Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of free resources for different sign languages:

Please feel free to add on if you know of others, be it more resource for one of the sign languages above, or resources for learning any of the other 300 plus sign languages.

Edit: I updated the ASL reference to Bill Vicars, but reminder that these are just things I found around, please find Deaf teachers wherever possible! And for ASL, lifeprint.com is another wonderful resource.

This post is still actively getting notes every day, so I wanted to share a new resource with you: Lingvano. This app is:

The app currently only offers courses in three sign languages: American Sign Language (ASL), British Sign Language (BSL) and Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS).

I will add this to the original post momentarily, but I wanted to put this in a reblog too to raise awareness. I found out about this app from a Deaf content creator, so I really do think it's legit.

The app Toleio has Norwegian sign language. It is free to use.

Thank you for the addition! As a reminder for those who have not seen the corrected version of the post tho, Lingvano is only free for the first few lessons, as it turns out.

Video description: Title "Why Our Flag Means De@th needs a Deaf gae pirate". A TikTok from @bow_asintakea_rawn. No spoken audio or music, just clothes rustling as a person in a pirate-style white shirt and green knitted hat signs in BSL. The video cuts between several short scenes of the person around their house.

BSL subtitles transcribed in quotes, other in-video captions transcribed in asterisks as they appear in the video, other video notes written in brackets.

"Can I get a hearing dog please?" (grumpy)

*on cannons* (excited) "Boom boom?"

(confident) "Oi! I can handle my drink!"

(hopeful) "But! I teach the dog to swim?"

*is short* (stands on tiptoes) *is still short but now a liar* (grins)

"MORE! G- R-" *drunk Deafies slur their words too*

"Quiet, quiet -" (startled)

(angry) "He's got a seagull!

"G-R-OOOO -G. MORE" (smiles, falls down drunk)

"How?? CLOTHES MAKE NOISE??

(drunk, falling down; uncaptioned in video) "I'm fine"

Koko the gorilla did irreparable damage to the average hearing person's understanding of sign language

I would love to learn more if you've got a rant locked and loaded

Koko, as with most "signing" apes, was "taught" modified ASL (bc their hands are different and they physically cant make all the same signs we can) by hearing scientists who did not speak ASL. They would learn a few signs, and then teach them to the apes, who would associate signs to objects and rewards.

The most jarring thing was, the apes are completely unable to learn grammar, and would say things like "Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you" (actual quote by Nim Chimpsky), which their handlers would interpret as a sentence, when in reality the apes are simply mimicking signs in hopes of getting a reward. Those hearing handlers would see things like "Nim eat" and "eat Nim" and intepret those as equally meaning "Nim wants to eat".

More damning, the lack of understanding of ASL by the hearing scientists meant that most of what Koko and Nim Chimpsky "spoke" was purely the scientists just seeing what they wanted to see. A Deaf person was brought in to interact with Nim, and they were instructed to not give him any food until he signed "food". They spent hours with an increasingly distressed chimp who did not sign anything, but Nim's hearing handlers would see him move his hand close to his mouth and go "oh! there it is! he signed it!", and while they spent the whole day signing, they didnt see Nim signing back.

With Koko, her handler would claim Koko would sometimes mix up signs like "need/knee", "I/eye", "people/nipple" because they "sound alike/rhyme" but... they don't. Those words rhyme in spoken English. They don't rhyme at all in ASL. Koko wouldn't know those words rhymed in english because she DIDN'T speak english, she "spoke" modified ASL. Of course, as the scientists did not speak ASL either, they didn't realize it, and just assumed random movements Koko meant were signs, and tried to think what she "could have meant instead" by thinking of what words sounded like the ones equivalent to what she had just "signed", even though an ASL speaker would not make a mistake like that.

I'm not even going to get into the fact that almost all of what those apes signed was due to direct prompting from scientists, the fact that they did not use language when alone, or the fact that most of what they answered was complete gibberish (which resulted in videos like Koko's climate address (yes, really) having to be heavily edited and cut to make it seem like she was actually speaking anything that made sense).

One really nasty side effect of this was like. The amount of hearing people who decided to try learning ASL and other sign languages because of the vague possibility of being able to communicate with apes, instead of, you know, the ACTUAL possibility of communicating with and appreciating Deaf people. (one person even said that Koko inspired them to learn ASL so they could communicate with their deaf friend, like... why the fuck did your FRIEND not inspire you to learn ASL??? did you really have to wait for a fucking gorilla failing to learn sign language to think "hmm, maybe talking to my friend would be nice!"??????)

