Hey signers! Are you serious about learning ASL but see all of these videos and have no
idea where to start? Well, you are in the right place. This is the first of three
videos to get you started on your ASL journey and if you're looking for more than just videos
we have our free 10-day ASL jump start. It is packed full with tons of tips and tricks.
Go check it out, link in the description and don't forget to subscribe to our channel so
you don't miss out on any future videos. Now let's learn how to sign your first 99 signs.
In this section you'll notice that I am teaching the signs for morning, afternoon, and night.
What I want you to notice is we have this non-dominant arm as our horizon.
Think of the sun moving along with the horizon. As you can see ASL is a
visual language and that uses things that make sense in a lot of everyday signs.
'Good or well,' your dominant hand is coming from your chin down to your non-dominant
'good or well.' 'Morning,' because the sun is coming up in the morning, 'morning.'
'Afternoon, afternoon,'
think of where the sun is in the afternoon, afternoon.'
'Night, night,' think of where the sun is at night 'night.' 'Hello,
hello,' you've got your hand right up here at your forehead and it's coming out 'hello.' 'Goodbye,
goodbye,' it's just like you're waving goodbye 'goodbye.' 'Take care,
take care,' you have two 'K' hands with the dominant hand bouncing on top of the
non-dominant one 'take care.' 'See or we'll see.'
you have your two fingers representing your eyes coming out just a little bit for see or a doubting face going we'll see, 'see.'
'Later, later,'
it's the letter 'L' hand flicking forward into the future 'later.'
'Nice, nice,'
your dominant hand is going from the palm to the fingertips of your non-dominant hand
'nice.' 'Meet, meet,' these are two people meeting each other 'meet,' 'You, you',
you're using your index finger and pointing to you 'you.'
Now let's put these greeting and farewell signs into sentences. Good morning. 'Good morning.'
Nice to meet you, see you later. 'Nice meet you, see later.'
In this section we're focusing on how are you. Notice whenever I said the word how my eyebrows
went down. This is an important rule with doing wh-words. Wh-words are who, what, when, where,
why, which, and how. And the way you sign that is by putting the wh-word at the end of the sentence
and your eyebrows going down, while leaning forward, then you can respond with I'm fine.
'How or how,' you're doing the sign how but make sure that your eyebrows are down because it's a
wh-question 'how, how.' 'I or me,' you're just pointing with your index finger towards yourself 'I or me.'
'Fine, fine,' your '5' hand is coming right up to your chest 'fine.' 'Busy, busy,' now if you're really busy you go [bh-bh-bh]
to show you're really busy 'busy.' [bh-bh-bh]
'So-so, so-so,'
your hand is flipping back and forth 'so-so.'
'Sad, sad,' your hands are bringing your sadness down 'sad.' 'Happy, happy,'
your hands are 'flat' and they're on your chest moving up 'happy.' 'Same here, same here,' you're
using your 'Y' hand for your thumb pointing to you and your pinky pointing to somebody else
'same here.' Now let's put these 'how are you' signs into sentences. How are you? 'How you?'
I'm fine. 'Me fine me.'
I'm happy. What about you? 'Me happy. You?'
This section is all about asking for help and if I'm gonna be honest this
is probably the most important section. You are learning so many new signs but
what about all the other signs that you don't know yet. Be sure to ask for help
by asking for clarification or slowing down. It is totally normal to ask for this when
learning a new language. Knowing these signs will help clarify things in the
conversation that you're not understanding so that way you can grow your ASL skills even more.
'Sign, sign,' your hands are moving in towards yourself referencing like you're signing 'sign.'
'Slow, slow,' your dominant hand is moving slowly up your non-dominant arm and if you want
to show somebody that you want them to sign really slowly, you slow it way down 'slow.' 'Learn, learn,'
you're picking up something and putting it in your head 'learn.' A-S-L or American Sign Language,' ASL. 'Yes, yes,'
your hand is representing your head nodding 'yes.' 'No,
no,' it's like the letter 'N and O,' put together 'no.' 'Understand, understand,'
it's like the light bulb is coming on 'understand.'
'Don't understand, don't understand,' you do the sign understand but shaking your head back and forth
'don't understand.' 'Please, please,' it's a 'flat' hand making a circle on your chest 'please.' 'Thank you,
thank you,' your dominant hand is coming out from your chin 'thank you.' 'What,
what,' your '5' hands are kind of bent in together moving in and out 'what.' 'Name, name,'
you've got your two fingers close together and bounce on top of each other 'name.'
'Again or repeat,' your dominant hand is coming into the middle of your hand
'again or repeat.' 'All right let's put these signs into sentences.
I don't understand. Could you sign that again please? 'Me don't understand, sign again please.'
What is your name? 'You name what you?'
My name is Meredith, what's yours?' 'Me name
Meredith, you?'
Way to go signers! You just learned 33 new signs and phrases to use
right away. Don't forget about our free newsletter that is a perfect
addition to your ASL journey and until next time keep learning how to sign 🤟