ASL | First 500+ Basic Signs | American Sign Language

IN THIS COURSE, you're going to learn, practice, review, and master over five hundred (500+) basic and fundamental signs in ASL. The 500+ signs are divided into the following fourteen (14) useful categories:

1. Starter Signs (32)

2. Family Signs (40)

3. Emotion Signs (40)

4. Color Signs (30)

5. Home Signs (40)

6. Personality Signs (40)

7. Question Signs (20)

8. Verb Signs (50)

9. Common Things (40)

10. Place Signs (50)

11. Time Signs (52)

12. Occupation Signs (50)

13. Number Signs (#s 0-100)

14. Food Signs (50)

WITHIN each category, you’ll learn the signs in groups of ten. Each vocabulary sign is taught individually in its own video lesson. We’ll thoroughly explore handshape, hand position, and hand motion for each sign.

AFTER you’ve learned ten signs, we’ll do a two-part review: 1) Signing 2) Understanding. We’ll repeat this cycle of learning ten signs + two part review until all of the signs in the category have been learned.

ONCE you’ve learned all of the signs in a category, we’ll have a nice, big, juicy test covering everything. Just like the review lessons, you’ll be tested in two parts: 1) Signing 2) Understanding. It’s a great opportunity to show off your new skills.

AFTER the big, juicy test, you’ll have fun signing dialogues using what you’ve already learned in the course. You’ll learn to combine signs to form complete questions, statements, and mini-dialogues.

*** This course is designed to INCLUDE beginners without any prior knowledge of ASL.

IN THIS COURSE:

• Students will learn how to sign and understand over five hundred (500+) signs in ASL.

• Students will learn handshape, hand position, and hand motion for each individual sign.

• Students will be tested on their signing and understanding ability for all 500+ signs in the course.

• Students will guarantee improvement with lots of practice, review, and comprehensive tests.

• Students will learn to sign question and answer dialogues using vocabulary from the course.

• Students will learn basic sentence structures which can be used over and over in unique contexts.

AFTER TAKING THIS COURSE:

• Students will be able to correctly sign over five hundred (500+) essential ASL signs.

• Students will be able to understand and recognize over five hundred (500+) signs.

• Students will know how to correctly sign and understand YES/NO and WH questions in ASL.

• Students will be able to use vocabulary and sentence structures to create their own ASL sentences.

• Students will be more confident signing and understanding with other signers and the Deaf community.

QUESTIONS:

What is the main focus of this course?

• This course focuses on learning many basic but essential signs in American Sign Language. After taking this course, students will be able to sign and understand over five hundred vocabulary signs, sign WH and YES/NO questions, create ASL statements and questions, and sign mini dialogues.

Do I need to have prior knowledge or experience with ASL before taking this class?

• No. This course is designed to include complete beginners without any prior knowledge of ASL. All necessary signs are taught step by step in the course.

Will this course test me on what is taught?

• Yes. This course contains multiple review and testing sections where students have the opportunity to demonstrate their ASL signing and recognition skills.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

• Hello! My name is Michael. When I was three years old, my younger brother became sick with spinal meningitis. In the process, my brother became deaf with an almost complete hearing loss. This difficult situation provided a unique opportunity for my family and I to become fluent in American Sign Language (ASL). My brother was not sent away to a deaf or hard of hearing school. He grew up with us, his hearing family, and we were active in the deaf community.

• As a police officer and federal investigator, I often used ASL to communicate with and serve the Deaf community. I decided to create ASL courses because it’s a useful and practical skill to have. Like learning any language, it opens your mind and creates the ability to communicate with a whole new group of people.

Sign. Smile. Be Delighted.