Hi, everyone from the USA.

[Usalabs]

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.

Edited July 23, 2022 by Usalabs

[JDixon88]

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!

[Usalabs]

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.

[JDixon88]

On 01/08/2022 at 19:07, Usalabs said:

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.

That makes sense! Well, if you ever wanted to get some practice in with someone closer to your time zone let me know, I'm sure we could set something up via Zoom or something and you could teach me a lot! I'm still only breaking into this and have a long way to go. 

[Usalabs]

On 03/08/2022 at 08:45, JDixon88 said:

That makes sense! Well, if you ever wanted to get some practice in with someone closer to your time zone let me know, I'm sure we could set something up via Zoom or something and you could teach me a lot! I'm still only breaking into this and have a long way to go. 

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.

Edited August 6, 2022 by Usalabs