hooked on ASL

[Ben Collver]

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.