Why Should You Consider Learning British Sign Language in 2024?

What is Sign Language?

You probably know what sign language is, but here I am adding this section just to inform you more and make it understandable. You don’t like theory, right? 

But don’t get confused, here I try to simplify the theoretical definition of sign language. Let’s have a look. 

Basically, Sign Language is a visual or non-verbal way of communication by using gestures, facial expression, and body language. This Language is employed mainly by people who are Deaf or have hearing impairments. 

Sign language is expressed by manual articulations in sequence with non-manual details. It is a universal language with its own grammar and lexis. There are different types of sign languages, and the thing is sign languages don’t seem to be universal, and these are often not mutually understandable with one another, although there are remarkable connections between sign languages.

Another thing is, the language scholars are considering both spoken and signed communication to be the models of natural language, meaning that both developed by a theoretical, protracted ageing method and emerged over time without precise planning. Sign language should not be mixed with body language, it’s a type of non-verbal communication.

I guess you got some idea about sign language, now come to the point about British Sign language.

Understanding British Sign Language (BSL)

Let’s talk about our target language, within the U.K., the most popular form of Sign Language is called British Sign Language (BSL). In 2003, this sign language was recognised as an official minority language after a  big campaign in the U.K. It has led to enhanced funding for the needs of the communication of other people who are deaf, and this raised awareness of the Language which now has the same status as that of other minority national languages.

This is an independent language, and it has its own grammatical structure and lexis. As a language, it is not dependent even it is not related to spoken English, means it is totally a different one. 

It requires the use of hand movements, gestures, body language and facial expressions to communicate with others. It’s predominantly utilized by people who are either deaf or have a disablement. Consistent with the statistics, over 120,000 deaf adults and about 20,000 children within the U.K. use BSL to speak with other people. The sign language, however, is additionally used by their families and relatives also as language interpreters. They allow the deaf to communicate with the hearing people that aren’t accustomed to BSL.

Reasons why you should learn BSL

Learning BSL is not only for the deaf people, as I mentioned earlier, learning a Language is always rewarding, and most importantly, Language is multi-dimensional. You can use it for many purposes; here, I give you some key points that would help you to understand the potent of the target language;

1. Meeting new friends and people is always amazing; by using this Language, you can easily interact with people.

2. Understanding a different language is fabulous! Just like being bilingual in any two languages, becoming fluent in BSL also counts as being bilingual.

3. Have a secret conversation with your mate, isn’t it exciting? 

4. Stand out for the deaf people and make them feel that you can understand them. 

5. Enhance your cognitive functioning.

6. Enrol to the next level of your career. 

According to Languageline, there are almost 11 million people in the UK with some form of hearing loss; Action on Hearing Loss estimates that the figure will be over 15 million by 2035 – that’s one person in five.