To think it shouldn’t be so expensive to learn sign language??

[AngeloMysterioso]

I’ve recently taken up an evening volunteering position which involves working with young children with a variety of disabilities and learning difficulties, including several deaf children. They can lip read pretty well for the most part, but I’m still really keen to learn sign language to make it easier for us to communicate, and have been looking into courses. However courses start at around £5-600 for BSL Level 1, which is just crazy! AIBU to think that given the number of deaf people there are in the country, sign language shouldn’t be so prohibitively expensive to learn?

We've only been doing very basic sign language for babies and have been trying to muddle through with books from the library. But I would really like to learn sign language and my DD to learn and books just aren't going to be enough. I totally agree it should be more accessible.

That is shocking. I'm in the US, and in my community there are severable affordable resources to learn the basics of ASL.

I would imagine it's supply and demand.

There are not many available teachers, or prospective students.

The teachers will expect to be properly paid, and that money has to come from students.

How long does Level one take? I don't think £500 is outrageous for a couple of terms tuition.

How many hours is bsl level 1?

Well i looked for myself

64 teaching hours for £500 seems pretty reasonable. Cheaper than a cleaner

I've looked into too and been put off by the price, it's such a shame. There were so many pointless subjects in school and wasted lessons, ASL should have been part of the curriculum.

With a private course it will be quite expensive as the teacher will need to be paid a decent amount. I think your best bet would be to try and organise a group course or speak to your local library or community centre. My library offers v affordable courses in foreign languages. I imagine they might be able to access a pot of special funding to offer sign language classes.

There are some BSL video's on youtube.

There's HEAPS of online training courses, just search on Youtube. They are not certified courses, but they will get you up to conversational level for sure.
Just make sure they are teaching 'local' language.

Do you have a Deaf Direct branch near you? I'm doing my level one for £375 with them. I would really recommend classes. You may get the vocab from online resources but it's so helpful to attempt to have wider conversations with classmates.

When you compare the course to other courses it isn't overly expensive. I think some people don't realise it is a whole language with grammar and syntax so more to it than just learning vocab.

Like someone has said there are uncredited courses online which will give you an idea at a basic level just as a basic other language course would.

Not sure if it’s relevant but several years ago a girl did some work for me for a few years. She was profoundly deaf and didn’t sign at all. She attended a school for deaf children and apparently they placed critical importance on lip reading and ability to speak clearly to the exclusion of pretty much everything else. The school was not in favour of signing.

She had a responsible role for her age (19/20) and had to interact with many people. She worked for a few years in order to earn money to go backpacking around the world for a year. Most people who encountered her didn’t clue on that she was deaf and I certainly never pointed it out. She did use closed captions when watching the TV when possible but would go to movies, lip read where possible and just keep up best as possible plot wise.

I did ask her once why she did not use/know sign language which is where she shared the information about her school and she also said ‘because I live in a hearing world’. I’m guessing that was drummed into them at school?