CaleanWsh

Thanks Izabel 😎 I think your idea of signing his favorite animal would be cool. It's a wolf. Now I need to find that sign!! 😄

I'm looking for someone to teach me ASL. My local colleges teach it, even my local adult learning center teaches it. However, two things there - neither one has an ASL class until next semester. And - Neither one has a beginning, or, ASL 1 class until next fall Plus - they are both damned expensive, not to mention lab fees and textbooks! I didn't pay to learn the basics of American English; why should I have to pay to learn the basics of another language? I never understood that one... (My parents taught me the basics, school and society taught me the rest.) I have tried some of the online free courses, but they are... useless. There is no base. What I get from them is: Here is a sign for a particular word. Here is another sign for another word. Here is yet another sign for yet another word. And so on and so on. How do those words go together? Grammar, syntax, sentence structure...? What is the "etymology" (It is a language after all!) of a particular sign? Why that sign and not another one? One great example of what you don't get from a video is this: I just recently heard of a guy named Clerc and another one name Gallaudet. Both rather important to sign language in general and quite important to American Sign Language, one would think; yet not mentioned in any video lessons. So, where can I go where I can: Not pay an arm and a leg Learn the history Learn about the "etymology" (I use quotes because I don't know if that is the proper term) Learn proper form of the signs Learn proper grammar and finally - be able to practice with someone who knows what they are doing (so I don't pick up any bad habits!) Has anyone ever heard of Bill Vicars and ASLU? Is he still teaching? (His website is very out-dated) Thanks for any assistance that can be provided. I never got a response from my intro post, so I thought I would post here with more information. CW

My husband (I'll call him Kethern) has severe hearing loss. It's getting worse; to the point that he doesn't hear speech or sounds very well (if at all). He has begun to isolate himself from me and people at work. I have started making different signs to him, like you, me, talk, drink, come here, look, stop, deaf (I don't know the HOH sign) and other simple words/signs. Some are from the ALS vocabulary, some are just ones that I have made up on my own. I have talked to him on several occasions about learning ALS, but he is resistant. When I start talking about it, he starts doing something else, turns away from me so that he can't see me or just plain old ignores me. He has accepted that he is HOH. As a matter of fact, he is helping me cope with my age related hearing loss. (It isn't too bad yet, only higher frequencies are hard to hear.) I want to be able to communicate with him again. To be able to talk to him after he has removed his aids. (Without them he is nearly deaf.) To talk to him across a room. To tell him about my day, to have him tell me about his day. Just to talk. I am very new to ASL. I know some of the finger spelling and a few of the signs, but most of what I use is made up. I want to learn. I want "Kethern" to learn. How do I learn? How do I get him to WANT to learn? Thanks for listening. CW