Als compared to other sign languages

T

Traveller

New Member
Joined
May 14, 2017
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Hey,

I have a voice disorder which makes it close to impossible for me to talk to people. So usually I don't. But my hearing is fine.

So far I have not learned a sign language because I was moving all over the world, traveling and finding a place where I want to live. But that starts to get boring as I cannot really connect with people cause of my disorder.

I did not learn a sign language, because I got told I would need to learn a new language in every country.

But now I read that many sign languages are based on ALS.

How difficult do you guys find it to learn another sign language after already knowing ALS?
 
A lot depends where you want to travel I guess, but Well if you want to travel in US and Canada go for ASL, in Europe you may be able to connect with some Deaf people using international sign language, But its best to learn your local language generally :)
 
Thanks for your answer!

I'm totally restless, so I never really know where I want to go ;-) But that is also because Im not really rooted anywhere at the moment as without knowing sign language 98% of my social contacts happen over the internet. So once I got into a community somewhere I probably want to stay automatically.

Long term I could imagine Asia / Thailand very well. I liked it there. The downside is, that I do not think that there will be many people knowing sign language in the small cities which I like. Big cities like Bangkok with huge communites are full of smog. I always want to go back to the smaller cities after a few weeks. I read Thai sign language is heavily influenced by ALS.

I am from Europe but do not plan to go back. Maybe US / California in the future as I work in tech. So ALS would come in handy there anyway.
 
Hi- I think learning any signed language is helpful, even if you end up moving to a place it isn't used. You will get a feel for visual communication- it is true each country has its own sign language, and they can be completely unrelated, but there is a lot of interesting stuff out there about how signers from different countries, with no common language, seem to find a way to establish communication. So, for example, say you started to learn ASL, and later moved to Tokyo- obviously their sign language is different, but you would be approaching it from a visual language perspective (more aware of body language, visual cues, use of space, patterns of movement). This is a great basis for how international events, like the Deaflympics, seem to be successful. My advice is to dive in with whatever resources you have at the moment, and then later on adjust to a new place. Hope that helps some :)
 
Once I used sign language to communicate with another hearing individual that did not speak English. It actually worked!!
 
I noticed that Australia's sign language is very close to asl. I was surprised how close they are.
 
Thanks for all the tips! I will go on learning ASL for now and see what happens. Im just not in the US right now so practicing is a bit difficult. Next time I find a local place with signers somewhere I will see to learn whatever I can pick up there! Im currently in small cities though without a signing community.
 
Back
Top