Leaderboard

Hi guys! I started learning sign language just two weeks ago now - I’ve found my favourite way to learn is by doing songs! Here’s me doing 7 years.. I have decoded the signs myself so there may be some discrepancies but I hope you enjoy😁https://youtu.be/KezRL--Ahqk

Enjoy!

Verse 1:

Hi everyone. Excuse my first attempts, it is easier when I don’t have an audience but I need to push myself out of my comfort zone otherwise what is the point of learning? I have always wanted to learn. I have also signed my kids up, who I am helping to teach and practise.

hello, My names merrie and I'm from London, I hope that was signed ok. really enjoying the course so far and I cant wait to improve.

Hi everyone, hope you are all staying safe. I wanted to have a go at practising my BSL by introducing my self a little bit. Please feel free to give any tips if there is anything I don't do correctly. Thank you, Alice x P.s. I had a little list in front of me as a reference for what I wanted to say, so excuse me if I keep looking over. Also I realise my face looks really red, but it's just the lighting and my acne

I fell in love with my boyfriend and we where having normal conversations and then we went on a date and we had background music on and I said how wonderful the song was and he told me he couldn’t hear it and told me he was deaf I’m not going to let that stand in the way and I want to be able to communicate with him on a level that he feels more comfortable with

Hi, I have just completed level one and want to practice before getting stuck into level two! I noticed that there were soooo many beginners who wanted to practice. This website seems to provide a space for video chat now! Shall we get organised??? Maybe on Sunday evenings at 6pm BST we could meet in the online video chat rooms to practice. Anyone up for it? Thanks and hope to sign with you soon! Hope

Hi all, Im Rob im 24 years old from Preston in the UK. I am deaf in both ears and have been all my life. I'm learning sign language so that in the future I can help deaf people in fitness and help them achieve their fitness goals. I am currently living out in Australia in Melbourne. I would love to connect with as many of you as i can on instagram and help have some accountability for learning sign language.

Hi Amy, I would just sign Brothers, sisters I none. From what I understand you put the topic/subject first. Hope this help. Anybody let me know if this is incorrect please. All learning together

Hello Everyone Myself and a few other individuals have started a group chat session every Saturday 2pm (GMT). We have already had 1 session and found it very useful. For those wanting to join in on our practise sessions please dm me or comment down below. We are currently using zoom, and I will send you a link to the scheduled meeting. If you are just a beginner don't be alarmed or think you are unable to join. I am doing this so that we can actually communicate with each other and benefit with other peoples experience and practise with BSL. On the day I will send/post the link to the meeting for everyone to join. Come Join In!

Try this - [sign], mean, what?

Hi, I have just started learning BSL as a hearing person and was wondering if i could join your zoom call next week as I would love to practice with people! Thanks!

Would anyone be interested joining a Facebook group to practice. I'm finding people aren't around here very often. Hopefully this will be allowed as it's purely for improving our BSL. It's called BSL forum

Hi! My name is Codie, I am 18 years old and I have started learning BSL. I am hoping to start university in September, where I will be moving from the countryside to the city to study a course which allows me to work with young children. In my work experience, I have come across children with a range of additional needs, including one boy who had never learned to speak, but was always listening and learning. Nobody in the school knew how to correctly communicate with him, meaning he was often subconsciously excluded by the other young children who found it difficult to be around him. Along with this, I work part time in retail and understand the importance of allowing people to be independent. Learning sign language would make my work place more accessible for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, and increase the independence of some people in my area who find it difficult to be alone due to needing to communicate in non-verbal ways. Along with this, the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has forced me to leave school early and caused a lot of uncertainty. Learning this new skill is not only beneficial to other people, but also to myself, as it allows me to feel like I'm achieving something, even if it is only minor like learning one or two new signs. I'm excited to see how the rest of my learning goes and what else I can achieve, and to see how BSL helps my day to day life.

hello, i am Anouska. i am 37 and a mother of 3 all with special needs. i first used sign to help my then non-verbal daughter (asd) she can now talk for the most part but has a very bad stutter. i was born deaf but had an operation when i was 5 and after i had to have speech therapy to help me talk "normal". i can lip read but now my hearing is going again and i would like to be able to communicate with people. i have wanted to learn sign properly for many yrs but things always seemed to get in the way. with it being lockdown i have to time to dedicate to learning what i think is a very important skill for anyone to learn/know. i hope to see BSL being taught in all schools in the UK.