The talking ape experiments helped cement in hearing people's consciousness the idea that ASL, and sign languages in general, are just poorly transcribed forms of spoken English that can be easily learned even by a chimp, instead of complex, independent languages with their own histories, cultures and internal variation.

i know hearing people on this website love to pass around those posts with links to free sign language lessons but you know you need to actually put effort into learning about Deaf culture, too, right?

if you are currently learning ASL, you need to read Introduction to American Deaf Culture by Thomas K. Holcomb

resources for other Deaf cultures include, but are not limited to:

[Image: a bald white guy with a mustache, probably Doctor Phil, is handing forward something that is edited to be the book from the first link]

There’s a website where you can learn ASL (American Sign Language) on your own, free and it’s a 31 Day program! The woman on there, her name is Rochelle Barlow, she runs the site and she actually is a homeschool teacher and teaches ASL. I am passing this on to some of you guys cause most of y’all on here is open-minded and curious and it is something important to learn.

I truly believe this site is helpful for some people who can not afford to going to ASL classes, or someone like me that just enjoys learning something new. This site will help with that. Once you sign up you will put in your email address and Rochelle sends you emails on tips on how to sign, gives you practice sheets, and gives you your weekly videos. And its all online. No need to paying for anything. (Unless if you want to she has something very different to this program) 

IMO and yes, this site is really amazing and is important because you never know if someone who is deaf or HOH needs help, if you end up losing your hearing ability this is something you will at least have on the back of your head, and it is just like any other language and should be taught. 

The link has been updated: https://aslrochelle.com/start-here

:D

This tiktoker shared some simple ASL for people to know to help deaf/hoh people communicate their needs while everyone is wearing masks !

Boost boost boost

I made a few gifs showing yall how to sign the names of gods/goddesses!! I’d really appreciate it if you’d let me know if you want to see more witchy sign language posts in the future💫

(click each gif to enlarge)

resource

I don’t really practice Hellenism, but I’m all for spreading sign language and accessibility!!

@magic-mess @witchwithacoffeepot and my other Hellenist buds.

This is really cool! Reblogging to my main and my sideblog.

This is awesome! 

-FemaleWarrior, She/They 

me: why are you destroying earth!!!

aliens: because theres people who think that english is the only language they need to speak

me: thats fair i understand

For some reason I find this all the more amusing because it’s written in English

moi: pourquoi vous détruisez le monde!!! l'extraterrestre: parce que il y a des gens qui pensent que l'anglais est le seule langue pour parler moi: ah ça c'est bien

ich: warum zerstört ihr die erde!!!

aliens: weil es leute gibt die glauben dass englisch die einzige sprache ist die sie sprechen müssen

ich: das ist fair ich verstehe

ég: af hverju eyðileggið þið jörðina!!! aliens: af því að það er fólk sem finnst að enska sé sú eina tungumál sem þau þurfa að tala ég: oh, það er vit í þessu. ég skil.

ik: waarom vernietig je de aarde!!!

aliens: omdat er mensen zijn die denken dat engels de enige taal is die ze hoeven te spreken

ik: oh zo, ik snap het

minä: miks te tuhootte maapalloo?

alienit: koska tääl on ihmisiä joitten mielestä englanti on ainoo kieli jota niitten täytyy puhua

minä: toi on reilua, ymmärrän

私: どうして地球を滅ぼしているんですか？

宇宙人: 英語しか喋る必要がないと思う人がいるからです

私: なるほど、わかりました

me: Wosück maakt ji de Welt twei!!!

aliens: wieldat dat Lüüd gifft, de dinkt dat Engelsch de allenige Spraak weer, de een snacken mütt

me: jo, daar seggst wat. Nu versta ik’t

aniga: dhulka maxaad u burburinaya !!!

shisheeyaha: dadka intiisa badani u malaynayaan in Ingiriisidu tahay afka oo kaliya ay u baahan yihiin inay la hadlaan

aniga: waxaan fahamsanahay. waa wax cadaalad

我：你们为什么在毁灭地球?！！

外星人：因为有人以为他们只会英语就可以了

我：懂了，说得有道理

ako: bakit niyo sinisira ang mundo!!!

