I'm a college student majoring in Criminal Justice. I was thinking of fulfilling some of my elective requirements by taking an American Sign Language class.
How difficult is ASL to learn? Is it less or more difficult than typical languages?
Kirax - No, Sign Language is not universal. Some countries use the same types, but there are many different ones. For example England and Japan use two different types that are different from the American form.
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1 comment… read it below or add one
You are correct Sign Language IS NOT universal. American Sign Language is the primary language of deaf people within the United States and Canada. In other countries, they have their own sign language. For example BSL (British Sign Language) is completely different than ASL. FSL (French Sign Language) is closer to ASL since FSL helped create ASL. Galludet, from the USA went and met Clerc (a deaf person from france) and came over and formed the first deaf school and American Sign Language. Anyway, it is more universal than other languages…but not really. I do believe deaf people could communicate easier anywhere than an English person could in like a spanish country.
Anyway:
ASL (American Sign Language) is not that hard to learn. It does require a lot of practice and dedication and many schools will accept 1 semester of ASL to fulfill 1 year of credit! This is because semester 1 you are usually in ASL 1 and second semester you are in ASL 2.
It does confuse many people since it does have its own sentence structure and it has its own syntax. Also, facial expressions are very important. Sign Language can move fast and so you must pay very good attention in the class. Also, remember you must be sure you are taking an American Sign Language class, not a SEE (Signed English Exactly) class. SEE sign doesn’t count as a foreign language since it has almost no history and follows English rules with ASL signs. SEE is frowned upon in the deaf community.
I think ASL would be an excellent language to learn.