Start ASL FAQ

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For our e-goods, we accept all major credit cards and PayPal payments.

For our online class subscriptions, we use Paypal.

You can purchase electronic versions of the books (and find a link to purchase paperback versions) from this page: http://books.start-american-sign-language.com.

Bookstores and other resellers: For orders requiring credit or invoicing, please order from Ingram or Baker & Taylor in the U.S. (If you have trouble with that and are fulfilling a special order, please note that Amazon.com carries all our books and accepts purchase orders through credit-approved corporate accounts.)

Schools and libraries: For handling of a purchase order, please order from Ingram or Baker & Taylor in the U.S. (If you have trouble with that, please note that Amazon.com carries all our books and accepts purchase orders through credit-approved corporate accounts.)

E-books - The books purchased from this site come with a one year guarantee. You can use this resource for a whole year and if you find it isn't for you, you can get a full refund of the purchase price! Only an honest educator would have a 12 month, 365 day risk-free money back guarantee--most bookstores only give you 30 days!

Offline Courses - If you are not satisfied with your purchase, you can request a refund within 30 days of your purchase.

Support ASL Products - These products are shipped from and sold by Zazzle. They are subject to Zazzle's return policy.

Paperback Books - These books are shipped from and sold by Amazon.com. They are subject to Amazon's return policy.

Logging In

If you're having trouble logging in, follow these steps:

• First be sure that you created an account. Signing up for the free newsletter is not the same as registering at Start ASL.
  • Try to register using your email address here: http://register.startasl.com.
  • If it lets you register, then you weren't previously registered and you should now be able to login.
  • If it doesn't let you register and you get an error message that says, "This e-mail is already registered", then you do have an account, but you may be using the wrong username or password to login.
  • If you forgot your username or password, visit http://login.startasl.com and click on "Forgot your Username?" or "Forgot your Password?" to reset your username or password.

You would receive the username/password email if you forgot your username or password and clicked on "Forgot your Username?" or "Forgot your Password?" on the login page.

If you clicked on "Forgot your Username?" or "Forgot your Password?" and didn't receive the email, please Contact Us from the email you used to register and we can help.

If you are getting this error message: "Illegal variable _files or _env or _get or _post or _cookie or _server or _session or globals passed to script" you will need to clear your browser's cache. This seems to happen when login attempts cross each other. How you do this depends on what browser you're using. If you do not know how, try searching your browser's Help menu for "clear cache".

Free Courses

The free lessons can be found on this page: Free ASL Classes.

If you are having trouble viewing the videos, there are a few things you can do:

1. First, make sure you have Adobe Flash Player installed. Youtube has more detailed instructions on their Video Issues page.
2. Try reloading the page or frame. The dictionary and vocabulary sections use frames. To reload a frame, right click inside the frame, choose "This Frame" (if applicable) and click "Reload Frame".
3. Try clearing your browser's cache. How you do this depends on what browser you're using. If you do not know how, try searching your browser's Help menu for "clear cache".
4. Try using another browser. I suggest Firefox or Chrome.

If you're still having trouble, go ahead and contact us and we'll try to help.

We don't have links to all the vocab in ASL 1--just the most important words. If you find any words that don't have links in the main dictionary, let us know. Here's the info about this from the Intro page:

"Vocabulary - This section will give you a list of phrases and vocabulary words to study for the activities in the class. The lists include a link to videos for the words that are required to take the courses. If you wish to learn more than is required, you can look up the remainder of the vocabulary words in your printed ASL dictionary, or on one of the many ASL dictionary websites."

It depends on your school. Our classes are not accredited, but we do offer a "Completion Certificate" option for our paid online classes. If there is a community college near you that offers ASL classes, this is a really good way to get language credit for school.

If not, we would also recommend http://www.lifeprint.com. You need to pay for the formal class, but that class is accredited. There is also http://www.handspeak.com and http://www.signingonline.com, which are both paid online courses (that we think might qualify for credit at your school).

We have a few reasons for signing faster in the videos. One reason is because it doesn't really matter at that point. We don't expect you to be able to follow everything that we're saying. That's when we like you to focus on what you're looking for in what we're signing--whether it be a number or a fingerspelled word, etc. Because even when you're a very skilled signer, you won't be able to pick up everything someone is signing to you. Most of the time, you understand what they're saying based on context, handshapes, movements, etc. and not on each individual sign. We try to teach that a bit early because often, when signers finally figure that out, they are so used to understanding each individual sign that it is difficult to learn how to decipher the signs they don't know.

