How Long Does Sign Language Take To Learn?

Sign language lessons began with ambitious dreams of conversation but quickly revealed challenges as my hands ached forming each symbol incorrectly. Yet small improvements spurred persistence, and with consistent practice, I knew fluency would come. So how long does sign language take to learn, here are complete details.

Top 3 Tips to Learn Fast Sign Language

1. If you devote at least an hour a day to learning new signs, practicing, and interacting with fluent signers, you could gain a basic vocabulary of 500-1,000 signs within 3-6 months. This will allow you to communicate about common topics like introducing yourself, talking about school or work, and discussing daily activities. However, your signing may be slow and you'll likely make many mistakes at first.
2. To advance beyond a beginner level, focus on expanding your vocabulary to 2,000-3,000 signs and improving your signing fluency over 1-2 years. Practice having longer conversations in sign language regularly. Watch videos of fluent signers and try to mimic their style and pace. As your exposure increases over time, new signs and grammar rules will slowly integrate into your signing.
3. Even after learning many signs, making yourself understood in sign language still takes lots of repetition, patience, and clarification by others. Becoming truly fluent at a native-speaker level usually requires 3-5 years of immersion and consistent learning. Advancing signers may need to take classes, join sign language clubs and interact often with the deaf community.

Final Words

While basic sign communication skills can form within months, becoming fluent enough to comfortably discuss complex topics without slowing down generally requires years of study and practice. But the truth is every journey begins with learning that first sign. So take it one step at a time, be patient with yourself, and keep practicing consistently - fluency will come!

Also read: What Is Kinesthetic Learning And Its Characteristics?