We Learned American Sign Language In 3 Months

[As/Is]

We Learned American Sign Language In 3 Months

We’re definitely not fluent, but we’re still learning! Subscribe to As/Is: About As/Is: Subscribe for daily videos & series about beauty, …

[Ray Lopez]

Nyle, my husband.

[Johanna Alvarez]

Love this!

[Trashley]

as an asl 3 (almost 4 !) student, i understand everything they're going through with learning about the history, how to sign in asl gloss (my school calls asl syntax "gloss" but idk if that's right), and getting nervous when you have to sign irl. it gets better!! just keep at it ladies! proud of you !

also, @ buzzfeed, coming from an HOH person, thank you for the captions 🙂

[Ilaria Franchi]

Did anybody notice that they were practicing in the library set from Unsolved Postmortem? 😂

[Antonio Pena]

I’m so glad y’all made this video! I personally feel like it’s very important to educate people about the deaf community

[Lin Ez]

Made me cry I loved this video !!!

[HeeyitsKashika]

I'm learning ASL this summer through school and I'm so excited!

[Lex Over Here]

This is so weird to watch from my perspective because I know New Zealand Sign Language. So it's kinda odd but it super cool that they are learning ASL .

[Yasmin Garcia]

For anyone who wants to learn but don’t have a teacher, bill viscars is a great YouTube channel to check out

[MooreTheBetter]

i’m trying to become an interpreter

[G low]

I have deaf people come to my work every once in a while and its been making me want to learn even just some basics but i never know where to start or how the deaf community would feel about that but I'm glad this video makes me feel more inspired to learn

[Elissa Rennison]

I love this!!! My uncle is deaf and I know Sign Language because of him… I love seeing videos of this kind of stuff because people need to see how much fun it is to learn! Using my knowledge in the language I’ve been able to volunteer in the deaf community and travel in order to teach deaf kids sign language and give the families lessons as well. Keep up the learning! You’re doing great! Kiss fist!

[Rowan De Leon]

OMG i'm in my 2nd year of ASL at my high school and i appositely love the culture, language, and the people who come with it. I loved seeing you guys do a video like this and using your platform to spread the awareness of the deaf community and taking the time to learn a language that most forget actually exist

[Delia Palacios]

I learned to soeak fluent ASL and the reason they dont offer it is bc wjen it is offered its a ROP course and california cut funding for ROP bc you cant learn everything in 3 months and it’s hard to stretch everything out but i ñobe the language and im planning on taking some courses to get trilingual certification

[Hanna Schmied]

Suuuuch a cool video! You should be so proud! Was smiling the whole time I was watching! ❤

[Nevaeh Loveras]

There all from swiched at birth

[Cara Sachs]

I love you folks, I seriously do, all your videos. You speak to several of my identities which is wonderful, thank you (I’m a hearing, disabled, first generation Hungarian-American, plus sized lesbian, and a former ASL/English interpreter). May I offer a few thoughts?

Someone else called it in another comment…you were using PSE (pidgin signed English), not ASL, but it’s a start! Your primary language is spoken (auditory) English, so of course you will default to English structure. That’s one of the hardest things about learning ASL as a hearing person. Auditory languages are only linear. Signed languages are both linear and spatial, and it’s hard for our hearing brains to learn that. It takes a LOT of work. Which actually is my primary suggestion: You can’t “learn a language” in 3 months, ESPECIALLY a very complex language like ASL, even if you were completely immersed. Us hearing folks tend to overestimate our fluency. Receptive skills in language learners (being able to understand someone who is communicating to you) are always stronger than expressive skills, and that’s true of learners of any language. Ask people learning another auditory language and they’ll tell you “I understand better than I can speak it”. The weird thing is…ask ASL students this same question, and a lot – if not most – will say they are better at signing than understanding someone signing to them. This is partially because we don’t understand the true complexity of the language. Deaf people tend to “code switch”, meaning automatically changing to more English-y signing when talking to a hearing person. Frequently this isn’t deliberate. However it does mean that we don’t always see the full language in action, with all the complexity and nuance. Nyle is a wonderful person to watch in this video because he didn’t code switch. He is Deaf of Deaf (meaning growing up in a Deaf family) and his signing is absolutely beautiful.