And, signing faster gives some students the ability to learn advanced signing early on if they want to. A lot of students watch the videos over and over and over until they understand it, and it gets easier and easier as they move on. We think that's a huge advantage compared to in-person classes because students really can learn at their own pace. But, of course, like I said, understanding everything in the videos is not absolutely necessary for learning ASL. The signing speed also helps people who have signed before to brush up on their signing a bit faster.

So, all in all, it's not absolutely necessary for you to understand everything in the videos, but being able to watch them over and over does give you the ability to do so if you want to. :) One visitor actually had some insight on this as well. You can read her article here: Learning Beyond the Sign

If you're interested in watching the videos in slower motion, you should look into signing up for the paid online classes. In the paid classes, you can watch the videos in Quicktime Player, which allows you to use the arrow keys on your keyboard to "scroll" through the videos frame-by-frame to watch the videos in slower motion. This can help immensely if you're trying to learn advanced signing early on or if you're really having difficulty catching all the signs in the free videos.

Here are the ASL dictionaries we recommend:

Printed:
• American Sign Language Dictionary
Online:
• Signing Savvy
• ASL Pro
• Lifeprint
• ASL Browser

Make sure you have the latest Adobe Reader program installed. You can get the latest version here: Download Adobe Reader

Start ASL Newsletter

To change your email address for the Start ASL Newsletter, all you need to do is open your last Start ASL Newsletter email, scroll down, and click on "Manage Subscription". That will take you to a page where you can change your email address.

We're sorry to see you go! All you need to do is open your last Start ASL Newsletter email, scroll down, and click on "Instant Removal". That will take you to a page where you will be unsubscribed.

ASL Questions

It is very difficult for some people to find ASL classes in their area. That's the main reason why we started this website--so people could learn ASL online for free. There are some online classes that you can pay for at Signing Online or Handspeak. If you would rather learn in person, you are better off trying to find classes at a community college near you.

Firstly, there are a lot of left-handed signers. There really is no difference except that your left hand is your dominant hand instead of your right hand. We touch on this a little bit in Unit 2. This is what it says:

You have a dominant and non-dominant hand. If you are right-handed, your right hand is your dominant hand. If you are left-handed, your left hand is your dominant hand. If you are ambidextrous, choose one hand to use as your dominant hand, and stick with it. It is important to know your dominant hand because it affects the way you will sign. There are three types of signs when it comes to what hand you will use:

• One-handed signs
  Uses only your dominant hand.
• Two-handed symmetrical signs
  Uses both your dominant and non-dominant hand where they both move the same way
• Two-handed non-symmetrical signs
  Uses both your dominant and non-dominant hand where the dominant hand moves while the non-dominant hand remains stationary.

We discuss name signs in the ASL 1 class. Here are the basics: Name signs are a part of Deaf culture and are used to identify and refer to people both present and not present. Usually a Deaf child receives a name when attending a residential school. If the child has Deaf parents, however, he/she receives a name sign at birth. There are two kinds of name signs--arbitrary and descriptive. Arbitrary name signs use the first letter of the person's name. Descriptive name signs are based on distinctive physical characteristics and are often given by peers and are usually later replaced by an arbitrary name sign. For use in in-person ASL classes, descriptive name signs are usually given to hearing sign language students. These are different from the descriptive name signs given to deaf children in that they combine the arbitrary and descriptive name signs. These name signs use the first letter of the student's name along with a distinctive physical characteristic. Do not use these signs to identify yourself outside of class, though--name signs can only be given to a hearing person when that person is involved in the Deaf community. Name signs should only be given by a Deaf person--hearing people should not create their own name signs. And even if you do receive an arbitrary name sign, you should always introduce yourself by signing your full name.

We actually found a great site that will be able to help you with many religious signs and songs. It's http://www.aslbible.com. You can actually find whole religious songs in sign language as well as use their religious sign language dictionary found here: Religious Signs. If you are unable to find the signs that you are looking for, we highly recommend this book: Religious Signing: A Comprehensive Guide For All Faiths by Elaine Costello.

