I'm teaching my boyfriend and friends sign language?

S

Shaylor

New Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2012
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
I'm not fluent, but I'm almost considered bilingual and I do know enough to teach my friends. (Not a class of course, just friends)
I was wondering if there were any tips you guys could give me? Maybe ASL teachers?
What are some of the most important phrases? What are some good teaching techniques? One thing I'm starting to do is I'll put in my headphones to make them practice their signs instead of just talking. :lol:
But anyway, and teaching tips??
 
Are your friends hearing? It would be wise for you and your friends to go to the ASL class so that you all need to learn how to sign correctly.

If you are talking about headphones for your hearing friends to listen on how to sign. That would not help you figure out how to sign properly. Even the ASL or sign language book would not help you sign correctly.

So please don't play around mimicking the sign language like as if you are making fun of it. ASL is for communication so that we, Deafies and HOH, can understand what everyone is saying like at the Deaf event or Deaf communities. Without ASL, we will absolutely feel lost if we can not make out what they are saying by lipreading. Lipreading is not 100% accurate. We can only get it less than 30% of reading lips.

If you had known what is like without no sounds like being very quiet, no sound at all. I don't know why people expect us to hear with hearing aid or CI when we can not pick up the words. That is why we rely on ASL. ASL is our primary sign language. Thank you. :wave:
 
Hi Shaylor,

A few questions to clarify,

Who considers you reaching fluency? Yourself? Members of the Deaf community? By headphones I assume that you mean something to reduce their hearing level?

That said, good teaching methods are good teaching methods across subject areas. You would want to study up on how to teach if that is an interest that you have. Second, whlie Bebonang is correct that you do not want to make fun of ASL, it is important to relax and have fun with ASL. If you live near a meeting place for the Deaf community, go to events, make friends and learn from them. Sometimes that is not possible. In that case there are various books and dvds out there that are designed to teach ASL. Barring buying anything, youtube has some wonderful videos, stories, poems, etc... put out by Deaf individuals and a few hearing individuals. Be careful though, many of the videos on there are done by students that really do not understand the language well enough to be teaching it.
The best option is to attend Deaf events and make some Deaf friends. I am tri-lingual and the only way that I learned ASL and Spanish was by immersing myself in the culture.
Good luck!

Ty
 
Back
Top