I’ve learned ASL on and off for most of my life, but kept losing it when I didn’t have occasion to use it. Now I have a Deaf friend who lives in a different state, who told me they won’t visit me unless I learn sign — totally reasonable!

So I’ve been using Lingvano for 3 weeks, and my friend told me to just go to DNO. And it was awesome! Most people were really nice and accommodating, I made a couple new friends, and I was definitely not the only hearing person there. An interpreter who was there told me she was impressed with my signing!

It was tricky at first, but as the night went on I was able to hold more conversation and pick things up from context clues.

Basically: if you want to practice your ASL, definitely look up Deaf nights out near you! This isn’t a new revelation haha, I just wanted to share my experience :)

if everything google sends me is all in daily practical use, why so many terms? prominent Deafies are in science? do southeastern Asian cultures using ASL think a lot about the place melting? is it really just fingerspelled all the time in America?

Hello everyone! I’m learning ASL for fun as I took it in high school and really enjoyed it, and now want to continue learning it.

The hardest part for me is not the signs themselves as that is just memory, however I am struggling learning how to understand the grammar structure. I get confused by some of the sentences in Lingvano because I just don’t know what it is supposed to be translated in English, even if I understood all the signs.

Not having the words Am, Is, Are, Was, and Were honestly makes this language difficult for me and I need help getting past it.

I checked a few credible sources online, they all signed it with the S handshape. But I have seen a native signer sign it with the A handshape. Is that a common thing?

i remember a while back in my fingerspelling class my teacher (who is deaf) was telling us about how 2020 was kinda like a joke year in the deaf community because of the sign for 2020 was the same handshape but different location as the word chicken/bird (i described that weirdly but do you get what i mean?)

so i was wondering if this was a commonly known joke amongst deaf people in other areas as well

Does anyone know of any good recommendations for ASL medical terminology books or videos?

Does anyone know what this sign means? It's like the "help" sign, but instead of the palm being open and facing up, the ND hand is a closed fist, with the dominant hand in a 10 hand shape on top

Someone sent this to me, does anyone know what it means?

🫸🫳🤜 🫳🤜🫱

A big decision parents of deaf babies have to make is do I (we) start them off with CI... or do we wait until they are old enough to have input into that decision.

There is learning that takes place in the early years that just can't be 'made up for' once the child is older. Starting without CI loses that 'early learning phase' of with CI... and starting with CI loses the 'early learning phase' of without CI.

So here's the idea. Get the CI and alternate days using it, one day ON then one day OFF. This will allow your child to have 'early learning' both with and without CI. To me this is like bilingual learning... quite similar to having parents speaking different languages. It would be like spending every other day with dad speaking English and mom speaking Portuguese.

Over time your child will show a preference you can respect. This is how you can let your child decide. Or, you could use this ON/OFF method until they are older and can indicate their preference with words/signs.

The biggest downside I can think of is lose of any hearing they may have... so this ON/OFF method may be best used with fully deaf childern (some parents may think being fully deaf is not a downside).

I 100% am not suggesting or promoting this is a good idea, just an interesting idea to wonder about.

I am hearing and know my thoughts are shallow and naive. There may be reasons this is a totally bad idea. But I am curious to know your thoughts.

I know that as a hearing person I mighy sometimes come off as unintentionally rude or insensitive. If I have, please know... I am a kind-hearted person with only good intentions.

Jeff

Note— I’m not affiliated in this in any shape or way. Just found out that I get to watch the Legend of the Mountain Man for the first time in forever and got super excited to share!

There is a brand new streaming app for sign language videos called VSYN+ ! It looks like it is mostly ASL but I noticed a couple other ones when I was scrolling through their offerings in Russian Sign Language and Swedish sign language. Everything is also captioned in English. There is a subscription cost monthly or yearly and it’s on Roku and iOS.

https://vsynplus.com

Okay— now I’m off to watch Legend of the Mountain Man and see baby Sean Berdy. Hopefully the rest of the Mark Wood films make it on here!

I have a deaf student in a class I teach. I am not sure if she knows asl very well as she is pretty young and I haven't seen her use it, but I would like to know anyways.

I found out some basic phrases I use often, but is there a sign, or series of signs, (preferably without fingerspelling as I am very slow at it) that means something like "repeat after me," "copy me," or "do what I do"? I couldn't find one on google.

Also, because I have basically zero experience with asl, could it be seen as rude or offensive If I sign things slowly? I don't want to make my student feel excluded or dumb things down so much that it becomes rude. I'm not very quick with signing anyways, but I don't want to upset anyone. I'm not sure if her parents could become irritated if I was seeming obnoxious about it. I know facial expression are also big with ASL, but I also have autism and am bad at telling if I'm over-doing it or not. I appreciate any advice!

A friend I'm learning with pointed out it's maybe counterintuitive that for e.g. PINK the finger which strokes the lips is the middle one (since in basically all contexts we point with the index). Is there a rule to know which finger to use when? For example, is it index usually, then the middle finger iff both the index and middle are extended?

Basically, I'm asking as a beginner. If I'm in the middle of signing something and get confused/make a mistake/change my mind about what I want to say, how do I indicate that? In spoken English I'd say something like "Blah blah blah- uhhh. Wait." and/or wave my hands. Is that at risk of being confused for an attempt to sign something, or is it very obvious?

Ideally in google play store, as I have android (but I'd be interested in app store recs as well). Many thanks!

