... Okay, well, I actually rather dislike oralism for young children simply because I learned enough about language development to realize that it would not work. My teacher was pretty cool, though, so maybe you just got a lucky one.

Yeah, ASL has a very different grammar from English. (As an aside, how often do people react to the term "Australian Sign Language" with "There's more than one sign language?" ;) ) I'm good with different grammars, but I'm apparently terrible with kinesthetic and visual signals, so I have a harder time learning a signed language than another spoken language. I figure it's a good way to challenge myself. (Other reasons I got into it: researching a Deaf character I was writing, an attempt to help my sister learn to spell, and my completely nerdy love of languages in general.)