My Journey with BSL

One of my most exciting projects in the last year or so has been starting to learn BSL (British Sign Language).

After realising that one of my favourite books has a signing character. It has made me think about when I started to be interested in the language and the culture. I was really surprised to find that I had been learning and reading about it for a long time.

The first time I remember actively learning about BSL was at University. I performed in a Student film as a deaf character. I had to learn a few signs for the role and found it really fun. In fact the whole crew and cast went to a mini BSL session together to get a feel for it.

From there I learnt the alphabet but very little else until I moved to London. One friend knew a lot of makaton from working with children, and many others were volunteers with St John Ambulance. Everyone knew a little bit of sign and used it in loud places or across a room, usually "where is so-and-so?", "Toilet". Both very useful phrases to learn early.

Next stage was going along to a free taster session where we learnt the alphabet, numbers, and a few bits of vocabulary for two hours. It was held with St John, which meant I learnt some interesting medical vocab like 1st aid, ambulance, doctor, hay fever and hurt.

From then I started to use signing more and tried to learn a few more bits and pieces from Youtube videos. During a project for a friend's birthday I recorded a sign video. I had to meet up with a friend who knew sign language, who helped me construct a story and taught me the signs. I loved this experience. It was so clear that I loved signing that my sister bought me a basic level BSL course for my birthday!

Suddenly I was in it. Classes were fun and challenging and we raced through the basics in 10 weeks. During the course, I started going to deaf meet ups in pubs and coffee shops, I went to a BSL play, and even a BSL Carol Service for Christmas. I loved meeting people and feeling like I could understand at least some of the conversations and learning new words all the time was fantastic.

I then went on to study BSL Level 1. At the time of writing I am about to do my final exam so we will see how that goes and hopefully I will walk away with the qualification to put on my CV and to go on to Level 2.

I still don't know how BSL will come into my life beyond making some new friends. The dream is to make it part of my career, but I'd have to have a very high level of BSL. Unfortunately, the time and money that I'd need to get to that level is too overwhelming at the moment. Let me know if you have found any deaf characters in books, or books about sign language?