I'm in ASL 2 and just got wondering this.

I would ask my teacher, but I already ask him so many questions I feel I should bring some of them here.

In class we were taught the commonest... HI... HOW YOU... NICE MEET YOU... NAME YOU (with appropriate responses).

I google-asked for ASL greetings... and all I found was the basic stuff, the only other sign I saw was WHATS UP.

My question is... what are the REAL greetings fluent signers use. Surely different situations and different people have other greetings they use.

So, this is my question. What would common greetings be in these situations (or any other you care to mention)?

(These all presume adults)

Meeting a teacher for the first time.

Meeting GFs parents for the first time.

At a job interview.

Saying hi to someone signing in public.

Meeting people at a college party.

SAYING HI to a good friend you see often (ok... this is a weird one... IK they are likely "friend specific" signs... or super abbreviated signs/phrases you both understand... but I'm still curious what you have to say).

Maybe you really do most always just use the standard greeting for most situations... but hummm... probably not. And I am pretty sure just SEEing phrases is not how it's done (probably even rude).

So... thoughts : -).

Thanks, Jeff

I know how to say train but I need to say Freight Train for an assignment. I watched a video about freight trains in asl but it skipped over the freight part and just said train. Is the freight part necessary? is there a sign for it?

Just wanted to learn how to be able to speak it as a skill and want to find somewhere to learn

So this is technically a song lyric. I know y’all are tired of song questions, but I feel like this sentence doesn’t have a “set” way of translating it and I want to see everybody else’s opinions along with mine.

The sentence is: “So I’m beating my dead high horse off the high road to low ground-“ followed by “cause if you shake your fist at snakes in grass it looks like punching down.”

My ASL teacher prefers we sign metaphorically/more show-y rather than direct translations, so I’d like to include both the real words and the meaning.

The first sentence means: The singer is so egotistical about their heroics that they get into petty arguments over it and end up acting in non-heroic ways during those arguments. I want to somehow include the sayings referenced in the lyrics “beating a dead horse” “on your high-horse” “taking the high-road” “taking the high-ground” but also what the lyrics mean. I’m thinking maybe sign with the hand-shape for horse? But I’m not sure.

The second sentence means: Idly criticizing somebody who is “innocent” (like the singer) looks like bullying someone lesser than you. I have an idea for this sentence, but I want to somehow transition into this from the first sentence because the line “to low ground” also blends into this sentence, where the singer is indeed on the “low ground”

I will, of course, also be asking my ASL 4 teacher what she thinks but I wanted to see everyone else’s interpretations too.

Other than Gallaudet, are there any colleges that are offering ASL 4 (intermediate-- think last level before more advanced programs like Masters or ITP) for credit during Summer 2024?

Found other times and non-equivalent level but my friend needs both.

Edit: I am aware how the school system works. Just looking for names of places that teach a rough equivalent, thanks!

I'm hearing, but I use sign language often to communicate when I have non-speaking episodes. I'm nowhere near fluent yet but I plan to learn. My partner and I have talked about my use of sign, and she's said that she refuses to learn, even after I requested she learn the bare minimum, or the alphabet at least. Is there a way that I can convince her to learn? I would like to have a mode of communication when I have non-speaking episodes, especially with my lover.

sign is a v handshape on chin, then brought to the cheek while rotating palm orientation outwards. similar to vegetable but its not that. any help appreciated.

I’ve been sitting here for like 2 hours trying to gloss these sentences every way possible but nothing sounds right. I’m in an beginner Asl class but trying to learn on my free time right now but I need some help I’m completely stumped

So I am new to learning ASL and today I came across a video showing how to sign disney princesses and wanted to learn them but I realized it only showed some of them, I tried looking up what the rest of the princesses signs were but, I was only able to find a like 2 more. So I wanted to come on here and ask if anyone knew if there are signs for Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Merida, Anna and Moana, or would I just fingerspell them?

Recently i have been mulling some options over for me to do to make some extra side money and ASL interpreting crossed my mind. For some background, both my parents are deaf so I have been signing my whole life and would say I’m pretty proficient. However, I’ve never taken any classes and my experience in sign is strictly from communicating with my parents and their friends. I could probably benefit from some fine tuning.

How difficult is it to become a certified interpreter in the US? From some light research I’ve gathered I can take an exam for a National Interpreter Certification and since I have a bachelors, that should be enough. Is that the best route or are there any additional requirements? How hard is the exam? Will there be opportunities for part time work outside my usual 9-5 M-F? Hopefully you wonderful folks can share some insight on this for me. Thanks!

im pretty new to this, im trying to sign a sentence, but i dont know how to sign televise! is there a sign for it? if not, what should i use?

So I’m just starting to learn ASL and I thought it would be good to look up the grammar rules, particularly the word/sign order. I came across this web page: https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/grammar.htm

It claims that OSV(object-subject-verb) is a “myth” and that deaf people are actually more likely to use SVO(subject-verb-object)? Can someone who’s deaf and/or frequently communicates with deaf people let me know if this is accurate? I’m really confused. I wanna get this right.

Can anyone help me put these sentences into the correct object, subject verb order? Thank you!

1. My most memorable trip was when I was on vacation and got engaged last summer
2. I would suggest going to NH because there are so many areas to explore
3. Manufacturers add sugar to juice to make it sweet
4. People will likely choose cookies as they are sweet and delicious