July 5th, 2010    Learning ASL

For a long while now, Rebecca and I have been trying to decide on a new language to learn. We dabbled in Irish Gaelic, tried to re-gain our Spanish skills, and even researched some of the simple 'created' languages on the web, like Toki Pona. Finally, however, we decided on a very special language -- one that uses no spoken words at all. It's American Sign Language.

Our reasoning was that we already had a verbal language that we were very effective with. Sign language would allow us to communicate in ways that English never would -- silently when we're observing wildlife in the woods, for instance, or over long distances where ambient noise won't allow verbal communication.

Learning sign language is F-U-N!

The trick, of course, was learning it. First we bought a book, but that proved very difficult, since we'd often have questions about just how a word was signed. Then we found a great website that had step-by-step lessons with videos that made signing very clear. Still, it was difficult to stay motivated, and when we were faced with questions, we didn't have anyone to ask. That's when a minor miracle occurred. We were talking with one of Rebecca's former dance students, who also happens to share our love of horses. She mentioned that she was going to an ASL gathering.

"ASL?" we questioned. "As in sign language?"

"Yep. My brother is deaf," she told us. "Sign was my first language."

From there it was all excitement. She offered to teach us, and we arranged a trade of yoga lessons and horse-play in exchange. For weeks now we've been meeting every week, and we're advancing faster than we ever could have imagined. Today we began with our first 'silent half-hour' at home, which we'll do every day. We sit down on our futon and have a half-hour conversation, using no speech at all. With our growing repertoire of signs and a lot of finger-spelling, we can talk about anything. It's truly amazing to have an in-depth conversation that is perfectly silent.

We're so excited about learning to sign and highly recommend giving it a try!