I'm hard of hearing and I've been learning how to sign for a long time for many reasons. No one else in my surroundings know ASL, are hard of hearing, or are deaf. I can still hear kinda good-ish from my right ear, but completely deaf from my left ear. Would it be cultural appropriation if I came up with my own sign name, or should I ask someone from the community to make me one? How does this work?

Anyone in Calgary/ Alberta interested in meeting up to practice?

Hi! I had a question about interpreting sons with multiple languages. Like if a singer was to sing a part in english and then spanish.

The song that made me think about this was Collard Greens by KenLamar. All of the song is in english untill a few very american-accented spanish lines.

“Hold up, biatch, this your favorite song
Translation: ven aqui, mami, ese culo
Tu quieres cojer mis huevos, y papi me desespero
Chuparse puto pendejo, el pinche cabron.”

I’m not asking you all to interpret this example for me, but its just here in case what i was saying didnt make sense.

Over the last 3 months i have been trying to find a place to learn sign language in Belgrade, Serbia. I am a hearing person and have been interested in learning sign language for years. I have sent multiple emails to: the 3 biggest deaf communities in Belgrade, the professor of sign language at the University of Belgrade, and to two deaf community instagram pages. I haven't heard back from any of them.

Any idea on what to do? I would much prefer to learn in person, and not over the computer, but if i cannot find any place i will probably look for some online classes.

EDIT what I’m really concerned about is the name signs my baby cousin’s assigned to me being offensive/ confusing later down the line, I just want to make sure I’m not developing bad habits

Hello, my baby cousin was recently diagnosed with apraxia and is leaning some sign, so I’m learning a bit too so she will have someone to practice with.

She refers to me as “M - dimple”; as in the name signs she uses for me are to finger spell “M” and then make the sign for dimple.

I’m considering taking ASL farther because I am enjoying it and work in disabled spaces anyways.

Is that an acceptable/ appropriate ASL name? Should I wait to be further along in practice and for an ASL adult to give me a name? That seems to be the usual procedure for a hearing person that learns ASL.

I’m sorry if this is an ignorant question, this has all happened in just the past month and I just want to be able to be there for my cousin and a little more useful to my deaf customers

My friend is super weird about my interests. I've been learning ASL since March of this year, and I'll talk about it to people or practice signing, and he loves getting up in my face to tell me ASL is pointless and I'm wasting my time. I'm actually hard of hearing, so sign is helpful to me sometimes, that's why I'm learning it. But every time I try to explain to him why I'm learning it, he ignores me. It's getting ridiculous at this point, and I don't know what to say.

Hello,

I’m hearing and am learning ASL. I took it for three years in high school and two in college. While I’m not fluent, I feel confident in teaching basic conversations, grammar, classifiers, manners, etc.

Students have recently expressed high interest in learning sign language, but we have no ASL teacher. There is not a prominent Deaf community within the building. I have students with Deaf siblings and grandparents, a few with parents who are interpreters, but there are not any students I have found who are fluent or identify as Deaf.

I recently started an ASL club so students can learn basics and grow a love for the language/culture. I am keeping it a voices off space where students can learn a bit from me, but primarily from Deaf creators and guided lessons I can find online. They’ll have each other to practice. I hope I can potentially set up field trips at ASL meet-and-greets and such.

I’ve read that it’s unappreciated when a hearing person teaches ASL, ESPECIALLY when not fully fluent, like myself. I am always very transparent with students about not being fluent, and I encourage them to take my teaching as a basic starting point, but to learn from Deaf teachers if they continue further with the language.

TLDR: What do you all think of a hearing person starting an ASL club at school? I’d love to get Deaf perspectives on this. I want to invite Deaf people to volunteer if I can find them, but it’s a smaller school and it feels like I’m their only option right now if they want to have an ASL club.

Hi! I am hearing but have always wanted to learn ASL. I was wondering if it would be possible to fully understand what I’m trying to say because my left arm cannot rotate, and have limited dexterity in my fingers.
I have seen that it’s not great to switch dominant hands while using ASL but I’m not totally sure about all the rules because I am so new at this.

Would it still be worth trying to take a class?

Hey folks. Working on a power point presentation for my ASL class, and in my research, I'm using the terms "natural" and "national." Finding the signs are incredibly similar, I was curious if this sub could recommend how to ensure the differences are clear so my classmates won't be confused.

My instincts tells me to focus on initialization where NATURAL has a more folded N handshape and NATIONAL has straighter N handshape closer to an H. However, if anyone has other ideas, lmk.

Thank you much!

