ASL Education: Advice For The ASL Students

This video is in response to another, named "American Sign Language Teaching, On Behalf of the Deaf Community."

Rather than attack teachers with blanket statements, which may or may not be justified on a case-by-case basis, it's best that students be directly educated to choose the best ASL teachers.

If you, as a student, would read every Amazon.com review in deciding whether or not to purchase a $10 cookbook, but blindly spend hundreds of dollars on an ASL course you know nothing about, you have to examine your priorities, frankly.

If you want to take ASL and really learn the language, you cannot simply rely on the knowledge of college administrators who hire adjunct instructors. You have to ask people who know much more. The answer may surprise you. The best available teacher might be hearing. But, if that's the case, then I can practically guarantee that your teacher did everything they possibly could to learn directly from the Deaf community. You must accept this path to learning as well.

Don't become discouraged. Learn ASL. But to teach, you absolutely must have skills on par with the best of the best ASL teachers. Would you want anything less to be true of your own teachers? "American Sign Language Teaching, On Behalf of the Deaf Community."