I started learning a sign language about four months ago (BSL) so it's all very new for me.
My initial experience is how different it is. Different rather difficult. In fact I find BSL classes easier as I don't have to use my unreliable ears and can just use my eyes. Plus there's no writing. However BSL vocabulary appears to be more limited than English and the same sign seems to different meanings depending on the context (which I'm not always sure about). For about 3 months I felt very uncomfortable and confused. My attachment to English actually increased as it was familiar and I could express what was inside me far more fluently and easily and accurately.
Then a few weeks ago, I had a 'Eureka!' experience. It would take several pages for me to explain it, but in essence I realised that BSL uses my brain in a different way and is capable of speedily by-passing my cluttered English "city centre". The subtleties of English is achieved by using a wide range of words, each having a precise meaning (e.g. "irritated" is slightly different from "angry" which is different to "fury" and so on). The subtleties of BSL are done in little variations such as the speed or degree of movement & facial expression. Where I only saw one limited sign (e.g. "angry"), I now see a vast range of subtle variations (e.g. from "mildly irritated" all the way to "blood-vessel bursting rage"). It was like the scales falling away from my eyes and I was seeing BSL in all its glorious sublime beauty.
So I now have a new frustration. It's the frustration that my knowledge of BSL is so poor and especially my receptive skills are not up to scratch. I need to learn to see, to really see, with my eyes. In the way a hearing person picks out the subtle variations of meaning in the tone and pitch of a person's voice (e.g. sarcasm), I have to do the same with my eyes observing the slightly different ways a person will place & move their hands. I need to improve my visual memory. I know this will take many more months, if not a few years, and this delay is so frustrating for me.
But in the end, BSL will serve me better than oral English when socialising (and we are fundamentally social creatures). I have never been able to participate fully in the banter of my hearing friends, or enjoy the cut and thrust of quick speaking debates, or follow the rapid wit of a group of friends mercilessly taking the piss out of each other. Instead I would laugh nervously on the edge, knowing that a joke has been told but not sure what it was. Presently my BSL skills aren't good enough for me to be part of the banter of Deaf people, but the only thing stopping me is my lack of knowledge of BSL. This isn't a permanent barrier unlike my deafness with hearing people. I now wish that I was raised bilingual in BSL & English. Psychologically it would have been so much healthier for me.