Languages · Full roadmap · ~90 min read · 26 steps
🤟American Sign Language from scratch
Fingerspell, sign greetings, and read the grammar in the face
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Unit 1
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Course overview
ASL is a language, not English on the hands
ASL has its own grammar and is the language of Deaf communities
Deaf culture and why the capital D matters
Deaf is a culture and community, not only a hearing level
Deaf etiquette you can use today
A few customs make interactions respectful and clear
The five parameters of every sign
Every sign is built from handshape, location, movement, palm orientation, and non-manual markers
Unit 2
How to read the sign descriptions in this course
Each sign is given as handshape plus location plus movement, then looked up on video
The manual alphabet, part one (A through I)
Fingerspelling uses one handshape per letter, held still in neutral space
The manual alphabet, part two (J through R)
A few letters move, and the rest are still shapes
The manual alphabet, part three (S through Z)
Finish the alphabet, then drill it as whole shapes not letters
When fingerspelling is actually used
Fingerspell names and words with no sign, not every word
Unit 3
Numbers one to ten
Number handshapes have palm rules that differ from counting on your fingers
Numbers eleven to twenty
The teens have their own flicks and movements, learned in pairs
Your first greetings
A handful of signs cover most openings and closings
Introducing yourself
A short self-introduction strings together signs you now know
Pronouns and pointing, called indexing
You point at real or imagined locations to mean he, she, it, this, and that
Unit 4
The face is grammar, not mood
Non-manual markers like eyebrows carry meaning the hands do not
Yes-or-no questions versus WH questions
Eyebrows up for yes-no, eyebrows down for who, what, where, when, why
ASL word order: topic-comment
ASL often states the topic first, then comments on it
Time goes first: time-topic-comment
Put when it happened at the front of the sentence
Everyday vocabulary: family
Family signs cluster around the forehead and chin by a clean rule
Unit 5
Everyday vocabulary: food, feelings, and colors
Three useful clusters, each with a memory handle
Classifiers, the beginner version
A handshape can stand in for a whole object and show how it moves
Common beginner mistakes
A short checklist of the errors that mark a brand-new signer
A simple daily practice routine
Short, daily, face-on reps beat rare long sessions
How to keep learning and join the community
Real fluency comes from Deaf people, events, and video, not text
Unit 6
Where to go next
Where to go next