Ok, I digressed, so many thoughts here. My main point is I suggest that you change the language in the title of the video. “Learned ASL in 3 months” gives the mistaken idea that it’s possible to do that. More importantly though, it gives the impression that ASL is a simple enough language to do that! It diminishes the language IMHO. I studied for YEARS, being as fully immersed as I could all the time, to achieve a good level of fluency. And honestly, it pisses me off when people who have taken a few classes say to me “I know Sign Language”. No, they don’t. They know some vocabulary with an imposed English structure, and maybe a beginning understanding of the Deaf community. Deaf people and ASL (and other signed languages) have been characterized as “less than” hearing people and languages for a very long time. We have oppressed Deaf people, which is still happening ALL the time. Portraying the language as simple is another form of this oppression. I can’t even begin to count the number of times that people (both hearing AND Deaf) have said to me that Deaf people have “bad language”, meaning poor English skills. It’s incredibly derogatory. For most Deaf people, English is their second language, which is pretty damned good, and far more than most hearing folks in America!

I love that you did this project, and I love that you captioned this video. I’d just like to suggest that you give a more accurate characterization of how much ASL you can learn in three months.

[Nevaeh Loveras]

Shes from switched at birth

[Allison Snyder]

I love this so much! I teach 3-year-olds and am teaching them (and myself)basic signs and it gives them another way to communicate that's beautiful. This makes me want to learn more!

[Mix Queen]

I take sign language in my school…it’s definitely a useful language to have!

[Maya Jade]

Ok so I have a HUGE problem with asl. So people who speak asl graduate with a fourth grade level reading because like they said the grammar is so off. Me and my family speak s.e.e. Which is signing EXACT English so the grammar is English not asl. People who speak asl can’t understand others very well but people who speak see understand much better. So that’s just my opinion and if you are interested in learning sign language I would definitely recommend s.e.e. Over asl so you can have a much wider range of communication but it’s really up to you!

[Emma Grace Fritz]

IS SHE FROM SWITCHED AT BIRTH??!?

[Rebecca H.]

This so so awesome! I love that y’all took time to talk about deaf culture as well! It’s such an important part of the language.

[Maya Jade]

I learned it in 1 week get on my level

[Molly Murphy]

PLZ DO THIS KINDA THING W OTHER LANGUAGES

[Resha Wells]

man I'm jealous I took ASL for 2years in HS but there was not a 3rd year teacher till my senior year and by then I had forgotten the little I had learned and am now trying to learn again I've loved ASL since I could remember and when I found out I could take t in HS I was so excited but the teachers weren't the best and I bearly learned anything which sucks but I'm slowly trying to learn again.

[Myst Mystery Mysterious]

It's funny I toom 2 years of sign language and this video made me happy to see you guys trying this. More people should learn sign language

[Aubree Doster]

I learned and thought asl to my class

[Samie Lipsky]

I took ASL to complete a requirement for class. My teacher, a deaf woman herself, taught a bit of the culture and history as well as the language. But I fell in love with it and the community and I’m so beyond thrilled that y’all are doing this and bringing this to light. The deaf community deserves more attention and love to be completely honest

[Alanna Reinstedler]

Yesssss

[Jojo Snyd]

Also I’m not deaf however I do have members of my family who is deaf and even though I am trying my hardest to learn ASL I do believe that it should be taught more around the country so that no one is left is the dark for something they can’t control

[Jojo Snyd]

Anyone else shook when u saw that Stephanie was Natalie Pierce from Switched at Birth that went to Carlton!

[n2ziastka]

SO SO AWESOME!!! My daughter is hearing and she wanted to learn ASL. SHe started it recently and enjoys it a lot!

[Author]

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