What Are the Major Difference Between American Sign Language and European Sign Language?

Sign language is not standardized for the most part. Even in America, there are many dialects of ASL, because sign language is regional. Also, there is not just one sign lagnauge is Europe. A nation's sign langauge reflects their culture. SInce there are many cultures, there are different sign languages.

Just a side note: American Sign Langauge is different from British Sign Language and Manually Sign English (which is putting a sign to a word and keeping everything else the same; this doesn't constitute another langauge linguistically). ASL was actually derived from French Sign Language because the English wouldn't help the American deaf without a price.

And the first poster's statement is wrong. Different signed languages aren't as different as spoken languages. If a deaf person was immersed into a foreign deaf community, he/she would acclimate at a much quicker pace than a speaker. This is because sign language is a conceptual langauge, and most deaf-signers convey main ideas through mostly imagry rather than concrete grammar rules.