r/BSL

From what I can gather, signing with one hand is more common in ASL, especially since the alphabet is one-handed too, but the BSL alphabet and many signs use two hands, which got me thinking about situations when you only have one hand available for signing.

Would you adapt the signs for the letters? Do you borrow the ASL alphabet for fingerspelling? Is it a regional/individual thing?

Im trying not to cry here. Weve just had a customer and her daughter in for some food and her daughter was translating between BSL and spoken English, and I honestly feel awful. I started learning BSL a few months ago and just stopped. Im hoping this is going to convince me to stick with it this time.

Can anyone recommend a good starting point please? Ideally towards useful phrases that would help me to communicate basic phrases when taking food and drink orders - this lady was pointing at everything on the menu and I felt absolutely useless to help and I hate it.

I'm autistic and can experience selective mutism and have been trying to learn some basic sign for a while but it's hard to find helpful information. There's a few phrases I'd find helpful for me and those close to me to know if anyone can help.

'i don't know what to do'

'Where are the toilets'

Whatever the best phase would be to indicate I am currently not speaking respectfully

Hope this post is allowed, I am new to the bsl community so if this isn't the place to ask this or I've said anything improper please let me know

Edit: thanks to everyone who gave advice

I've recently started working with kids with special education needs and one of them once pulled me towards a basketball hoop and pointed at it with one hand, while tapping on his chin with two fingers with the other hand. I've been wondering what that could've meant, i would like to learn!

I have recorded a video in BSL (British Sign Language) explaining Farage vs Binface for any Deaf residents of Clacton to know to vote for tomorrow!

So first of all I am hearing, (although I do have this thing where I cannot make out whatever people say to me and always ask them to repeat themselves) and I am not British, I am Ukrainian and I moved to Wales when I became a war refugee, rn I'm doing A levels here :)

So I got my first kind of proper job as a barista, which also involves me taking orders. And usually our clientele does have hard of hearing people but they usually don't use BSL as their mode of communication, but today I did have a couple come in that used it.

I can learn the alphabet and stuff like hello goodbye no problem, I've done so with Ukrainian SL before but I just didn't come across people I could practice that with, but I also want to know just like what are some common polite hospitality phrases I could learn? Something like "card or cash" "we'll bring it over to you" "sit in or take away" "what would you like to order" "yes everything's good the payment went through" "sorry your card declined could you try again" "sorry I don't have the right change" "I'll clean that table for you in a second" "I'm very sorry I'll issue a refund for you"

And also maybe this is a stupid question but are there separate signs for mochas/cappuccinos/lattes/flat whites/cortados or should I finger spell them? Also are there signs for sauces like ketchup mayo mustard?

I imagine that this is a common issue but I’m looking for advice and encouragement on my receptive skills. I regularly watch exam videos on YouTube and these vary between understanding most of it, to not really understanding much of it. I’ll get better at those, I feel. understanding my teacher, no problem. but the issues I have are watching creators on social media who use Bsl - subtle variations in handshape or speed or really small movements to signify time, say, or eliding signs together it REALLY hard to understand. when I then look at the captions i can see then what they are signing but first pass, nope. it’s making me feel quite discouraged at being able to develop an understanding of every day Bsl.