ASL vs BSL | Side by Side Comparison | American Sign Language and British Sign Language

We partnered up with Sign Say in the UK to show you a side by side comparison of ASL and BSL. Although there are many similarities in the different sign languages there are also many differences. See if you can spot the similarities and differences between the different signs.

0:00 - Intro
0:30 - TEACHING: Parameters of Sign
COMMON SIGNS
1:01 - I or Me
1:16 - You
1:25 - Meet
1:35 - Time
1:44 - Name
1:54 - Hello
2:02 - How are you?
2:13 - Please and Thank you
2:38 - Help
2:48 - Sorry
3:00 - Understand and Don't Understand
3:24 - Repeat or Again
3:39 - Excuse Me
3:59 - Good Morning
4:13 - Good Afternoon
4:26 - Good Night
4:39 - Live
4:50 - Learn or Learning

5:08 - US ENGLISH WORDS vs UK ENGLISH WORDS
5:38 - Soccer/Football
5:52 - Chips/Crisps
6:00 - French Fries/Chips
6:09 - Sneakers/Trainers
6:22 - Sweater/Jumper
6:33 - Subway/Underground
6:43 - Mail/Post
6:51 - Truck/Lorry
7:02 - Apartment/Flat
7:10 - Elevator/Lift
7:19 - Diaper/Nappy
7:29 - Candy/Sweets
7:37 - Cell Phone/Mobile Phone
7:46 - Pants/Trousers
8:00 - Closet/Wardrobe
8:10 - Crib/Cot

Thanks for watching!

#asl #bsl #LearnHowToSign

[doubledutchclutch]

I live in the US, so from a practical standpoint it makes more sense for me to learn ASL, but I'm not gonna lie. Those BSL signs looked so much easier to do. Not only were they more intuitive to me as a non-signer, but they didn't look like they would aggravate my tendonitis as much.

[careygonzalez]

here's a question i've had for MANY years / decades... Why isn't / wasn't sign language worked out to be universal, where anyone from anywhere would be able to speak together? Thanks for the videos! enjoyed many of them!

[lexysparks]

Deaf person here! I grew up in the US so started learning ASL first, and now live in the UK and am learning BSL. They both have aspects I prefer - fingerspelling is so much faster/nicer in ASL, but I find BSL to be more intuitive. But that's just been my own experience!

[g.l.]

Good to see that help is the same sign in both the US and the UK! 😅

[elliottenorio]

Love it . After learning ASL, i gonna try to learn BSL.

[warrenstaben]

Thank you Meredith. Well worth the wait! Two for one special!!!

[riverisenby]

Coming from the perspective of someone who studied a little bit of LIS (Italian sign language), I also saw some similarities and differences. Interesting!

[gracynrayne]

Thank you so much for your videos! Your content is amazing!!

[migzbeatz]

this is awesome. i’m currently learning ASL, although I live in the UK i’m looking to move to the states in the future. however I still want to learn BSL

[MariaGonzalezGifts]

Hi there I work in retail and interact with many deaf people, I was wondering if there's a video out there with the kinda questions I need to help them . Usually it's like what are you looking for? What size? What color? By when do you need it?

[Siberius-]

From someone who knows next to nothing about the subject, BSL looks less complex from the examples here.

[thihal]

I’d love to know what are the various advantages and disadvantages of ASL vs BSL. For example, does one require better dexterity etc.

[RavenStorm]

I'm talking an ASL course and the way I was taught elevator was to hold the non-dominate hand palm up and the dominant hand with two fingers on it the non-dom hand and move it up

[ZargonUSA]

I was taught BSL back in the early 80s when I got married to my first wife, and her family was all deaf, Mother, Brother, Father, and Sister, but now I'm living in the US, I went to a McD a few months ago, and met this deaf guy and it was like a native German trying to talk to a native Chinaman, luckily his name was the same in ASL as it is in BSL 'Wolf', but other than that, because we couldn't communicate, that was it, so when I saw a video on learning ASL, I thought "yeah right", BSL is far more easier to learn and use than ASL, having to spell with one hand, what if one has arthritis, as I do, luckily, BSL is easy on my arthritis.

[shaunadumelle]

Id like to think that maybe people dont understand that theres a difference right here in the us based on region, also. In WI, we were taught truck as the uk version, same with bus and tractor, one just a little more wide and one more bumpy.

[nannerz]

I should really try ASL because I think since I'm very visual and spatial I would take to it much easier than another spoken / written language. Thank you for this video

[tomhchappell]

Is there a difference in either SL for “live” as in “live and breathe” versus “live” as in “dwell or reside”? And if so what is it?

[antonymilne]

A question to ASL users from a BSl learner: Does ASL have many variations on how to sign things?

BSL, like the English language is often subject to regional dialects and can result in multiple signs for the same words.

[katsups]

Why are there no subtitles on this video outside the closed captions which have a slight delay and words that are wrong (eat instead of meet)?

[udaansignlanguage]

Hey, I'm from India. I completed my course in Indian sign language, but I want to learn ASL, would you please suggest some college and courses for an international student and what the job scopes in America etc for sign language interpreters??