Alpha Teach Yourself American Sign Language in 24 Hours

While I agree with another reviewer that the signs in this book are not represented as well as I have seen in other books (many of which I own), I did buy a copy of this one and recommend it. The book is broken into chapters, the author calls them "hours" to follow the Teach-yourself-in-24-hours theme. Each "hour" is followed by a short quiz, answers in the back, that reinforce the material covered. I like this. Chapter One -- oops, Hour One -- is a short history of American Sign Language. The next hour discusses Deaf culture, and the one after starts to present some signs and discusses the language itself. One thing it deals with is accents, I had not ever considered the fact that people in distant parts of the country might sign the same concept differently, that is, using a different accent. But this makes a great deal of sense. It's also interesting to note that some signs might be presented differently by a man and a woman. Then on to conversational basics. How to get attention. How do you handle situations when two people are signing and you have no choice but to walk between them? Or suppose you're signing with a deaf person and a hearing person comes over to talk to you, what should you do? Then on to letters, numbers, and grammar. Look for the section on name signs. The book has a lot more to cover, but you should get the idea by now. This book is not just a book teaching American Sign Language signs, it is a snapshot into the world of the Deaf.

Great book - good quick overview on the language and culture. Though the title is misleading (24 hours of lessons rather than a day), the book is comprehensive and informative. Shows just how much difference an author who is a deaf, native user of the language makes, rather than if this was done by a hearing, non-fluent signer. A great Christmas gift!