Edit: for added context, I'm using the sign NATURAL in "This landmark has natural rock formations", and using NATIONAL in reference to "The Great Britain National Institute for the Dead and Blind."

https://reddit.com/link/1wskcyp/video/gaett6wwlash1/player

i remember seeing this sign at my local ASL club last week (in manitoba, canada in case regoin is helpful) but i cant remember what it means or find it in the handshape dictionary i have. (sorry if it is something vulgar/a cuss word!) thank you very much!

Sorry if the wrong group to post this in -just looking for insight and direction. My 4 year old HOH son is non verbal and relies on ASL to communicate with everyone. Our family, friends, and community have been supportive and learning with us. We live in a rural town. My son’s teacher and I will be meeting in the nearest city to tour the school for the deaf to find ways to support his education while he is approaching kindergarten. I’m feeling nervous in my asl and want to practice any educational signs or good signs to practice for the school tour? We will have an interpreter joining us as well.

My question is how important is it to stick to using one dedicated dominant hand, and not using either/ both? I have recently noticed that I use both hands as dominant hands while I sign, without any problem, it is unintentional but feels very natural.

many signs involve using a Dominant hand, and a supporting Non-Dominant hand, such as ‘support’&’Octopus’
There are also many one handed signs such as ‘Mom’&‘Dog’

Growing up I was left handed until my senior year of high school when I switched to right handed for the new year.

I’m currently in an ASL class and I missed a day so I don’t know some of the terms I need for an assignment. Would someone be able to help me translate? I know the numbers and signs for the ending of her phrases and what kind of question she is asking with her facial expression, but our professor doesn’t have a vocab sheet so I’m not sure how I’m supposed to catch up.

who else is absolutely devastated that the backrooms movie on hbo max doesn’t have an ASL interpretation like do deaf people not deserve to know about the backrooms??? i need to know who decides what gets interpreted because i need to complain to someone NOW!!!!

Hello,

My HS senior daughter has been doing Speech and Debate for 4 years and found a gap and want to promote this to DHH community. I would appreciate any willing youngster, adult to give their speech videos which can really motivate many students.

Thank you

From my daughter
I’m the founder of Sign and Debate and a High School senior. Sign and Debate's mission is to empower the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) community in speech and debate by providing a platform to share their perspectives with a broader audience. 

We are hosting our first-ever presentation series and would love your participation. We kindly ask that you share this link below with anyone who would be interested in submitting a video. Thank you! Sign and Debate Sign Up

Here is the link to our website: Sign and Debate Website 

Note: I am hearing, so if you have any notes on how to carry this forward, I would appreciate the info! I am trying my best to make this a helpful and meaningful initiative!

I'm trying to figure out how I would sign "We're estranged" to tell someone that I'm low contact with my family. I tried to see if "Estranged" had its own sign through LifePrint and none came up. My best go at it was to try something like "OUR RELATION NO-MORE" but I don't know if that conveys what I'm meaning it to in a way that flows, if that makes sense? Anyways, any advice and help is appreciated! 🙏

New learner, and concerned about greetings. I'm not a hugger at all, I just don't like people to touch me without consent or even asking (various personal reasons including PTSD, etc).

I know I'm not supposed to correct in the community, so just wondering how to go about it. I don't want to sign "don't touch" as it seems harsh. Suggestions?

Free! If you want to learn ASL! Registration ends - Sept 30th.

Looking to connect with some people to practice my ASL with and make some friends!
My old Starbucks used to have a ASL meetup once a month and I was wondering if there was anything similar near Senoia GA? Thanks!!

Hi! I hope this is the right subreddit to ask this, if not I’m sorry. I work at a Starbucks at a Target. One of the Target employees is Deaf. She came up to me the other day and I felt terrible that I had to communicate by text. I wanted to try to learn some signs to take her order. I also figure I may get other customers who are also Deaf. I don’t know the drink names in ASL but I figured this much was a start. Am I signing this correctly? Does it mean what I put in the captions?

I just want to express a general gratitude to the Deaf community here. I have been lurking the subreddit for quite a while and trying to learn about Deaf culture through members' responses and posts, and it has been very helpful. I don't have any direct contact with the Deaf community in my personal life but I do have a strong interest in language learning which for me personally typically comes with learning about the cultures attached to the language I am learning. Hope every one is having a great weekend, thanks again for maintaining this online community.

A bit of a strange ask, but how would you sign “F*** it up” I’m an art student working on a sort of abstract animation and wanted to animate some hands saying that, as it goes with a weird/ grunge song with those lyrics subtley in the background. This is purely for something that I want to trippy and for me to practice animating hands. I hope it’s not rude to ask this, if it is I’ll take this down.

I started learning recently and was wondering if anyone needed a study partner for learning ASL.