Darren introduces himself as the CEO of The Auslan Company and explains what will be taught in the Auslan level 1 online course.

We have decided not to add subtitles to the videos as this can be distracting and takes away the students ability to focus on Darren’s expression and the signing of each signs.

Additionally we have also decided not to include photos of signs in a workbook format because that will not help you learn to sign any more than watching the video of the signs during this course.

When signing Auslan it is important to have your voice turned off because this will enable you to sign grammatically correct. When you talk and sign your brain is still “English” brain and you sign in English word order. Auslan is grammatically different from English and does not follow the same order.

Additionally the less you talk the more you will correctly use facial expression, body language and use more eye contact especially when having to watch a deaf person signing.

In all the signing you do with other people please turn off your voice and try and be like a deaf person would be. Yes it is hard initially but as you work through this Auslan level 1 online course and then level 2 and level 3 you will be thankful you learnt to sign without your voice.

Watching a person sign to you improves your reception skills, especially your ability to read fingerspelling. If you want to practice reading back fingerspelling there’s a great fingerspelling game at www.auslanresources.com

All the best with learning Auslan and if you have any questions please email the team at [email protected]