Hi, my name is Ben. I am hard of hearing.
I took a renewed interest in learning ASL after i hung out with a deaf person at an event. Communication was awkward and slow going, and i wished i could communicate better.
Afterward, i took a beginner level online ASL course with all deaf teachers. I learned very quickly because we used ASL immersively.
I am currently taking a local ASL course taught in person by a hearing teacher who has a deaf brother. It's a lot of fun! As kids, he and his brother used home sign, because they were not allowed to sign in school. Now he is teaching ASL as a community service.
I have a hearing friend on the east coast of Canada who practices ASL with me in video chat. Her teachers taught ASL, but they had a background in "maritime" sign language, or something like that. Our vocabulary overlaps about 80% and we can generally understand each other.
My intention is to seek clarification in this forum as i continue to learn sign language. I love to explore little details which sometimes takes me down rabbit holes to unimportant corner cases. I look forward to meeting other folks along the way.
