why I'm learning bsl

[Sherrie Frost]

One of my main reasons for why I wanted to start to learn British sign language is because my youngest sister has down syndrome and was born deaf, I wanted to learn to sign so I could communicate with her but once I got older I didn't just want to learn it to just to communicate with my little sister I realised how important the skill of sign language is and that many deaf people cant communicate fully with full hearing people. I want and am determined to learn sign language so I can communicate with hard of hearing people within in my family and at place of work and when i'm out and about. 

if anyone can recommend ways to learn sign language or have tips on how help remember things, thank you

[Emmaleigh Redpath]

Hi Sherrie, my name is Emmaleigh and I am a learner of British Sign Language myself. I have been learning this for a few weeks now and honestly it is amazing. I am currently learning British Sign Language as a way of having something of a leisurely purpose to do, and also being able to communicate with anyone who has trouble hearing and by doing that will also help the people around them understand what they're saying. It's a great way for me to demonstrate and show my knowledge of my ability in what I already know of Sign Language to communicate fluently to people who are hard of hearing so they can feel included and they can have a form of communication so as to not feel like they're missing out on anything and these can be ways in which you can fulfil your use of British Sign Language as you learn this as well. A way you can learn British Sign Language is there is this amazing website, if you type into google "British Sign Language course," and find where it says "online british sign language course learn BSL today," it takes you to this amazing website. You of course will have to enrol onto the course and I'm not too sure if you have to pay but once you have everything sorted out and you're in and on the site, it will provide you with lessons for each topic to focus on. The lessons will appear down the side and when you click onto them, it will show you a list of the specifics to what you can learn, for example, one lesson on there is called "families, description, lists & positioning" ignore the amp part, and when you click onto that lesson it brings up a list of the specifics you will learn in that lesson so in there you will learn how to sign your family, talk about people, relationships, describing your family and describing people etc. In all the lessons, there will be videos to learn from and a signer will be signing in each video so of course whatever sign you're learning, he will show you how to do it. There is also a little description below on how to do the sign as well so it's able to tell you what to do for each sign and it provides another little sentence as to what the sign represents, so maybe you can have a look at that while also looking at the signer too. There will also be pages on there talking about what British Sign Language is and the different types of information in relation to how you can and should express Sign Language. There is also information about different organisations and charities for deaf people and goes into detail about deaf people. At the end of the topics and each lesson there will also be an assessment on there in which you must score at least 85% or more to pass the lesson. I hope you understand the idea of where I am coming from about the list of topics and what is in those topics to learn. It is an amazing site to go on and you will learn a lot of British Sign Language. I cannot guarantee you will learn absolutely every single thing there is to know but there are a lot of lessons on there with a lot of topics that will provide you with extensive knowledge on British Sign Language. Again, you will be able to learn a lot from it, it's such an incredible and useful site to be on. Tips on how to remember the sign language is you can of course repeat the signs over and over until you feel you are comfortable knowing what it means and how to sign it. When I learn one sign, I move onto the second one, I look at that one, I practise the first sign I remembered to make sure I still know what it is and then I learn the second one and same with the third, I go back to the first and second signs so I know they're in my head and then I will practise the third and so on. I hope this helps you learn a substantial amount of British Sign Language. I think what you said in relation to the reasons why you want to learn British Sign Language is wonderful. I hope all goes well with it Sherri and if you need anything, feel free to reply or see if you can message me on here and I will try and get back to you with anything I can do to help.

Good luck Sherrie

Emmaleigh

Edited August 1, 2020 by Emmaleigh Redpath