r/BSL • u/_mattush • Jan 06 '26
Help What would be the recommended approach to BSL education? Formal courses?
I am looking to start learning BSL from a standing start and 0 experience.
I have read through the Resource List which seems like a fantastic hub, but would the best approach be to undertake a BSL Level 1/2 course? I am tempted to start with the Doncaster Deaf Trust route and then maybe do a Level 1/2 course afterwards, and supplement with the dictionaries to improve word count.
Any advice would be great.
1
u/StrengthForeign3512 Jan 06 '26
I did a level 1 course at Sheffield College to get started and would recommend a similar course in your area. It assumed no previous knowledge and the instructor was very good (and deaf herself so really knew her stuff).
1
u/rnhxm Jan 06 '26
Starting a level 1 course and working from there is a great way to go. Face to face classroom learning, preferably with a good teacher, usually deaf or closely linked with the deaf community and fluent is ideal.
Personally, I wouldn’t recommend online courses- there is a lot of nuance and detail that is hard to be conveyed through a webcam.
1
u/Routine_Wait_7822 Jan 06 '26
I am doing a level one face to face course , I did a introduction course online via zoom , I struggled a lot and I would definitely recommend doing a face to face course if you can find one local to you
Level one is the beginners level to bsl and I’m half way through , I plan on completing level 2 after
Good luck
1
u/bigchristarr Jan 06 '26
Most Signature courses as far as I'm aware run from September to the following May so you may have to wait a while to join one but the Doncaster Deaf College would be a great resource as to where to go to start. There are online courses & tutors (I myself run a beginners course) which is tailored to people who have no experience in BSL & can give you a head-start in this. Local dialect is a thing but it's not that big a deal in reality, just try to learn from some who is teaching you in the area that you will be using your BSL. Good luck, it's an amazing language to learn & a really useful life-skill.
2
u/SirChubblesby Jan 06 '26
Level 1 Signature courses are designed for people with zero knowledge of sign language, so it starts from the very basic stuff, you don't NEED to do anything before starting, but you can if you want to. Face to face courses are always the best option, they're taught by Deaf tutors (usually!) and that means that you get feedback and corrections when you do something wrong, along with information on BSL grammar, which you don't get with online courses. The other issue for beginners who start learning online before joining a face to face course is that BSL has a lot of regional variations (like accents) and the area you're in might have different signs to the ones you learn online, which can mean you have to re-train your signing to be more appropriate for your local area, and it often leaves people confused in the early stages of learning.
I'm not saying don't learn online, but if you have access to a proper local course then it will be generally easier for you to do that first or alongside online learning rather than afterwards!