This website focuses mostly on the lessons and not so much on the dictionary. There are a lot of free online dictionaries out there, but no useful free lessons. First, if you want to know the sign for something that isn't in our dictionary, we highly suggest these dictionary resources:

Printed:
• American Sign Language Dictionary
Online:
• Signing Savvy
• ASL Pro
• Lifeprint
• ASL Browser

Translating is a lot of work. If you send us a huge script, or even several paragraphs, it will take up a lot of our time to write out a translation for you... and even longer if you want a video. We really don't have the time to do that. If you are translating something, you are most likely doing it for a class, and we suggest you be the sign language translator yourself. It may be difficult, but you really won't learn anything unless you practice. And we wouldn't be very good teachers if we did your work for you. We can give you some tips about translating:

If you are translating a song, try to go for the meaning of the song, not just the words. Because when you are interpreting English into ASL, you have to interpret the actual meaning, not just the words. You can read more about interpreting songs on the Life Print website here: ASL and Music / Signed Songs. The reason I go for more of the meaning interpretation choice is because when I took an ASL Theatre/Poetry class, a widely known theatrical sign language translator was helping us interpret songs for our final project. He interpreted the meanings, and it was so much more accurate ASL because of that. And it was so much more beautiful! You can see examples of the translation of some popular songs on our Best Songs in Sign Language page, just so you can get an idea of what I mean.

We admire you noticing these differences! We're not actually sure what your resource has for these words, but our interpretations are accurate. Sometimes some signs are signed differently, like man and woman (one way is an open hand with your thumb touching your forehead or chin then your chest the second is having a thumbs-up handshape and touching your forehead or chin then touching your open hand to your chest).

You can also compare the signs to these dictionaries:

Printed:
• American Sign Language Dictionary
Online:
• Signing Savvy
• ASL Pro
• Lifeprint
• ASL Browser

The Deaf Community

We probably don't know anything about how to meet the deaf community in your area. However, we do know a couple websites that do. You can visit OhSoEZ.com to get information about deaf churches and deaf events in your area. If you would like to get to know the deaf community in your area, we suggest you attend a deaf event. However, many areas do not have very many deaf events. In that case, you can attend a deaf church in your area and get more information from them and get involved. Deaf churches are great. Try to find one with a good deaf following. A deaf church would be better than a church with only an interpreted service. You can also visit any Schools for the Deaf or community colleges that offer ASL classes in your area to find information about events and where to meet members of the deaf community. We go into more detail about this in Don't Just "Sign"... Communicate!: A Student's Guide to ASL and the Deaf Community. In that book, we share 20 ways to meet deaf people.

I was in a spot just like you are not that long ago. If you really enjoy learning sign language and being around deaf people, you can always become an ASL interpreter. Go through the lessons on this site, see how you like it, and consider finding an interpreter training program at a community college near you. After completing the program, you can move on to get your interpreter certification through RID. Interpreting is a great way to "help" (In Deaf Culture, Deaf people don't consider interpreters as help, but as communication facilitators) and feel like you are doing something great with your life. Interpreters also make nice wages. You can also go back to school and become a teacher of the deaf (teaching deaf children!) I think this is a very rewarding career, and if you are looking to do more with your life, help others, and use your knowledge, this might be something to look into. You can also go back to school to become an ASL teacher (teaching ASL to hearing students). Teaching is just a really rewarding career in general. It may be something you might enjoy.

I go into more detail about careers in Don't Just "Sign"... Communicate!: A Student's Guide to ASL and the Deaf Community. In that book, I discuss the different careers options, the jobs within those fields, what education is required, and their salaries. I recommend picking up that book if you're interested in a career in ASL.

Website Info

MLA Format:

"(Name of Article)." Start American Sign Language. (date you retrieved the information) [(exact URL of article)]
or
Jay, Michelle. "(Name of Article)." Start American Sign Language. (date you retrieved the information) [(exact URL of article)]

Examples:

"Deaf Culture." Start American Sign Language. 22 Nov. 2008 [http://www.start-american-sign-language.com/deaf-culture.html]
or
Jay, Michelle. "Deaf Culture." Start American Sign Language. 22 Nov. 2008 [http://www.start-american-sign-language.com/deaf-culture.html]

APA Format:

(Name of Article). ((date updated)). Start American Sign Language. Retrieved (date retrieved), from: (exact URL of information)

Example:

Deaf Culture. (2008). Start American Sign Language. Retrieved November 22, 2008, from: http://www.start-american-sign-language.com/deaf-culture.html

If you would like to advertise on our site, you can Contact Us. Keep in mind that any paid links will have the rel="nofollow" tag added to them.