Hmm you don't really need a class to learn sign language, but you'll need a friend who is as interested and committed as you to practice with. Sign language is kinda similar to English in terms of basic grammar. Of course there are difference which aren't too hard to pick up.

You can pick up a book or two and a dictionary from Amazon. Start by making up simple conversations and try to communicate with your friend slowly is sign language. If you don't know the standardized sign for a word, just be as expressive as possible and hope your friend gets the meaning. People who converse in sign language do it often.

If I am not mistaken Malaysia sign language is a variant of America Sign Language. So do buy ASL books. And if I am not mistaken only deaf people are allowed to learn sign language in Malaysia. I heard this from a friend who learned ASL with me in US.

To motivate you abit, check out this girl's youtube videos...

http://www.youtube.com/user/allyballybabe

Do note how good her facial expressions are when she 'sings' the songs. Notice how it adds so much depth to her hand gestures. This reveals mistake made by a lot of people who are not mute or deaf that learn sign language. They only make very bland signs with their hands which is very hard to understand actually.

For us who have voice and can hear, the meaning of what is said depends alot of the tone, pitch, volume and speed of what is said. Such inflections adds a second layer of meaning to the sentence. For example "I am mad." could mean either "I am angry" or "I am crazy" depending on how it's said.

Similarly sign language relies on such inflections too. However, being a visual form of communication it relies on things we can see. So facial expressions, how fast you perform a gesture, body movement and such plays an important role.

Hope this helps and enjoy learning sign language.

This post has been edited by mumeichan: Jul 22 2009, 10:13 AM