Hi, I have recorded a little video of me practicing what I have learnt. I'm on week 3. Any feedback would be really appreciated. I still feel like I'm really slow and I can't do any facial expressions or mouth any words.

Hi everyone. I started learning BSL because i became ill with Menier's disease, and was told i would become deaf, which i have but use hearing aids. I love BSL and have just finised level 3 woohoo.

I am a student paramedic and feel that learning sign language will help me if I ever meet a patient who is deaf or who is non verbal!

Many years ago, I was artistic director of a small scale touring theatre company in Scotland, and I wanted to make our work as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. I engaged a mime artist who was also an experienced speaker of BSL to work with us, and she created a beautiful character who only communicated in BSL, and she taught the other cast members a few signs so that they could supplement their spoken text when necessary. I aimed to learn BSL myself, but life and the universe had other plans for me. Now is my time. I'm ready.

Hi, My name is Carrie and I am learning BSL coz when I was in college(long time ago) there was a lady in my class who was deaf. I was fascinated on how she was communicating with her interpreter. Over the years I have picked up a few words but recently my nephew is not verbally communicating so we are using some signs so he can let us know what he wants. This has made me want to learn the full BSL as I work in care and would come in handy as well if I need to speak to anyone who is deaf.

Im currently in uni in Leeds doing a course in childhood studies. Ive always wanted to learn BSL just never really had the time till now. Super excited with my progress but I haven't had the chance to practice it with another person so I don't actually know if im any good hahaha. If anyone is interested to practice over FT or discord or whatever let me know!

I have just restarted trying to learn a bit of BSL - it is almost 2 years since I started and then gave up! I am planning on completing the BSL online course this time and hope to find someone to practise signing with. I attend weekly lip reading classes

Title Face to Facebook (more SSE then BSL (any questions, comments on signing, or want to share your poems/poem critic please do) #safeplace

Hi Amy, congratulations on passing your module. It's nice to read that you're feeling positive about learning sign language especially with everything going on. Good luck with your learning

Hello All, This is my firs ever video using BLS so hopefully it's clear enough. My name is Sam; I am 27 years old; I work - art gallery; I leave in Manchester :)

Afternoon all, I have 70% loss both ears but as others mentioned didn't realise how much I relied on lip-reading and reading peoples facial expressions until we started all wearing masks. The last two years with COVID have left me feeling very isolated so I figured it would be a good idea to learn BSL and I am enjoying it very much.

Hello! My name is Ellie. I have wanted to learn sign language for a long time. I have been deaf in one ear most of my life and have left it far too long. I was inspired to start learning during lockdown and sadly didn't get very far. Recently I am inspired by Rose on Strictly to get on with it. It is a beautiful language and so useful. I work in the Arts with children who struggle to communicate and I feel passionately that it would really help everyone.

I've had a couple of personal experiences that have brought me here. After leaving school I worked as a teller in the local branch of a building society and one of the first customers I served was deaf. They had some issue they needed resolving but the communication barrier meant neither I or anyone else in the branch could help him. He got upset and very very angry. He shouted incomprehensibly in my face and was signing frantically. I actually thought he was going to get violent but things eventually calmed down and he left, his issue still unresolved. Some of the staff were visibly upset by the incident. I was too - but not upset for myself. I was upset for him. I could only imagine the frustration he must have felt and how isolating the world must have been for him. I took it upon myself at the time to learn at least something in BSL, no official courses, just a few things I picked up of the internet. I learned how to fingerspell, some numbers, and and some basic greetings (hello/goodbye/please/thankyou) and practiced them in a mirror for weeks and weeks in the hope that if such an event ever happened again there would be someway I could help, even if I had to spell out every letter of the conversation. A few years later I was doing a carboot sale and I saw the same man approaching my stall. I don't think he recognised me and I continued to chat away to my wife as he browsed the items on my table. When he picked up an item I was so nervous that our interaction would end the same way it had previously. He asked my wife 'How much?' but she did not understand his speech just like I hadn't in our previous encounter. Thankfully I had grasped what he had asked and was able to sign 'hello'. and '15' as I pointed to the item he was holding. (i can't recall what the item was now). He looked somewhat taken aback - he was expecting that. His face lit up. '8?' he signed back. I was picking up on his facial expressions. '12' I signed back. I couldn't believe this. I was now haggling in a language I'd never even used before. '10' he signed back (I think - I wasn't sure on that one) but at this point I was so elated that I'd been able to make that connection with him that he could've taken that item for nothing and I wouldn't have cared. I shook his hand on 10 and then as he handed over the cash and tucked the item under his arm I signed 'B-A-G'. he gave me a thumbs up and I passed him a carrier bag for his purchase. We exchanged a final sign of 'Thank you' followed by goodbye and I never saw him again. Despite having to spend the rest of the day explaining to my wfie how and why I was able to have a conversation in sign language I was so immensely pleased with myself for what I had done. So reason I'm now on here is because with the global pandemic and everyone wearing masks I imagine the world has become far more isolating for the Deaf. It makes me think and feel how I did when that man left my branch all those years ago. If I can do something to help that then I'll try me best to do it becuase when he slammed that door after our first encounter I never thought 'that went badly because he was deaf' I thought 'that went badly because I can't sign'. and I'm going to change that.