taga-ibang planeta: kasi merong mga taong akala nila Ingles lang ang kailangan nilang matutunang lenggwahe

ako: ah, sige naiintindihan ko

Aku : kenapa kau hancurkan bumi!!! Alien : karena masih banyak orang berpikir hanya bahasa inggris satu-satunya bahasa yang terpenting Aku : oh, oke lah..

tôi: tại sao các người hủy diệt trái đất!!! người ngoài hành tinh: bởi vì có người nghĩ rằng tiếng Anh là thứ tiếng duy nhất mà họ cần biết tôi: ồ thế thì tôi hiểu

Eu: Por que vocês estão destruindo a Terra?! Aliens: Porque há pessoas que pensam que o inglês é a única língua que eles precisam falar. Eu: Isso é justo, eu entendo.

jag: varför förintar ni jorden!!!

utomjordingar: för det finns folk som tror att engelska är det ända språket de behöver kunna

jag: rimligt, jag förstår

Já: Proč ničíte Zemi?

Mimozemšťani: Protože tu jsou lidé, kteří si myslí, že angličtina je jediný jazyk, který potřebují znát

Já: To je fér, to chápu.

ja: dlaczego niszczycie Ziemię?

kosmici: ponieważ są ludzie, którzy myślą, że angielski to jedyny język, którego potrzebuję

ja: rozumiem, w porządku

io: perchè state distruggendo la terra!!!

alieni: perchè ci sono delle persone che credono che l’inglese sia l’unica lingua di cui hanno bisogno

io: capisco, mi sembra giusto

Yo: porqué estás destruyendo la tierra!?!?

Extraterrestre: porque hay personas quienes creen que inglés es la única lengua que se tiene que hablar.

Yo: te entiendo, es justo.

Я: Почему вы уничтожаете Землю?!?! Инопланетяне: Потому что есть люди, которые считают, что им нужно говорить только по-английски. Я: А, ну понятно, тогда ладно!

A modern Rosetta stone.

أنا: لماذا تدمرون الأرض!؟

كائنات فضائيه: لأن هناك أناس يعتقدون أن الانجليزيه هي اللغه الوحيده التي يحتاجون إلى معرفتها

أنا: هذا عدل، أنا أتفهم

میں: تم ہماری دنیا کو کیوں تباہ کر رہے ہو؟

خلائی مخلوق: کیونکہ اس دنیا میں چند ایک لوگ موجود ہیں جو سمجھتےہیں کہ انگریزی وہ واحد زبان ہے جو سب کو بولنی اور سمجھنی چاہیے.

میں: جو بات ہے.

Аз: Защо унищожавате Земята!!!

Извънземни: Защото има хора, които мислят, че английски е единствения език, който трябва да знаят.

Аз: Това е честно. Разбирам.

Because she was lonely.

So, today, a woman came into our shop. It was a woman I’ve only heard my parents refer to as ‘the Deaf Lady’. My mum had told her about me, explained that I was doing Sign Language, and come to find me on a day she knew I was working.

But today, she didn’t need her lawnmower repaired. In fact, she hadn’t touched it since it had been, and as far as she knew everything was fine.

She’d come in to sign to me.

She waved hello, and instantly explained that my mum had told her I would be in today. I asked her how she was, and the smile that she had on her face was the biggest I’ve ever seen.

And we spent about an hour in my family’s little shop, talking about everything. She told me about her life, about how she’d lived in the same house for 60 years.

She’d been born deaf, and been a Brownie, but never a Guide, because of the War… she’s now 86.

She had some amazing stories to tell, and twice she cried. One of those times was remembering her youth, and the other was when she was explaining to me that her husband had died around 20 years ago, and how he’d been the last person she’d known that could communicate with her.

She’s been alone for 20 years, living in a silent world, unable to communicate with anyone for the most part. The most interaction she has is when she writes things down for people, but she’s struggled to make any recent friends, and her family is long gone.

Now someone explain to me what’s wrong with every school teaching a certain amount of Sign Language, and for colleges to offer it more freely and frequently. People should be encouraged to learn BSL, because otherwise we’re cutting ourselves off from talking to around 8 million people or so (in the UK alone).

That’s millions of people who are no less important than you are, who have their own stories to tell, and the same need for communication as anyone else on this tiny little planet.

J. cried today because it was the first time for a long time that anyone has asked her for her name, or listened to her stories.

She’s also coming back into work tomorrow, to sign with me, and help me practice. But also - because we’re only human - for the company.

Every school should offer the native sign language of their region.

Normalize and celebrate language in all its modes, and the cultures that go with it.