You shouldn’t teach ASL if you’re not fluent. Period. (Part 1) (Tiktok): Lizzytharris

[Cove_Blue]

I've seen people tweeting about her for too long now! Can't believe she's still talking over the deaf/hard of hearing community. Shared both these. Solidarity from the disabled community ✊🏻

[conlon]

If she's learning it she should be saying like "I learnt this sign today, let me know if I'm doing anything wrong, thanks!" or something like that.

[Moth-Bells]

It'd be so easy to reframe a video like that as "The sign I learned today" and then sign it with its translation (even add a 'let me know if I made any mistakes' or something). It'd be just as effective as what she's doing

[katievickery]

I stopped learning ASL because I couldn't find a learning channel on YouTube or local place to learn.
While my son was speach delayed because of hearing issues.
We put together signs to communicate.
Now he can hear after surgery.
And now I am going deaf. These types of things terrify me and stop me from learning.

[your_loss]

Yes I agree, when I was trying to learn sign to communicate with my deaf sister, I had her help me and give feedback so I could be fluent and be able to “talk” to her at any time she needed or wanted to.

[ireallyhateoranges]

I agree so much as a person learning ASL our teacher told us that one of the most important things was not to teach signs online.

[TheWeirdoRavenclaw]

Important to note:
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO KNOW EVERY SINGLE WORD IN A LANGUAGE TO BE FLUENT!!!!
my hard of hearing sign language teacher has been learning sign for 25+ years and teaching it for 6+ years. She was hard of hearing since birth. That doesn’t mean she knows every single sign to exist. She knows *most* of them. I will occasionally ask her about a sign that she doesn’t know. THAT IS OKAY! My other deaf sign language teacher runs into the same situation. He has been deaf since birth. He also occasionally does not know a sign that we ask him about. THAT IS OK!!! once again, fluency does not equal perfection.

[joed-droh]

i think she's just excited to learn and wants to share her excitement

[joebaumgart]

Another issue with teaching online whether you're fluent or not is dialects. If you're fluent in California asl and you come to Philadelphia you will need to relearn asl. Philadelphia never lost asl like most other states and because of this it has the most unique dialect in the whole country. It's much closer to French sign language than ASL. In the 1770's a Frenchmen opened up the very first school for the deaf in Philadelphia.

[stormexaustralia]

The next generation of school kids over here will be fluent in ASL (Australian) as sign language has become part of the school curriculum 😀 and I think it's absolutely fan-bloody-tastic! The deaf community is now going to be inclusive in everyday life as kids will be taught from a young age sign language as they learn words and speech as they grow.

[Goofybatzreprise]

Sometimes teaching is the best way to learn! I've told my Spanish teacher about how I teach my sister what I learn in class, and she says that teaching others can help you learn too!

[Twrminated]

Really late but I went to her channel. Almost all her content is her showing a new sign she learned. She’s not meant to teach anyone nor is it her goal. Her trying to learn sign and documenting her small growth isn’t taking away from the deaf community, she’s trying to learn. People are choosing to learn/listen to them because there aren’t a lot of free or accessible ASL teachings

[yo-sruq]

That "or whatever" after "There's this girl named Lola" is an amazing diss😂

[CG-MP]

My sister teaches deaf/hard of hearing kids. She said one of the hardest parts of ASL is how incredibly localized the signs can be. If that’s the case, I imagine trying to learn from *anyone* online isn’t going to work.

[j.m]

But, she’s literally saying she isn’t fluent and is learning. She’s just showing what she took from class like with any other language and them being a language learner. It helps reinforce what they’ve learned and
Introduces someone else to it in a way like, “see, don’t think you can’t if I can even though I didn’t grow up learning it or need it the same way.” All one has to do is look at her full journey or know where she’s from

I think there’s nothing wrong. Literally is fine with every language

[downtowngirl]

i really don't think its that big of a deal, as a deaf person I truly think she's just showing what she's learned

[LaraOlina]

i think the problem isn't her teaching others when she isn't fluent herself, there are lots of accounts like that for vocal languages too for tracking progress and getting in contact with other language learners, but that apparently she teaches it wrong and won't correct her mistakes but continues to spread wrong information.

[autumnkmeadows]

as someone who is trying to learn ASL to be able to communicate better with a deaf friend, I found Lola’s account & thought it was really cool that she was breaking ASL down into easy to learn signs that I could quickly pick up. but I had no idea all the (unfortunately deserved) backlash she was getting from the deaf community; all of which is very valid & I wish I had known sooner! thanks, especially to your videos Liz, I unfollowed her on all my accounts! I hope to find more and more deaf content creators like you to have as much exposure to ASL as possible. ❤️

[future_future]

What?!? Im deaf, and only 13x and find no problem with this, she is NOT teaching!!!! She specifically stated how shes not teaching and is ASKING for modifications!!! What?!?

[DCwolf]

This has to be the most piddling drama of 2024...