EstherA

Hi, My name is Esther and I studied Level 1 in Bristol earlier this year and started Level 2 in Bath in September. I first learnt a little bit of BSL when I was about 9 or 10 - I found the BSL alphabet in the back of a dictionary and taught myself and then my brother so we could talk without my parents knowing what we were saying . I have been fascinated ever since and have learnt odd signs here and there from people or the internet. When my son was little I taught him the alphabet and together we learnt a few useful words (Toilet, so he didn't have to yell out where he was going) and some useful shopping words such as Milk, Cheese and bread I love learning BSL but do struggle with Receptive skills so always on the look out for recommendations re resources, websites, videos, clips etc.

Hi, I learnt Level 1 earlier in the year and I'm currently studying towards level 2. I am right handed but wanted to teach some BSL to a friend of mine who is Left Handed so switched the alphabet around quite easily (With the exception of a couple of letters, which I had to think about). I've also watched other left handed people sign and often forget they are signing left handed until it comes to fingerspelling. Although fingerspelling seems a bit part of BSL early on, I have found that the more I progress the less I am actually fingerspelling because you learn signs for everything. On level 2 the only time you use fingerspelling is for names of people, a few places that don't already have their own signs and Brands that don't have their own signs. I have also seen people sign one handed (I find this hard to follow, but I'm still a beginner), Example of this is when someone has a cup in their non dominant hand so instead of signing directly on each finger, they point/swipe etc in the general direction (I've done it with my own name and it's easy to do but may be difficult to follow) I am sure there are many people out there with varying obstacles to overcome in order to learn BSL so I would say it was 100% possible to learn Best thing to do if you are considering starting a course is to have a chat with the Tutor before joining and ask them the best way to go about it for you specifically I hope this helps - Good luck with the learning Esther