Learning Sign Language

American Sign Language is an increasingly popular language to learn, there are many reasons for this being the case so I thought I would explain the top reasons.

In the United States it is reported that nearly 10,000,000 people have hearing problems while approximately 1,000,000 are functionally deaf. This got me thinking about the way deaf people communicate effectively in everyday situations.

1. You may have a relative or friend who is functionally deaf; you obviously would like to be able to communicate effectively with them. Think about what it would show to your family member or friend if you tried to learn ASL. They in turn would be able to teach you as you go along and it would be a very rewarding experience.

2. If you work in or own a business it is highly probable that you will come into contact with a deaf person quite frequently. Just imagine the level of customer service that that person would receive if you could not understand sign language. While I am not suggesting you would need to know the language fluently, it may be a nice touch if you knew some basics.

3. It is increasingly more popular these days to teach your baby how to express himself even before he can speak. ASL is the 3rd most used language in the United States. Should your child continue to learn American Sign Language after his 3rd year, he will have learnt a 2nd language. It will make life a lot easier if you know what your child is crying for well before his speech has developed fully, this will result in a happier child and happier parents.

4. You may want to learn about the deaf culture it was only truly recognized about 40 years ago. You may want to learn about this so you can fully immerse yourself when learning ASL.

5. There are three different types of deafness all with different causes, learning American Sign Language would allow you to communicate effectively with deaf people so you can learn more about the various forms and understand more about them.

6. You may want to learn about various forms of sign language, ASL is not the universal form, similar to different languages throughout the world there are several forms of sign language for example the alphabet is signed with one hand in ASL while you use two hands for it using British sign language.

7. As stated above the number of deaf people in the states is increasing, some people study ASL in order to get a job as an interpreter. Or you may wish to translate in church or any group you may belong to.

8. You may be in the medical profession such as a doctor or audiologist you certainly would be able to put your patient at ease if you could sign.

9. Teaching may be your passion and ASL is becoming more popular so you may wish to study to a completely fluent level.

10. Finally it is a beautiful way to express yourself, and completely unique.

Whatever your reason for wanting to learn ASL keep practicing and perfecting your skill so you can achieve your goal.

I recently made a commitment to work on improving various aspects of my life in order to become a more well rounded person. For example, when I realized that I hadn’t taken any kind of class since I graduated from college 10 years ago, I decided there and then that learning something new would be a priority. After a lot of consideration, I decided that I would like to learn sign language, so I recently purchased materials that will help me do that.

I’ve been telling my friends and family about my new interest, and the first question everyone asks me is why I want to learn sign language. After all, I’m not deaf or hard-of-hearing myself, nor is anyone in my immediate family. While hearing impairments would obviously be the most pressing reason to learn sign language, it’s certainly not the only one. Here are just two more reasons that helped me make my decision.

First, I really wanted to try something different. I always hear about friends who are studying Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, or any number of other languages, but none of those appealed to me. I would much rather learn American Sign Language (ASL) because of its relative uniqueness.

Second, I want to learn sign language because of its utility. I can say with certainty that I’ll have a chance to use my ASL skills at some point in my life. Whether it’s helping a hearing impaired customer when I’m at work, or carrying on a casual conversation with someone I meet at the gym, there’s bound to be ample opportunity for me to apply my knowledge in practical situations. That’s more than I can say about my friends who studied Japanese for all four years of college, and then never spoke another syllable of it after they left campus!

Once I decided to learn sign language, I just had to find a class that I could attend. Since my work hours are always changing, I didn’t want to commit to specific evening or weekend hours at my local community college. Instead, I decided to check out a few of the many online resources that are available to people with an interest in ASL. I found several classes that are delivered entirely over the Internet, but Rocket Languages Sign Language Course was by far the best option with videos, games to help memory and even a dictionary to learn new words.

I chose to learn sign language via the internet because of my work schedule and am very happy i chose Rocket Languages their videos are really informative I can see exactly what’s going on, and can replay certain sections as many times as necessary to make sure I understand everything.

I’ve only been studying ASL for a couple of months now, but I’m already making rapid progress. I can’t wait to continue with my courses and develop my skills even more!