I have always wanted to learn sign language and came close a number of times but never quite succeeded. I’m not sure of the reason behind this, maybe it’s my early love of ER and Dr Benton signing to his deaf son Reece, or maybe it’s Marlee Martin being a badass in anything she’s been in (maybe I just watch too much TV? Something to explore another day). Either way, I think it’s a valuable thing to learn to be an inclusive member of society.
I also wanted to learn some more Italian which is something I’ve tried before, and therefore not part of the list, but this brought me to Udemy, an online teaching site, which happened to have 90% off most of its classes. Whilst booking my Italian class, I came across a British Sign Language one for €9.99. I reasoned that I would have probably spent that on a book so I snapped it up and what a treat it is. The woman teaching it is so warm and friendly, it really is a dose of joy clicking on one of the short videos.
Image from Sign Language Forum
Throughout the course of today, I have learnt the BSL alphabet, numbers, and some introductory questions such as “what’s your name?” and “how old are you?”. The video goes through each section slowly and repeats it a few times so you have plenty of chances to practice.
I am over the moon I’ve finally managed to learn some sign language, and can’t wait to continue to learn more. This is a new thing that I am so excited about having done and look forward to continuing with. I know it’s still early days, but that feeling makes doing this challenge all the worthwhile.
New Day, New Thing 