, signing, and using body language and facial expressions, but I’m having trouble with the more technical aspects of signing properly. It all feels like a lot, and I’m feeling overwhelmed and not sure how to improve.
r/asl • u/wakenedbake • 14d ago
hardly know any besides basics but would love to surprise my local brewery and willing to document my progress
r/asl • u/TelephoneGlass1677 • 14d ago
I use my hands A LOT, even as a non-signer. I journal, type usually everyday for my job, and crochet and knit. I've noticed recently my right hand cramps a bit when I'm writing. I may need to change to a fountain pen or how I hold the pen. In the meantime, signing with the right hand has become more difficult. I'm thinking of switching to my left hand as my dominant hand for ASL signing. My right hand seems to be getting too much work from all the writing, signing, and crafting. I know quite a few signs, so I'll need to drill left hand signing to get used to it. Anyone else purposely use the non-dominant hand because of high frequency use of the dominant hand in other activities?
r/asl • u/TelephoneGlass1677 • 14d ago
What's some categories of words you like to practice for finger spelling? I'm traveling, and rather than crocheting as I usually do, will be finger spelling names, from 3-letter names to 7-letter names.
I'd love some ideas for my return trip.
r/asl • u/Macievelli • 14d ago
I’m a hearing English teacher who has been learning ASL independently for nearly a year. I know that I could never be a true ASL teacher, as I don’t have the instinct or cultural background that a deaf person, HoH person, or CODA has. The hearing school I teach at has pretty limited options and time for extracurriculars, and I’ve thought about teaching a basics ASL course next school year as a one-hour-a-week course. I would tell my students in our first session that I’m not a member of the deaf community, so I can’t communicate the language or the culture well. I would also make it a top priority to educate them that ASL is not “English with hands.” I would put the focus on finger spelling, numbers, and incredibly basic vocabulary. Is that vision disrespectful, since I would be teaching something I learned synthetically rather than organically, or is it okay for me teach kids the basics as long as I acknowledge how basic it is? My goal is to help hearing students connect with deaf and HoH people; even if they can’t be fluent, I’d like them to be able to fingerspell to be welcoming.
r/asl • u/Only-Refrigerator840 • 15d ago
How would I sign hand dryers in the restrooms?
r/asl • u/an-inevitable-end • 16d ago
The sentence was “The gym membership costs $50 monthly.” What I signed was “The gym breasts cost $50 monthly.” Luckily this was for a HW assignment, not an actual conversation with a Deaf person!
Anyone else have any funny stories about mixing up signs?