Ahmed Ali

• Sign language teacher

I have been teaching BSL since 2006 and founded my own company, Teach Me Sign, in 2012. I am an experienced teacher and teach BSL levels 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. I also run introduction to BSL courses and deaf awareness training. I am a deaf native BSL user and am particularly passionate about bridging the gap between the deaf and hearing worlds.

In my early years, I went to a mainstream school before moving to a deaf school at 10 years old. It was there that I first developed any real language, and I quickly became mesmerised by BSL. At 12 years old, I had already decided that I wanted to become a BSL teacher. Every year on careers day, I always said I wanted to be a BSL teacher. At 13 years old, I began shadowing my teacher and helping with other classes. I continued this and over the years, I grew in confidence and achieved all the necessary qualifications. I finally became a qualified BSL teacher when I was 20 and have been teaching ever since. I am particularly enthusiastic about linguistics and am fascinated by the differences between BSL and English.

Communication is such an important part of everyday life and I want to do my best to reduce isolation for the deaf community. My aim is to teach students BSL to a high standard, ensuring that they have an equally rich cultural knowledge, so that they can easily converse with deaf individuals. It is important that the deaf community can feel comfortable communicating with hearing people without having to adjust their language or struggle to understand what is being signed.

I pride myself on my enthusiasm and commitment to teaching and there is nothing that makes me feel prouder than seeing my students achieve their goals.