This week was an incredibly busy week for me so I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to learn more ASL. I've also been finding learning online to be quite the tricky task as ASL has a lot of factors involved and the way that you sign things is not always the way that you would say it. I knew going in that this would be a hard task, so I'm not surprised that I am struggling slightly - that is usually the case when you're learning something new!
I decided this week that instead of stressing myself out by picking something new to learn, I would research different options for learning ASL offline in my area (Edmonton) after this course is over.
The first resource I found is "Canadian Hearing Services". This is actually an online delivered course which uses a curriculum called "Signing Naturally" developed by deaf instructors to help you understand conversational ASL. This course uses a "no-voice" method to really immerse learners in the learning experience. It is delivered via zoom, as well as online course material and resources to help reinforce the "in-class" learning. They also offer 3 different courses depending on the learner's skill level - Beginner (no previous knowledge of ASL), Intermediate (some basic previous knowledge of ASL), and Advanced (have to have taken the other courses before). This is a great online resource for people who want to learn ASL without having to do all the searching around for different information. It is still slightly flexible so you may be more able to fit something like this into your schedule.
A second resource I found is the "Canadian Hard of Hearing Association (Edmonton Branch). This course is delivered in person and has 2 different levels, depending on the learner previous knowledge. Level A is for people with little to know signing background. It focuses on the alphabet, pronouns, numbers, some basic sentences, and more. Level B is for people who have either completed Level A or have knowledge of all the things included in Level A and it focuses more on conversational ASL. The website doesn't include a lot of information about the courses delivery methods, other than that it is in-person, however the CHHA is dedicated to helping people with hearing loss, so they would have a lot of knowledge on it. It would be nice to have more information specific to the course though.
The University of Alberta also offers ASL courses through the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies. They also don't have a lot of information directly related to the course available on their website, however they do specify that they only hire deaf instructors for equity purposes, so it's nice to know that that is who is teaching the courses. The one downside to this is that you have to be enrolled in the university to take this course, which makes it slightly less accessible than the other course mentioned.
This was a good project to break up my learning this week, and it's great to know that there are options to continue learning ASL skills after I'm done this course.
If anyone has any good resources for me to look into next week to continue my online learning, please feel free to share them!
Hi Brynn! I like that you've found some possible options to help further your learning for ASL outside of trying to just teach yourself! I think that just goes to show how much you have enjoyed your learning project if you are finding ways to push your learning further!
I wish you all the best as you wrap up your learning project but continue on your ASL learning journey!