Is it easier to learn Sign Language than a spoken foriegn language? (2024)

FAQs

Is it easier to learn Sign Language than a spoken foriegn language? ›

The difference between signing and spoken languages lies in their modality. If you are a visual kind of thinker, sign languages may be easier to learn than spoken languages, in that spatial relations used in signing might be more easily understood than spoken grammar. There's no guarantee, though.

As with anything new, learning a language takes time, patience, and hard work. Some have the misconseption that learning ASL is easier than learning a spoken language. This is incorrect. Experts estimate that it takes 3-4 years to become fluent in a new language on average.

Individual signs are relatively easy to learn. Like any spoken language, ASL is a language with its own unique rules of grammar and syntax. To learn enough signs for basic communication and to sign them comfortably, can take a year or more.

ASL difficulty has been determined by standards of the Foreign Service Institute and Defense Language Institute as a Level IV out of four (Level IV being the most difficult). The American Sign Language Teachers Association (ASLTA) states the challenge to ASL is primarily in the modality of learning.

One of the big misconceptions about sign language that hearing people generally has the impression that learning a signed language is easy. It is not. On the first day of the ASL 101 or 111 every semester, I tell my students that learning ASL is no easier than any other spoken language.

It can be challenging even to those skilled in one-on-one or communications. As far as how "hard" it is, that varies from person to person. In the end, it is like any other language. Take it one step at a time, don't be discouraged, and you'll likely pick it up faster than you imagine.

Sign language is not a difficult language to learn, as many signs are often commonplace gestures. Also, there are now way more tools and sources to learn from than ever before. There are many courses out there and new ones keep appearing rapidly.

This mistake is not made among people learning a spoken language. ASL is a complete and complex language, with all the nuances and subtleties of a spoken language. Like all languages, it is not mastered easily beyond a basic level. Mastery requires extensive exposure and practice.

1. Mandarin Chinese. Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. Mandarin Chinese is challenging for a number of reasons.

What are the 7 easiest languages to learn? ›

Languages that are related to English and easy to learn include most Germanic languages (Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and German) and Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and Romanian). Apart from this, knowing a language related to the target language can make it easier to learn!

ASL is most closely related to French Sign Language (LSF). It has been proposed that ASL is a creole language of LSF, although ASL shows features atypical of creole languages, such as agglutinative morphology.

The grammars of sign languages do not usually resemble those of spoken languages used in the same geographical area; in fact, in terms of syntax, ASL shares more with spoken Japanese than it does with English.

It takes an average of 8 or more years to become fluent in American Sign Language (ASL).

Signing is a way to help communicate and understand your child before they are able to speak. This is an advantage over spoken language because it is acquired earlier in the developmental process.

Sign languages are different in some ways from spoken languages because of the constraints and possiblities afforded by the visual-gestural modality, yet they remain fundamentally similar to spoken languages in many ways.