Should I take ASL class to improve my signing skill?
Hello! I’m asking y’all if I should take ASL class to improve my sigining skill. Do you think I need it? Please do let me know how you would rate my signing skill. I live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana – know anyone nearby that teaches ASL class? I don’t mind paying for the class. Thanks!
March 12, 2008 at 3:42 am
It would be great idea for you to take ASL course to understand the rules in ASL especially the grammar. I have similar experence as you do.
Thank you for doing this vLog.
March 12, 2008 at 4:51 am
I think that you can check your community college near your home, if they have ASL courses out there. I hope that you can find ASL class at community college near your home soon. Good Luck!
March 12, 2008 at 4:55 am
If you decide to take asl class, be sure to have the teacher himself/herself deaf and is fluent in asl and exposed to deaf culutre. Do not take asl class who is hearing person who is certified interpeter. Mostly important, you would eventually acquire asl when interact with deaf people who use asl as their first language. Try to go to deaf events and meet some new people and make some new friends who use asl. Hang with these people and interact with them. Some of them will be happy to help you to improve with your signing skills by using asl. Wish you luck:)
–Barry
March 12, 2008 at 5:07 am
Oh, by the way, you can watch asl blogs, deafread with videomovies, deaf newspaper and Jack’s Eye, the you will learn from them everyday in your computer. Smile!
March 12, 2008 at 6:06 am
Good suggestion: visit http://www.cyberasl.net and login username: mtsacdemo password: test
Its great website for ASL learners, it existed in ASL colleges in west. Cyberasl for personal subscriber will be launched next week if you interested, just go to cyberasl.net/signup try it next week.
Hope it helps.
Thumbs up!
March 12, 2008 at 8:53 am
You are very brave to ask that! Many many deaf people sign like you and they don’t care about it or wish improving like you. You are very clear in Sign Lang any way. Wish you good luck if you find a good teacher to polish your Sign Lang.
March 12, 2008 at 10:45 am
Your signing is called CL (contact language-mixture of English and ASL) more like old version of PSE. Take course in ASL? well, my suggest more socialize with Deaf people espically older Deaf people. It’s wont hurt to take course but gonna throw your money away. Give you one advice on spelling. please keep your letter E close together like your fingers must touch thumb not away from thumb, you spell E look like close to C. Too many hearing and Deaf people who come from mainstream or oral school do spell E without touch thumb. Bad habit. So my suggest to keep in your mind that E must touch fingers and thumb. Thank and good luck to improve ASL.
March 12, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I personally read “Green Books” on American Sign Language.
Great source for learning basic structures of ASL.
They can be found either at Amazon online store or hopefully at the library, especially if it is connected to other libraries through loaning consortium or somelthing like that.
Now that question is great one. Why? Not because of your signing skill. You are deaf! So be proud of your signing
. But because it is same thing as a hearing person would say: should I learn more about my English language and its rules in order to improve? The answer would be yes to that hearing person for the SAME REASON the answer to your question is yes. Namely, because to improve in your own language is always COOL!
March 12, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Hello, try go to Catholic Deaf Center on Brightside drive, they do have take ASL classes. Happy ASL Day…
March 12, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Thank you guys/gals for your feedback! I’ll look into catholic place about ASL class.
It’s hard to interact with deaf people around here because there’s not much events here at deaf club in Baton Rouge. There are two clubs but both are about 2 hours drive away. That’s why I sign the way I sign. I want to improve my signing skill.
Thanks again!
~Deafreckles
March 12, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Do you really want to label yourself as an ASL user? If so, then yes I would recommend you taking more ASL classes. It is not just for you but to help others too. ASL class is FUN! So, why not!
March 12, 2008 at 4:17 pm
There are so many intricacies of ASL, so I have a few suggestions to get jumpstarted in being grounded in ASL the correct way:
1. Minimize your mouth movement and substitute it by using more facial expressions
2. Expand your signing zone (let your hands fly larger than the minimized zone you use)
3. Use more classifiers (handshapes for words like tunnel, funnel, bowl, pipe, pillar, vase, etc)
4. Use more facial twitching..nose or mouth twitching which applies to facial expressions
5. Uae less English word order and more ASL word order- study ASL vlogs to adopt the same word order used in ASL
6. You sign fluidly and fluently and just need more ASL word order and a few more ASL signs, minimizing mouth movement, and you’re all set!
Yes, a DEAF ASL instructor will benefit you more. Check the web by googling ASL classes in Louisiana. Type in the key words and see what Google comes up with.
Good luck!
March 12, 2008 at 4:47 pm
I think you sign perfectly fine, I understand you very clearly and don’t know if anyone would have a hard time understanding you unless they knew no ASL/Sign Language..
