Do you know American Sign Language?

[Hawkeye-X]

Have you integerated it as part of your life.

I did not really learn ASL until I was in college at 17. I didn't become fluent until about 5 years ago, after two years of living with a SO that's also deaf, and made it a part of my life. Mom already knows ASL, (as well as SO's mother), and Dad knows a little (basic signs, really).

Brother-in-law is also deaf, so my wife and her brother are very, very close (that, and they are the only siblings)

Hawkeye-X

[Roon]

1. I only know enough

to cruise deaf boys in the bar.LOL

[recoveringrepublican]

2. I really need to learn

I'm late deafened. Hearing aids help just a tad for me to read lips. But it can be so exhausting to only rely on that. I meet so many people who sign, even if it's just the alphabet (which I sadly do not know!! lol), it would make my life so less tiring to be able to sign when I'm around others who also sign.

But here is the problem. Right now I have the money, but no time. In July I will have the time, but no money as I will no longer be working (will be having a baby!!! YAY!). I would like my kids to learn, more so my daughter (my loss is genetic, but only seems to occur in females, which I'm told is rare), just so they are fluent by the time they may need it (it starts late teens early twenties).

Anyone know of any good home teaching type stuff I could use? I would love to just know the basics for now.

[Hawkeye-X]

3. Plenty of ASL DVD's out there.

Good starting point - you can find them at http://www.adcohearing.com

[Lowell]

4. I've been taking classes

with my granddaughter. It has been a rewarding experience. Bell was diagnosed as deaf after she turned about four. Everyone wondered why she never spoke and didn't respond. Now at seven we are both sharing this learning experience together.

[kdpeters]

5. My partner is Deaf from birth and has a Deaf sister

So I started by learning from books on my own. Soon, I decided I wanted to really commit to learning it well so I enrolled in a two year ASL program of study at a community college. That also included a couple of linguistics of ASL classes and a couple of Deaf Culture/History classes and four semesters of ASL in one of the best known ASL programs in the country: Vista College in Berkeley, CA. If any of you have ever used the "Signing Naturally" courses and workbooks, then you've seen all of my teachers who created the courses and starred in the videos.

I would say I'm really very fluent for a hearing person who just started learning ASL in my 30's. I've had lots of study and lots of exposure and I've just fallen in love with the language. Last year, I quit my job as a software engineer, moved back to my hometown and will begin a two year program to become an ASL interpreter in the fall. Right now, I'm also substitute teaching at the School for the Deaf to try to keep from dipping into my savings while I'm in the program and to hopefully make constructive use of what I've learned. I would say I've very much integrated ASL into most every aspect of my life: home, work, and social.

[Hawkeye-X]

6. Good for you! Hopefully you'll find some work as a freelance or staff interpreter.

once you complete your program and internship!

:hi:

[davidinalameda]

7. Vista is that good?

I'm going to start classes at SF City College in the fall in ASL

since I'm losing more and more of my hearing every day it seems, I need to learn soon!

[Skittles]

8. it's one of the most beautiful languages

when I lived in Austin near a school for the hearing-impaired, I very often had to make myself aware that I could be behaving in a rude fashion when I stared in fascinaton at people at nearby tables signing. Awesome language.

[Rhiannon12866]

9. I took a course in ASL a couple of years ago after being interested in learning it for a long time.

When I was first out of school, I worked with a special ed class, and I was often asked to do an alternate activity with the lone deaf child in the class, a five-year-old girl, so learned some ASL then, as she was learning it.:-)

Unfortunately, I've lost so much of what I learned in my class. As with any language, you tend to forget if you're not using it. After the class ended, I went to a local meet-up where everyone used ASL, was organized by a deaf couple and recommended by my teacher. Only about a third of the participants were deaf, but extremely welcome, since everyone wanted the chance to talk to them. The hearing participants wanted the chance to practice, like me.:D

They couldn't have been nicer, were extremely welcoming even though I knew no one, but I only went the one time, since I got sick and then the weather got bad, so I felt weird about going back, wasn't sure if they'd changed the dates during the holidays, and I regret it. I should find out if they're doing it again this year...:shrug:

[tblue37]

10. Nope. And the only people I know in person who do are actually

people with normal hearing!

People who are late deafened don't grow up learning sign, and usually they are not part of a deaf social group or a Deaf community, nor did they attend Deaf schools. By the time they need help with communciation, they are adults with busy lives and with families and social networks that usually contain no signers.

Although I have always been hard of eharng, even as a child (it runs in the feale line of my family), I didn't have so much trouble that I needed hearing aids until my late thirties, and my deafness has gotten progressively worse over the past 22 years, to the point where even with my aids I have trouble understanding.

Bt even at that, I know no one who sues sign, excep for a few hearing acquaintances whom I seldom interact with socially anyway, so there has enevr been any reason for me to take the time to learn sign.

I have an article on my I'm Listening as Hard as I Can!site about this point:
"A Lot of Deaf People Don't Sign"
http://deafnotdumb.homestead.com/deafsign.html

[FunkyLeprechaun]

11. I only know fingerspelling

I'm learning the BSL fingerspelling... it's a whole nother SL!!

[vaberella]

12. Saw your post at the GDP thread.

I don't know ASL but I've been considered learning. It would be a useful skill and my sister got me interested when she volunteered for 2 years at a Hard of Hearing Organization in NYC.