There’s usually a few common scenarios where one might need to learn ASL, or American Sign Language. Or your preferred local sign language, as there are many across the world.
For some, it’s learning as a child, growing up as a native signer. For others, it’s because they have a partner. And yet still more others, because of an injury that rendered their hearing useless. Whatever the reasons as to how or why, most people who learn sign language will often find it easier to communicate with others with the same language, and in some cases even different ones.
This language is composed of visual and physical gestures and even if we don’t necessarily know the meaning of all the signs, the magic factor of sign language is that we often can figure out the context almost immediately.
Another important reason for learning ASL is the ability to communicate in an emergency. For example, bad weather, earthquakes or other common emergencies could render communication difficult or impossible.
Lastly, knowing and learning ASL from a native signer is your best way of safely learning ASL. Why? Well… would you be willing to bet your life in an emergency on someone who didn’t know ASL, or worse, someone who learned ASL from places such as TikTok where signs are often either unintelligible or outright wrong and could be a danger to you, your children, or even your pets?
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