I'm learning BSL for myself and to be able to communicate with others in a similar situation. I've grown up deaf - I had 2 grommets operations as a child and was told to start wearing HA until I grew out of my condition (approx 18 months)... Fast forward 12 years and they realised I also had a deteriorating sensorineural condition, so my hearing gets progressively worse. I wear bilateral hearing aids and increasingly rely on lip reading, but it's not always possible, especially with the current mask wearing, and frankly it's exhausting. I'm 'lucky' in that I can talk and communicate well, and I'm intelligent so I've found ways of adapting, meaning I often get told I "'don't seem deaf" (whatever that means!). Although I'm grateful to not be treated as incapable, this attitude makes it so hard for me to actually be myself around people, I always have to work to hear and it can be really difficult when people don't understand that I actually do struggle. So I'm learning BSL in the hope of being able to communicate with more people, to make my own life easier for those days that I don't have the energy to try to hear and lip read, and to make the world that bit more accessible for so many people.

Does anyone actually use this website to communicate with each other? Every time I am on a rarely see others post or commune with each other or occupy the video chat rooms. Currently I have hit a wall in my lessons and would like to actually try to practice beginner sign language with another user. I have learned the majority of the signs from the now completed course, give or take a few. And would like to practice full conversation with other individuals (questions, day to day talk, how to correctly sign this particular sentence, etc). Thanks for taking the time to read this. And please reach out if interested.

I just finished the final assessment today!🥳 I'm really sad it's over but I'm definitely going to keep learning and practising

Hi,

Hi everyone, My name is Phoebe. I am 20 years old and have started learning BSL today! Having worked with special needs children in the past it has always been one of my interests to learn how to sign. Thanks to lockdown and the amazing discounted offer on the british sign website I now have the opportunity to start learning. I am hoping that I will be able to undertake a role of supporting deaf students in schools in the future. Hope everyone is staying home and staying safe from coronavirus! Take care! 😃

Hey everyone! I am super excited to be here My daughter was born with a hearing impairment and wears a hearing aid every day, all day. Since I found out about her HI, I have made a conscious effort to include her in the deaf children's community and try to promote the inclusion of deaf students more in schools (I have been a school teacher for a decade, so I started a BSL project in my previous school to do this). I took my BSL Level 1 exam (Signature) last week and am expected to pass with flying colours! Yay! With that said, I am unbelievably excited to start my Level 2 in September and have been searching high and low for a group / forum just like this, where I can meet other BSL students / people from the deaf community and practice my skills. I look forward to meeting many of you soon (although, likely through Zoom!) Best wishes, Sarah

Usaid Tariq is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: BSL Weekly Meeting Time: Jun 27, 2020 02:00 PM London Every week on Sat, 7 occurrence(s) Jun 27, 2020 02:00 PM Jul 4, 2020 02:00 PM Jul 11, 2020 02:00 PM Jul 18, 2020 02:00 PM Jul 25, 2020 02:00 PM Aug 1, 2020 02:00 PM Aug 8, 2020 02:00 PM Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system. Weekly: https://us04web.zoom.us/meeting/upwsc-ivpz4rG9X39Jbvk4SWxbiIEpogQ7Is/ics?icsToken=98tyKu6grz8rHd2QsRiGR7Y-BY-gd-3xmCVcjfplz0bPATZYNjDBLuBLG5dvH9_h Join Zoom Meeting https://us04web.zoom.us/j/78141795111?pwd=Q0JjRXBOdmJRMGN2KzF1SktkWU56dz09 Meeting ID: 781 4179 5111 Password: 3dCqGn

