SO last night I had a conversation about ASL with someone who was being an ableist dick. And I was going to let it go, but I can't.
ASL is an actual language all its own. It has syntax and grammar. If you think that you learned ASL by sitting on the couch 1/

with your roommate for a semester and now can interpret you are an ableist dick.

ASL isn't translating English words into signs.

ASL isn't just signs. ASL isn't mouthing words while f*cking up signs. 2/

A lot of ASL is based on facial expressions. So much so that they've made medical masks with clear plastic inserts because ASL fluent individuals actually need to see other people's mouths. It isn't necessarily because of lip reading.
3/

Take distance for example. There are specific facial expressions that accompany near, medium distance, and far. There are also required facial expressions (called non-manual markers) that accompany different types of questions. 4/

Also, signing is situational and regional. There are something like 8 different signs for "strawberry". And telling time has many nuances. 5/

So the next time someone is telling you, "Oh, ASL is easy." or "I took an ASL class and interpret all the time" Tell them to stop.

They aren't doing it right. Not at all. 6/6