There are a few decent online courses that can get you started, and there are any number of books, but there is a lot of regional variation in ASL, and there are a lot of older books around that say they are sign language, but they are not ASL. Really, the best way is to take a class, preferably from someone who is part of the Deaf community, so you can learn about the culture, as well. There are a lot of social subtleties that can get you in trouble if you don’t know the culture.
There is a book called “For Hearing People Only” it dosn’t teach you how to do ASL but it gives answers to many people with questions. It teaches you about the culture of ASL. A similar question to this was asked in that book. The answer:
“The very best way to learn ASL is to emerge yourself in a community of Deaf people. Next would be to take a course at college where the instuctor is present, third would be to go to your library and see if they have any DVD’s, the very last and not so good way of learning is from books.” good luck.
Take a course.
There are a few decent online courses that can get you started, and there are any number of books, but there is a lot of regional variation in ASL, and there are a lot of older books around that say they are sign language, but they are not ASL. Really, the best way is to take a class, preferably from someone who is part of the Deaf community, so you can learn about the culture, as well. There are a lot of social subtleties that can get you in trouble if you don’t know the culture.
There is a book called “For Hearing People Only” it dosn’t teach you how to do ASL but it gives answers to many people with questions. It teaches you about the culture of ASL. A similar question to this was asked in that book. The answer:
“The very best way to learn ASL is to emerge yourself in a community of Deaf people. Next would be to take a course at college where the instuctor is present, third would be to go to your library and see if they have any DVD’s, the very last and not so good way of learning is from books.” good luck.