I need to learn it and would like to know if there is an efficient lesson plan, I should refer to.
Shalom
Shalom
Any posters here know how to use sign language fluently?
- Thread starter Mr. Potter
- Start date
I do, and so does @IrishHerb. I really don’t know what to tell you other than to start by searching for ASL videos in YouTube. If you want to be any more proficient than pidgin, you’d have to put a lot of time into it so if it’s not for a social setting it’s best to just hire an ASL interpreter.
Also: no matter how proficient you might become in expressing yourself in ASL, your receptive skills are half the battle. If you can’t understand what the other person is signing, then what’s the point? It’s better to just type out what you want to say on your phone.
a friend of mine took a job teaching and coaching football at Model School for the Death in DC. He didnt know any sign language except maybe to finger spell. He said it took him about a year, but the players taught him along the way. He got very good at it, and it was wild watching him get on his team when they werent doing well, in sign language. They got the message.
I have a friend who shared an office with me early in my career. He was just starting out himself in his own career as a highly successful high school football coach. (He himself was Deaf, from a Deaf family.) One day I idly asked him what he was like when he was going full Hulk on his players.
- Do you really want to know?
- Absolutely, lay it on me.
- Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
That memory of him in my face for a full minute is as vivid today as when it happened 35 years ago. He’s one of the finest men I’ve ever known and every one of his players I ended up teaching was a good student, hard worker.
He got me into weightlifting, too, just throwing that out there. It has been countless times that I managed to get my asz off the couch and into the gym only because I recalled him being in my face telling me I was worthless and weak, lol.
I use that one when I 3-putt and talk to OSU fans!
In addition to being one of the finest men, he was a great football coach ... succeeded at all 3 of the high schools he coached at.
I have to agree with @LionJim. Sign language is not something you can normally learn quickly (same goes for most foreign languages). Yes, you can learn to finger spell quite quickly, but it is a very slow way to communicate Just imagine having to spell out letter by letter Penn State, you could speak it much quicker).
You should be able to find some ASL classes somewhere ... local community college, church, etc.
ASL is quickly becoming the second most popular ‘foreign language’ taken in hs here in md. There are shortages everywhere but it’s right up there with special ed and math in the shortage area. I would say that you can go online to get some basics but take a class at the community college or contact your local high school and pay for direct tutoring from the teacher if they have one.
This confirms a guess of mine. Learning ASL is fun! (And, yes, it is a full-blown language with its own grammar and syntax. This was established by William Stokoe in 1961.)
William Stokoe - Wikipedia
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