Hi everyone! I'm Zoe and I'm learning BSL with a course on British Sign in between my virtual classes at uni. I'm almost at the end of my training to be a vet, so I'm hoping BSL will help me communicate with clients in the future (especially as there is a big training centre for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People nearby my hometown). I've done a bit of simple BSL in primary school, but I love learning languages and I want to improve my skills!

hey, I am pretty new to this also. I think the only way I will remember all the signing is if I put it into use. I feel like I have forgotten all i've learnt so far! I am going to keep coming on here and replying to some video etc hopefully that will help 🥴

I work in a FE/ HE mix college as a Library Assistant, we have a fantastic hearing impaired department so have lots of Deaf/deaf students. It would be fantastic to be able to directly communicate with the students without an LSA or interpreter with us. It could come in handy in the wider community too.

Hi Vicky! I am learning level 1 too and am interested in practising with your daughter and Georgia too. I'm a little bit older as well (19).

Hi Vicky! I am learning level 1 the same as your daughter! I know I am slightly older (20) but once I learn more I'd love to practice with your daughter if she's up for it

My name's Georgia and I have just started the "Introducing British Sign Language course"! I have already learnt the alphabet and how to count from youtube videos and I can't wait to learn more. I am 20 years old from the West Midlands currently studying at university. Due to the whole coronavirus situation I have found myself wanting to learn a skill that will be extremely useful in life as I have more time now. I think the basics of sign language should be taught in schools as something as easy as fingerspelling has the ability to ensure we can all communicate with the deaf/hard-of-hearing community.

Hi I'm Vicky I started learning Sign Language when I was in sixth form. Myself and a friend wanted to learn so managed to convince enough of our friends to tag along so that the local college would have enough people to start the level 1 course. I had always felt my hearing wasn't great and having friends that could sign in noisy environments meant I wasn't missing out. nearly 10 years later I would find out that my hearing wasn't really the problem on paper that is perfect but I had actually spent all my life living with Auditory Processing Disorder and there was nothing that could be done to make it better. I continued with sign language and gained my level 2 qualification. I personally feel all children should be taught sign language in schools. I have used it in many areas of my life: as a teenager to communicate with my friends when I struggled to hear in social situations (something which I struggled with when I moved away to uni as suddenly I didn't have that anymore), supporting customers in retail jobs, communicating with parents of children in my class who are deaf and more recently being able to communicate with the parents of one of my daughters friends both of whom are Deaf and use sign language. That said it has been many many years since I did my level 2 and not using it means you lose it. Also I started learning in Wales and then continued in England. Regional variation is a very real thing and given some of the signs I have recapped so far on this course some have possibly changed overtime to be a bit more politically correct. I am keen to revisit sign language in the hopes that this time I can keep it up. My daughter is 3 and she already knows quite a few signs and I would like to be able to give her this language along side the Welsh and English she already has. Language is part of your identity and I think sign language should be valued as such.

I’m also a newbie and it’s a work in progress but: A and U are easy as first and last. E: i’m righthanded so the “letters” are on my left hand. If you look at your left hand the three middle fingers look like an E on its back, so the index finger is the top of the letter E. I: the longest middle finger. Also - random fact that reminds me: i used to live in Italy where I was startled to find that certain letters are not used except in foreign words: letters j, k, y, and a few others were not even included in the Italian alphabet. There isn’t a natural sound that means J, they call it “Long I” because it’s like an I with a tail. The same is true in Sign: J is drawing along the middle finger and round to the thumb. So I is like short J! And as for O, that one’s easy: it’s the finger with my wedding ring on, which is a nice visual mnemonic. Though if anyone comes up with better ones, please tell! Those are just what I’ve come up with so far. FWIW I’m also practicing with the Twinklefingers Fingerspelling app which is good for attempting to get my brain up to speed in those idle ten minutes on the bus...

It floats my boat! Nice and slow, easy to read ?

Hi Sarah, I have only just started bsl learning, about 4 weeks in now, and doing a purely online course. I get videos each week to watch and go away and practice, and then I book a tutorial and have a skype tutorial where I am asked questions and I sign. It is all signing, which is great practice. The website is bslcourses.co.uk You can choose to not do the actual qualifications and just do the training. Because a tutor works with you, they agree that you can go onto the next one. I’ve decided to just do this and eventually go onto the nvq level 6 where I then would do the assignments. It is cheaper not having to do the qualifications in between. I guess if I decided to stop for any reason, I would probably do the exams at whatever level I was at. Anyway, I am really loving it. I hope that helped! Bec :-)