Learning sign language has no big difference with learning any foreign language. The slight difference that I see with sign language from any language is, sign language is all about body movements like hands, arms, including the face. If you want to believe this, be with that person who is a sign language user, you might make any sign that disappoints him or her. For example; during my childhood, I was told if you met a person who is unable to speak, that you don’t touch your ear, if you do it, then you are insulting him or her and will chase you, meaning touching your ears is a serious insult to such people. But I don’t think whether this assumption is true or false.

So whatever you are doing using your hands, arms with sign language users, they can know what you’re up to yet you may not know. There are different sign languages in different countries such as American sign language (ASL), British sign language (BSL), Japanese sign language (JSL), Korean sign language (KSL) and many others. It will depend on which language would want to learn and how are going to make it possible.

Steps in learning sign language

Just like learning or acquiring any second language, there are some procedures you need to go through as a language learner, this implies to the sign language learner, you need to critically do the following;

Full immersion in the sign language, basic body movements, with learning, if you want to be perfect in doing something, you have to commit yourself to attaining it, sign language involves body language such as using hands, arms, and even the face as I mentioned before, it may look simple or something obvious to you, but you need to familiarize yourself with its basic movements so as to use the language in an appropriate manner otherwise, you will keep insulting the deaf community.

Learn the sign language grammar and syntax; sign language also has its syntax and grammar, don’t think it’s only languages like English, French, or German that you ought to learn their grammar and syntax. Sign language, whether it’s American sign language, French or Italian, have their own syntax and grammar that different from English or any language. So you as a learner must pay attention how you are supposed to construct sentences with sign language. For example, American sign language is different from English. The sign language sentence structure always starts from objects to the subject and then the verb, however, for English, the subject comes first, the verb next and the object comes last. For example, “babies, I like” that is sign language, but English, it’s “I like babies”.

Practicing and trials, remember practice in everything makes you perfect, whether you know how to use the sign language, but you are not perfect yet, continue making trials using the instructional books and balance time for both class lessons and practice. Keep repeating what was covered in the current lesson over and over before moving to the next lesson, then also try getting videos for sign language, watch and start repeating the signer’s actions, this is a complete immersion into the learning process.

Keep communicating and interacting with the sign language users; this will totally help you to learn quickly. For example, if you want to learn Arabic or Russian language, you can move to Russia or Arabia or just interact with the Arabic language speakers or Russian speakers, be reading translated materials, watch Russian language movies and etc, this implies to the sign language as well, also go to the deaf community, start interactions with them, but you have to be humble and just request someone to share with you sign language experience, your skills will improve day by day as your commitment is serious with the learning process.

Further training is also necessary; now there are people who may need to become sign language interpreters and translators, they have to attain professional training in translation and interpretation schools, within the field of translation, you can not just walk in because you know the language needed, you will need to be a qualified translator or interpreter. So if you are aiming to provide sign language interpretation or translation services, go ahead to further your academic qualifications and be a fully trained sign language interpreter or translator depending on the one you have taken to interpret in and out. It might be an American sign language, Japanese sign language, Korean sign language, or any.