The Troubling Phenomenon I See Amongst ASL Students

Vlog | Destiny Yarbro | February 11, 2026 | 4 min watch

Recently, many Deaf creators have talked about how, across YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms, they’ve noticed a strange phenomenon. That ASL students will often comment, "You signed that wrong!" Or "My teacher says [fill in the blank]. You're signing that wrong." And I've seen it myself. New ASL students again and again saying, "that's wrong" "you're wrong". It's strange.

So I thought I'd give a suggestion, if you've commented something like this before, I want you to try something first. 

Experiment

As you're commenting, replace ASL with German (language). If you're criticizing a Deaf creator, to a native Deaf signer, replace them in your mind with "native German speaker".

Would you still say, "That's wrong! Your German word is wrong! Cuz my teacher said [fill in the blank]." Would you still comment that? Would you tell a native Chinese speaker, "You're wrong! My teacher said [blank]"? Would you say that to them?

Let's say you're chatting with a Spanish speaker and you say, "I know you're a native speaker, but your Spanish is wrong." Would you say that? OR would you recognize that you're a beginner. That this isn't your language. That you're just starting to learn. You'd probably recognize that, right? Yes. Probably.

You'd probably recognize that, yes, the word your Spanish teacher taught you is different than theirs, but that's because your teacher is from Chile and they're from Spain. So of course they're different.

Ableism

I think... well, I think there's a little ableism mixed in with this mentality. A bit of "looking down on" mixed in. "Yes, I've only completed ASL 202, but..." (yikes)

Now, I get it, on TikTok and YouTube there are many creators, many Deaf creators who it is very obvious that signing is not their first language. VERY obvious. Do they sign ASL perfectly? No. Not at all. But it's still their preferred way to communicate, it's still their preferred language mode.

So, yes, you should still follow up with your ASL teacher if you're confused about a sign you saw online. But recognize, you're not an expert signer. You're just not (yet).

So again, I think ableism is involved in this occurrence. And I think most ASL students have no clue, they don't even realize this. "I'm being ableist? I had no idea!" But when you go to comment "that's wrong!" or "you're wrong!" there's an assumption behind that that you know best.

1 English Word ≠ 1 ASL Sign

Also, just a reminder: 1 English word ≠ 1 ASL sign. It's not a word per sign match up. It's not "this means that". That one English word might have many ASL equivalents. MANY equivalents.

For example, the English word "confused" could be translated as this in ASL (as in a cloud of too many thoughts) or this in ASL, or this or this (question mark at the forehead). Another English word "technically" could be signed as this (as in technology, phone, computer, etc.) or it could be signed this or this as in "well, technically..." or this or this. Facial expressions play a big role in these!

So the signs are different, yes, but so are the facial expressions that change the translations for each. So again, it's not 1 word = 1 sign.

Outro

I suggest that if you're feeling tempted to comment "that's wrong!" that you step back and think, "Would I say this to a German speaker? (Or to a Spanish speaker or a Chinese speaker?) Would I say that?" If not, then maybe hold that thought. :)

So a question for those of you learning ASL, when was the first moment you realized that 1 word ≠ 1 sign. Comment below!

If you're still confused about why sign language has accents and dialects and why there's different sign languages around the world, I recommend the video below.

Please remember to subscribe, comment, and share this video as that really helps get the word out there. I'm trying to put good out into the world. So thank you for your help! 🤟

Why Isn't Sign Language Universal?