Any recommendations to learn some signs?

by Jen
(Kentucky, USA)

I run a country store and one of my daily customers is mute/deaf and I really want to learn some signs to communicated with him. He gets the same thing everyday, I count his money out for him so I take it he cannot read, write, or count. I am from eastern Kentucky and chances are, since he is 40-50 years old, he was completely ignored by the school system during his youth and probably didn't even attend. They used to not accept deaf/mutes, even in the public systems. However, he can sign. Could you recommend a book, video, etc. that I could buy to learn some signs?

Answer:

Hello Jen,

Thank you for contacting me! I think it's fantastic that you want to be able to talk this man. I think it's very sad that he seems to have been ignored in his youth. It may be a really great thing for him to have someone to talk to everyday--even a little bit. :)

There are several things I can recommend to you. :)

One, you can take my free online ASL class. You can do that from this page:
http://www.start-american-sign-language.com/learn-sign-language-asl.html

Two, you can buy an ASL textbook. I highly recommend this one:
American Sign Language the Easy Way

Three, you can buy an ASL phrase book. This is the best one I know of:
The American Sign Language Phrase Book

Four, you can buy an ASL dictionary. This is my favorite:
American Sign Language Dictionary

You can also do all four of those things if you really want to learn ASL instead of just the basics. :)

Let me know if you have any more questions!

God bless,

Michelle Jay