How to explain "ILY" as a nonromantic greeting to Hearing people?

Answer 1

Hello there, I am Deaf and native signer. I live and breathe ASL 24/7 since birth. I am more than happy to help you how to explain using ILY in non romantic way - It is Deaf culture thing like I use ILY with specific facial expressions showing great appreciation or saying good bye. Using ILY often with close or good friends but not always. If I hurt someone unintentionally, I would say sorry I didn't mean it with ILY to soften up the pain I caused. There are so many uses for ILY. You have to immerse in Deaf culture to understand.. You will see they often use ILY depending on situation. I often use ILY to say good bye to intimate friends. ILY goodbye is famous in Deaf culture. Of course it is hard to make other hearing people understand because they are not immersed in Deaf culture. By the way, I never use ILY to greet myself to others. If you want to learn more about Deaf culture. Let me know! ASL is my first language thus I am good role model for exposure to ASL and Deaf culture. Hope it helps!

Answer 2

I am hearing and learned all my ASL from Deaf friends when I was growing up. One of my friends explained this very well. She explained there are three love's in ASL.

1. I love you - romantically with the traditional sign for love
2. I love pizza - something you can't get enough of, kissing the back of your hand
3. I love you (ily) - in a friendship. As a way to say you are important to me.

She made it clear that the last one was not in any way romantic love. This is how I have explained it to any one I have taught Sing language to and it has worked well. Let me know if that helps!