different signs

I am self taught from this Rocket and several books and dvds. I have found a social group that meets once a week for lunch at local mall and went, introduced myself and they warmly welcomed me to their group. They chat amongst themselves very fast but thoughtfully stop occasionally and "baby talk" with me to try to keep me included. The thing I've noticed is many of the signs that I have learned from the courses are not recognized by the group. they use something else. We share the signs and I try to assimilate their sign (I am talking to them as their guest). Is this a common problem? I had read that in different countries, they use different sign language and there may be some disparity from region to region, but I thought these more common everyday words would be pretty common. Any comments?

I would love to meet with a group to practice ASL. I live in Northern Utah

If your interested in being an interpreter you can contact your local community college to see if they have interpreter classes.