Usalabs
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Posts posted by Usalabs
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6 hours ago, JDixon88 said:
Hello!
I'm also in the U.S. Why did you decide on BSL instead of ASL? I'm an American Sign Language interpreter and am wanting to also become certified in interpreting BSL, but you're right. It is hard to find practice for that out here!
As I'm already partly knowledged in BSL, and after looking at the differences in ASL and BSL, I found that ASL, is extremely difficult to learn, compared to BSL, I'm not saying that because I'm British, but BSL is what I was taught when I was younger, but now I'm 62 and at my age learning another completely different one would be impossible.
What I wanted was for someone to help me improve what I already know, not to fail at learning something else from from scratch, then I can teach my wife, so that when I do eventually lose my hearing altogether, we can still communicate.
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I came across this website when I was looking for a way for me to teach my wife BSL, as I'm deaf in my right ear and losing hearing in the other, but I haven't used BSL since 1985, and have forgotten most of it, I can finger the alphabet but slow, and I can remember some of the signs for other words, but as I haven't used it in so long, it's like learning a language and not use it then forget it, as I used to be able to speak French many, many years a go, but have forgotten most of it, because there was nobody around that I could practice BSL with so that I wouldn't forget it. the problem is if I find someone to practice with, there'll be a huge time difference between the UK and the USA, currently, I am 7 hours behind the UK.
I have another post in here explaining why I learnt BSL and forgot most of it.
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Way back in 1975 when I was in boarding school, I was taught BSL at a night school, but over the years until 1985 I had no reason to use it, but then I met and married a partially deaf woman, and all her family, brother, sister, mother and father were totally deaf, and seeing that I knew BSL (well as much as I could remember), I mostly had to 'mouth' the words, because I wasn't fast enough for them to understand, and, on top of that, I made so many mistakes and took too long to remember what a sign was for a word, but the marriage only lasted 3 years, and ended in late 1987, and since then all I've remembered was the finger alphabet, then from 1987 to this day, I've never had to use sign language, then in 2001, I moved from the UK to the US, and a few years later married an American woman, and I still never had to use sign language until now, well, sort of, I'm 62 and have completely lost my hearing in my right hear and losing hearing in my left, and I have to teach my wife BSL, but I can only teach her the finger alphabet, which is mostly what I remember, and I'm not as fast as I should be either.
So I was wondering if there's a way I can practice to get up to speed? It may takes a while, but as I already know the finger alphabet, it shouldn't be a problem figuring out the rest. They say the best way to continue where one left off is to practice with someone, but I don't know anyone here where I live that's deaf and if I did, it'll mostly be ASL, that they use.
Hi, everyone from the USA.
in Introduce Yourself
Posted · Edited by Usalabs
Lol, I doubt I could teach you much, as I've already forgot most of it, and as they say, "if you don't use it, you lose it". and I haven't used BSL, in around 36 years, so much of it is lost, it just needs a refresher, to ignite it all.
I would be interested in finding someone to 'refresh' my memory and to help build up speed. My time zone is MST (Mountain Standard Time), which is currently 8hrs behind the UK, which would mean for the hours between 12pm and 6pm UK time, I would need to be up between 4am and 10am, or if between the morning hours of 9am to 12pm UK time, I would need to be up between 1am and 4am, which would make it near impossible for communication between native BSL signers and me.