But if its more of issue abuot you wanting to be ‘more’ ASL… I would suggest social, and trying to use the signs other people use.. thats how I do it
Just try copy other people’s signs and evenutally it becomes natural/comfortable
All the best!
Cheers!!
Roger
March 12, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Hello DeafFreckle,
What I see you on vlog at deafread live chat room..you sign very clearly. I have no trouble understand you. Even now you talk on vlog fine ..you sign very clear and I dont see any problem. But if you want to sign ASL more .. I would suggest you to go deaf social that is how I learn from deaf groups all my life. No one teach me to learn ASL. I have been oral/lipreading since age 2 until 10 years old and I am more comfortable to use ASL but my Dad and school forbit using sign language but i do sign during recess without teachers seeing me. When I became teenager my Dad scolded me for not using my voice ..I just ingored him and my Mom understand how happy I am so they finally left me alone since then. I just look and pick up signs from others. If I see new sign I would ask what are they.
See ya around
SB~~Suzy
March 12, 2008 at 9:30 pm
ur signs is fineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 12, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Though I do see a lot of language contact, meaning you sign PSE, you are able to sign smoothly and fluently. I think you are better off socializing with ASL Deaf people and pay attention to their signs, facial expressions and lexicons, etc. Use the ASL book to reinforce your learning.
The reason I pointed this out is because in most of the ASL classes, the students will be behind you.
March 12, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Thanks for all of your positive feedback. I’ll continue to observe other people who are fluently in ASL.
March 13, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Try contacting Mr. Dan Burch (a very talented certified interpreter). His VP ph # is (225) 273-3396. Good Luck!
March 18, 2008 at 7:43 am
Hi DeafFreckles…I think you’re doing fine as you are but since you would like to learn and understand more with ASL, go for it to interact with other ASL users, especially the older generation or DOD people, if you can. Other suggestions is to buy/rent ASL videos. Someone commented, William, about cyberasl.net, I do not advise you to learn from that, cuz I checked it out and tested myself in there…there’s some mistakes…who and where…their answers are wrong…also #9 in their test, who’s your french teacher…their answer is English teacher…gosh…I couldn’t finish it as it’s messed up…not me, them! Anyone care to correct me? Good luck DeafFreckles in finding ASL teacher or renting/buying videos. Hey, maybe move to where large population of Deaf people lives?!
March 22, 2008 at 8:20 am
I love the way you sign because it is clear and easy to understand but I can relate to your desire to learn ASL because that is how I have been feeling lately in thanks to Deafread and Yahoo! Live deafread video chat. It is obvious that you do sign PSE of which I am guilty too. I have read all of the above comments and their advices are pretty good, . There is one suggestion from Adrian 4 ASL blog that I like: Hold the water in your mouth while signing. I have tried his solution and it seemed to work pretty well but the problem is I can’t keep the water in my mouth all the time. So if I were you, I would go ahead and sign up for ASL courses and interact with ASL users. Good luck.
March 26, 2008 at 9:50 am
Have you tried asking around at the Louisiana School for the Deaf in BR? I know of one person who, last I heard, works there as an interpreter coordinator or something like that and has taught ASL extensively in the past. She interpreted for me at LSU-S for four years and she is excellent! Her name is Margaret “Peggy” Gray. She may be teaching in BR too, who knows? Yeah, she is hearing but she has certifications up the wazoo!
Feel free to tell her I told you to look her up!
Yeah, I would think with the skills you already have, you should absorb a lot from simply socializing. Failing that, I can see that regular attendance at the Yahoo LiveChat will help you tremendously! A book or two will also help you tremendously in understanding some basic ASL grammatical rules – they have given me an a-ha! at times.
April 4, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Hi DeafFreckles
I grew up in oral school/mainstreaming until I was 20 years old. I learned SEE first and then I learned ASL from deaf people in Deaf Club, Deaf Community, Deaf Culters, Deaf Bowling League/Tournament, Deaf Church, everywhere. I did not take ASL classes because it did not help me to learn ASL. I think the best for you to meet deaf people with ASL, you can learn fast from them. Also you can learn ASL from deafread Chat live room with webcam. Good Luck!
DeafKitty
P.S. I used to live in Shrevport, LA and I went to Addision hearing school. They had oral/mainstreaming classes. Do I know you? Have you been there? Let me know. *SMILE* Your sign language is FINE.
April 17, 2008 at 6:11 am
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May 24, 2008 at 1:43 pm
You are signing more PSE. Your sign skills are fine. I certainly wouldn’t pay to attend a class if I were you. Your best classroom is being around other deaf/hard of hearing individuals who use it daily. Best yet, you might make some great friends and it is FREE. Smile!
September 18, 2008 at 2:35 am
is a very good class to get and the teacher is very good one