What They Don't Tell You in ASL Class (but you need to know)

Vlog | Destiny Yarbro | October 3, 2025 | 12 min watch

This morning I was just driving along when I thought of something that teachers don't teach in ASL students in ASL class. And I thought, "hmmm, that's strange, I wonder if there are others?" And more and more came to mind. And I thought, "Sweet! Why not make that my next video!

So to start today's video:

1. ASL grammar is flexible

In my experience, I rarely meet someone who signs "pure" ASL (meaning, the ASL you find in your textbook). It happens now and then but most of the time, it's on the spectrum between signed English and ASL. It just depends on who you're chatting with because every Deaf person's background is different, their linguistic experience growing up differs. I've mentioned this many times before but maybe that person grew up in a hearing family or maybe their family is Deaf, yes, but they went to oral schools or signed English is their preferred language mode.

Like, Nyle DiMarco, if you know who that is, he tends to sign English, and follow English word order. And honestly, my signing changes to match who I'm signing with. Right now, I'm signing with you, an ASL student, so my sign is more "Englishy" but if I'm in a Deaf group, English is thrown out. And really, it's not like classroom ASL is "pure" ASL either. Everyday, conversational ASL is completely different. So worry less about your grammar, and focus your energy on having conversations with Deaf. That's the best use of your time.

A quick interruption: I've noticed a lot of y'all think, "what if I've never met a Deaf person?" or "I haven't had a conversation with a Deaf person before. Where do I even start?" I recommend going to InterSign University to have your first Deaf conversation. You can pick the topic, but you get to sit down / video chat and converse with Deaf. So that's what I recommend. Ok, let's move on.

2. The term "Deaf community" is a misnomer

In the country of Finland, they don't have a "Deaf community" they have a "signing community." Why do you think that is? They recognize that native, heritage signers (meaning they were born into a Deaf signing family) most of them are hearing. Of all Deaf parents' children, 90% are hearing. 9-0. So Finland calls it a "signing community" which includes interpreters, siblings of Deaf, parents of Deaf children, and those who have Functional Deafness (psychogenic deafness) or Cerebral Palsy or Down Syndrome. They recognize that Deaf aren't the only ones that sign as their preferred language there are others too!

Funnily enough, now that I think about it, "AMERICAN Sign Language" itself is a bit of a misnomer too. Here in the United States, there are many sign languages not just ASL but Black ASL, Native American sign languages (like Plains Indian S.L.), there's also Protactile [in the DeafBlind community]. So it's not just ASL used here. Also, "America" means not just the USA, but North America as in Canada and Mexico too. For example, in Canada they have Quebec Sign Language and various accents and dialects. Mexico has several sign languages, LSM being one of them. Then you have Central America and South America. All of America has a wide variety of sign languages.

3. Fingerspelling is English

Most ASL teachers don't really talk about this, but fingerspelling is English with your hands. Fingerspelling stems from the written form of English. Sign languages in their purest forms are visual and gestural, not written right. So fingerspelling is deeply rooted in written English. Yes, understand that ASL and English aren't separate, they're not two different worlds that never intersect, where hearing and deaf never meet. ASL and English are inmeshed everyday, they influence each other, which means that most sign languages have fingerspelling now and that's probably not going to change from here on out. But I think it's important to realize that fingerspelling is taken from written English and incorporated into sign.

And honestly you don't need fingerspelling. Now, I know you're thinking "But what about names or technical terms?" What I mean is if you visit a Deaf village when you enter you'll see that there is no fingerspelling used. Why? Because it's not needed. Because most hearing there sign as well as Deaf so they mutually understand each other.

4. One English word doesn't equal one sign

I can't tell you how many times I've posted a video where I teach signs and the comments come in saying, "That's wrong!" "You signed that wrong!" But you've got to understand, one word does not equal just one sign. Plus there are so many dialects out there! So for example, what's your sign for "strawberry"? There are SO many signs for strawberry here in the U.S.! [Various ways to sign strawberry in ASL]. There's just a ton! I've studied this actually, I'm a total nerd analyzing how many. :)

But it depends, it depends on your dialect, it depends on where you live, it depends on your Deaf school. These all influence how different your sign is. This concept applies to any language. If you know another spoken or written language, you already know this. 1 word in one language does not equal one word in another *language. It just doesn't. You can't seamlessly match them up.

This concept is confusing for ASL students but also for many Deaf too, I've noticed. And so they sign, "That's wrong!" "That's wrong!" So I've been trying to teach and help others understand this with videos like this one: [4 ways to sign birthday in ASL].

English is quite standardized (for the most part) but not ASL, it's not very standardized yet. Why? Because English for maybe 1,000 years now has been documented and recorded, it's been written down. So a standard English has been established. It's a recent thing for ASL to be documented, really since video was invented so the last 100 years, 120 years tops it's been able to be recorded in an effort to preserve it. Which means it's more and more standardized but... And that is frustrating for many ASL students, I feel bad for you! But it might help to know it's frustrating for many Deaf too. They think "there should be just one sign for that" "One, we only need one." "There's too many different ones."

For me? My opinion? I think it's beautiful! To see the diversity and variety, to not just have one sign, everyone signs shrimp in different ways for example. There's no one way, and that's beautiful to me :) And honestly, textbook ASL is boring, it's not beautiful, it's sterile, bland, empty. It's dull. Seeing the variety is beautiful.

4. Not all Deaf signers are fluent

The 5th thing you don't learn in ASL class is that not all Deaf signers are fluent. Same with CODAs. Not all CODAs are equally fluent. You've probably seen on TikTok [struggles to fingerspell, uses "T-T" instead :) ]. You'll see many "teachers" online who picked up ASL later in life, who might know some signs, or might know home signs. And I gotta give them credit because it's not easy to create content, it's super challenging, which I can understand but I think it's important to recognize that not all Deaf people are fluent.

But let me be clear, while yes not all Deaf are fluent, regardless, it's their preferred or primary language and they deserve respect and not censure, in my opinion.

Outro

There you have it! 5 things that they don't tell you in ASL class (but you should know). Now it's your turn! What other things did you never learn in ASL class that now you realize would have helped? Drop a comment and let me know! If you're wanting to learn more in depth about these 5 points I've made a free mini class at the link below. 

And if you're feeling motivated and ready for your first Deaf conversation, I dropped the link for InterSign University below so you can sit down and have your first ever Deaf chat, yay! Thank you for watching! Bye!

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