Learning sign language takes time. You cannot learn it in five minutes or overnight. To pick up enough signs for basic communication and to sign them comfortably, without excessive stiffness, can take one or two years. Some people pick up signs slower than others, and if that is the case, don't let it discourage you. Everyone learns sign language at their own speed. Be patient and you will succeed in learning the language. The rewards will be well worth the effort!

Learning any language is hard. If it wasn't we would all know a lot more.

You can learn enough signs to make you dangerous in about two weeks, five nights a week, two hours a night. On the other hand, knowing how to communicate using those signs is a totally different matter. The Deaf community uses its own grammar and syntax, completely different from that of English. I began learning signs at the age of three, but it was not until I was in my late teens that it finally clicked. Deaf people think in pictures, not in words. Their grammar, at least in American Sign Language (ASL), is based on mental pictures rather than the verbal words and sentences hearing people use. Let me give an example. In English, we would say, "I ran my bike into a tree." This sentence starts with the subject, "I," proceeds to a verb, "ran," etc., until the action ends at the tree. On the other hand, the deaf person approaches the same sentence from a visual perspective, and first sets the stage in which the action will take place. He or she might sign, "TREE," establishing the permanent part of the visual setting. Next he or she would place himself or herself into the setting by signing "ME." Next, he or she would show what the action was, "BIKE-ON" (riding a bike). Last would come the action itself, "CRASH!" This difference in grammar usually takes a while to get over, but once you are able to "see" your sentences, everything finally makes sense.

Depends what kind of sign language you want. If you do British sign language (BSL)it will take the same length of time as any other language as it has a different word order to spoken english. If you use Makaton sign language it is used as a supplement to spoken english and is much easier to pick up as you go along. Makaton signs tend to be simpler than BSL also but often similar.

I had a deaf friend when I was a child who taught me to sign the alphabet in a day. However, to learn to sign properly is the same as learning any language - the more you put in and the more you practice, the quicker it will be to learn. As an aside, it was over 20 years ago when my friend taught me the alphabet and although I have never used it or practiced it I can still remember how to do it to this day. This makes me think that learning to sign uses a different part of the brain than learning an oral language.

Depends on you and the effort you put into it.

I learned it when I was in junior high but I completely forgot everything- except for the alpabet- I think I remember most of that.

no it isnt ulike all the other languages you can look at pictures of it or watch videos of it. me and my son have been learning sign language its fun.

I think sign language is easy to learn. It depends on what type of sign language you want to learn. You can learn just the alphabet which is the simplest. You can learn motions that mean words, for example, baby in that type of sign language would be placing your arms on top of the other against your stomach and rocking them back and forth. This type may take longer and is harder in my opinion.

The difficulty of learning sign language is completely dependent on the person who is trying to learn it. Each person is different, so they are not all going to find it at the same level of ease or difficulty. However, sign language is fairly easy because it takes the language and uses many of the normal hand signs we use in conversation anyway. If you ask any person a sign for baby, child, or know, they most likely use these things every single day and just don't know it. If you are good at English, then there are many ways to realize why what you are signing makes sense in many cases. As for the grammar being different, it's not really different. A deaf person does not sign "tree I ride bike run into," as the first answer so says. Now, they may sign: There was a tree. I was riding my bike. I ran into the tree. However, they are just going to leave out the information that they ran into the tree. Really, the grammar differences are that deaf people do not sign verbs like "be, are, is, etc." They don't tend to sign things like "a, an, the." So, really, it is quite simple because you don't have to worry about grammar being correct. Many universities offer sign courses. Sometimes you'll find them at libraries or counceling agencies. There is a great video set called "Say It With Sign" to help you learn sign language. It is a lot more interesting if you watch this with a deaf person and/or other friends so you can practice while they sign.

I have been learning about ASL for a couple years now, and I have noticed that the language is always changing in some little way. It may not be that big of a difference to a deaf person but for someone who is learning it from a book there is no way you are going to keep up with the speed of the changes. Personally my mother in-law is deaf and that's how I picked it up. I knew my ABC's but to be able to talk to her I didn't want to have to spell everything out and I didn't want her to think I was rude for talking a little slower then normal to her, so I got a deaf dictionary and went to my local library to their classes(free) for ASL and started learning the basic signs needed to be able to communicate with her. And a few times she would ask me what was that suppose to mean and I would spell it out and she would tell me the newest way to sign it. But if you really want to learn how to sign I would say get the newest deaf dictionary at your local book store and check around your community for classes. I know a lot of library's are having free sign language classes and you go in even if don't know you ABC's or you can go in just wanting to stay up to date... I still go to a class from time to time and take my 2year old, who loves going.