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Book of TREE 4.78

I’m coming up to my final two exams for British Sign Language Level 6. Learning a new language is hard, time-consuming and expensive. Here are six reasons why I think learning your national sign language is worth doing anyway.

Stay connected

If you are fortunate enough to live until you are old, you will lose some or all of your hearing. For many people, this means isolation and loneliness. Assistive hearing technology is great but, with your hands and your face, you already have everything you need to keep communicating after your ears give out.

Be more creative

Language is more than the way we communicate, it’s the way we think. The more languages you know, the more ways you have of thinking about the world, the more creative you are able to be.

Fend off senility

A good way to keep your brain working properly is to keep your brain working. Learning a language works your brain hard. I go home from my BSL classes both mentally invigorated and exhausted.

Encounter beauty

Sign languages are beautiful – the information density, the subtlety, the layers of meaning. I don’t know if it’s possible to not be exhilarated once you start to understand it.

Connect with a different culture

One of the best ways to get out of your bubble and shake up your sense of reality is to put yourself into a different culture. Deaf culture exists in most towns and every city. Learning the language is the way in.

Become a bridge

When you know more than one language, you can connect people who don’t. That’s an incredible privilege.

—Jeff

I wouldn’t consider myself bilingual, but I am fairly good with Spanish. Last week my “Mexican mama” came down from the kitchen and sat with me in my office. When she left my coworker said “I wish I could speak Spanish. You and Gaby were having such an enthusiastic conversation.”

Turns out I know more than I thought, and when you get lost in it and don’t overthink you definitely know more than you think.

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Grow slowly
Skyler