capri0mni | (Reply)

From:

*nod*

I was first introduced to visual communication when I went to a sleep-away camp disabled kids for four summers between the ages of 10 and 13. We were all taught, and encouraged to use, SEE (Signed Exact English), so that we could communicate with the D/deaf students. We were told that this was real Sign Language... which, um... no.

I discovered the truth about ASL when I was 16, and with all the fury of a teenager who discovers she'd been lied to by adults, was determined to learn the TRUTH.

...But, without anyone to practice with, it started to drift out of my head.

Then, 20 years ago, when I was in grad school, I had the opportunity to take ASL 101 and 102 as an immersion language course from a native-signing Deaf professor. Learning the grammar and stuff was hard, but because the visual phonemes had been slipped into my brain just before the critical language window closed at puberty, I seemed to pick up the basics a little bit easier than those in my class who were encountering this mode for the first time ~20.

And then, without continuing to use it, it started to drift away again. A couple of years ago, though, I found SigningOnline.com -- it's not free (about $50 per "semester"), and it's not quite as complete as a college or private course. But it is a lot cheaper than either of those, and it actually does teach things like sentence structure and context and conversational use... and also gives practice homework and mini-tests after each class.

I ... Still don't have anyone to converse with, using ASL, but I've subscribed to a few vloggers on YouTube who are native signers, just so that those neural pathways don't close up completely, even if I need captioning to understand everything.