2018 resolutions to learn ASL for my fiancé who, isn’t completely deaf, but knows ASL.

Question

Basically I want to learn ASL for her. She has hearing problems since birth where she hears, as she describes, an 85 year old women. I want to learn ASL for her so that we are able to communicate in places where it may be difficult for her to hear. Such as bars, any loud area, near streets, basically most places ASL would be easier for us to talk. My question for all of you is what is the best way/where is the best to learn? I kinda want to surprise her by holding a conversation in ASL but if it’s better to have her help me learn, that’s okay. Thanks for the help everyone!

Answer 1

Excellent question!

Let me just start off by saying that I do not believe there is a singular 'best way' to learn the language; the experience of learning American Sign Language is simply not that cut and dry.

However, immersion, even if it were to be in small doses, is a highly effective method to learning ASL in its purest form. That is to say, if you were to do either of the following:

Obtain/hire a Deaf Mentor or Get involved with your local Deaf Community.

Both of these methods would allow you to learn from a native of the language. This would establish a strong foundation for your skills from the very beginning and allow you to learn from someone who has used the language their entire lives. Now, this is not to say that a hearing ASL instructor cannot be an effective teacher. But rather, a hearing ASL student can learn a lot from the Deaf Community, since this is their language after all.

I hope this helps answer your question!

Answer 2

I suggest you take a class at your local community college or university or use a tutor on Wyzant. Instruction from an actual teacher is the surest and fastest way to actually learn ASL. Learning from a book or from internet resources will be very frustrating and probably lead to quite a bit of miscommunication (sometimes very comical miscommunications) as you try to apply what you learn from books or internet resources in real communication with your girlfriend. ;-)

Bill