Ratheesh Chelakkattu

I've been signing for 15+ years and I can converse with Deaf people, but I've working to make my signing more ASL and less English. Ratheesh has been the most helpful so far of all the tutors I've tried on here when it comes to this goal, and I think I've tried most of the Deaf ASL tutors.

There are not enough words to describe Ratheesh; it would be best to just sign them :) As a foreign language high school teacher myself, I can say that he is truly an amazing educator. From day one our lessons have been filled with joy and laughter. There is never a dull moment and, after a long day of work, I always look forward to spending time and learning from him. From knowing absolutely nothing, he has opened up a completely new world to me that I never even knew existed. I look forward to continuing my lessons and diving deeper and deeper into the amazing world of ASL and everything it has to offer.

Every lesson with Ratheesh is a pleasure. As a teacher and speaker of multiple languages, ASL is a whole new world of expression for me, and Ratheesh just makes it all the more exciting and fascinating. He manages to teach ASL grammar and structure, while also tailoring lessons around me, my life, my interests, and more. Honestly, he's one of the best language teachers I've had!

Not only does Ratheesh have the gift of teaching, he also has the gift of encouragement.

Before I started tutoring, I tried to sign a certain story. I was frustrated because I could not figure out how to do it. Last week, Ratheesh happened to assign me that very same story. Thanks to his tutoring lessons, I was able to figure out how to sign the story!

Ratheesh is helping me to attain a whole new dimension in my signing. When I began working with him, I told him that one of my goals was to be a more visual signer...and he is helping me to do just that.