I decided this weekend that in addition to getting my teaching degree, I’m going to learn sign language and become fluent in it so that I can work and teach hearing-impaired students, and perhaps become an interpreter. I’m really excited about this - I love learning new languages and while I’m happy to teach, I really want to do something very special with my teaching, something that challenges me (yes, I know teaching is a challenge within itself, but I’m talking about challenging myself intellectually by continuing to learn the language). So in addition to completing my certification program, I’m signing up to take sign language classes at the local community college, as well as studying on my own.
Does anyone who knows ASL have any suggestions for me? I’ve gotten advice from a friend who’s going to loan me her ASL textbook (when she finishes watching my Six Feet Under DVDs;)), and has also given me great advice on doing some volunteer work with hearing-impaired students, which I’m going to do. In the meantime, I’m curious as to how long it will take me to become fluent, suggestions of good books to use to supplement my studies and anything else that might help with my studies. Any suggestions?
Ava my suggestion is to think of learning ASL as you would any other language. At the start you will instantly learn the basics and that will get you far. But to be able to string things together and learn the “short-hands” it will take time.
I fully second the idea of volunteering. The best way to learn a language is to be immerged in it!
Hi! The bulk of my natural family is deaf, including my parents, so ASL was my first language.
It’s probably the easiest language you will learn; the bulk of the signs lend themselves to easy association to more familiar terms.
Once you’ve learned the alphabet, the rest is gravy.
And yes, the best way to become truly fluent is to force yourself to use it. Volunteering is a good start. My adopted mother taught an ASL class for years; once every couple of weeks the group would go to a random restaraunt and have dinner, but could only speak using Sign. Their progress was surprisingly rapid.
I noticed you’re in Virginia - what part? I’m in the D.C. metro area; if you would like some help, give me a shout.
I just finished a 12-hour course in beginning ASL. We dove right in and it was pretty scary, but I can sign about 300 signs now. I do have to find a way to practice so I don’t lose what I’ve learned.
Of course, I want to take more advanced classes, but can’t until winter.
Good luck, I’m sure it will be very rewarding. I found most of the signs fairly easy to remember because a lot of them make a nice transition from the spoken word.
I’m learning it at the local community college during the school year (I’m in high school and I take it on Mondays and Wednesdays). Because of my hearing impairment it’s kind of hard for me to learn Spanish or French, the only foreign languages offered at my high school–and I’m not very good with languages anyway.
I like it so far. Some of the signs are very easy to learn (friend, me, I, brother, sister, etc) while others are more difficult (I can’t get any of the monetary signs right yet, even though we’ve been doing those since about the third week of my 101 class), but I expect these change according to the person learning.
I have also been learning more about Deaf culture and it’s very interesting. I was mainstreamed so I have hardly had any interaction with other Deaf or deaf people. Maybe through my class I can learn to be more comfortable about all of that.
Suggestions…well, I’d say get an ASL dictionary, too, besides the textbook(s). Just for reference. In my ASL textbook, which is mainly for 101 and 102 students, a lot of the more advanced signs aren’t covered, but my dictionary helps me out a lot. The volunteer work is good. I would also suggest seeing if there are any Deaf clubs around. And see if there’s a DeafBuy convention coming to your town anytime soon (www.deafbuy.com). I went to one of those a few months ago and learned a LOT.
I’m the one who is lending avabeth my textbook on ASL. I’m thrilled to see that there are people who are involved in the deaf community. I am hearing impaired, I lost about 70% of my hearing since birth and now it’s up to 85%. I’ll likely be deaf by the time I hit 40 maybe. However, you can ask avabeth if you can really tell unless you notice those things - I can speak english fluently with no problems and I only struggle through loud situations when I can hear but one-on-one, I’m really good at. Alot of times, I read lips, I self-taught myself that since I was a baby.
The problem with me is that I’m not fully deaf, nor am I fully hearing. So I’m kind of “stuck” between communities and I can tell you, it’s really hard to figure out where you really fit in.
I knew I’d get some good answers here:). Thanks, guys!
IDemandBeer, I’ve been going over the alphabet, numbers and phrases all night - when I take a break, I still find myself fingerspelling words:). So I’m unconsciously forcing myself to use it - go figure;). And I’m in Richmond - I would love some help, but I know we’re pretty far away. I’m up in NoVa quite frequently, though, so if you’re ever up for meeting for dinner, drop me an email:).
CaesarsGhost, how long did it take before you were able to communicate fairly well with others, and to develop a decent speed and accuracy in fingerspelling? I’m realizing that a LOT of this is going to be learning and memorizing the signs for vocabulary. Luckily, I’ve picked up other languages fairly quickly (I’m fluent in French, which was my minor, and I’ve studied German and Italian), so I’m hoping that will help me learn quickly here.
And yes, Jazz is loaning me the textbook:). And it’s true, I wouldn’t have known she was hearing-impaired if she hadn’t told me. You can’t even tell.
I’m signing up for a semester-long Sign Language I course this fall. I’ll probably have to drop taking a class for a year because of my teaching certification program - I’ll be working a full-time job and going to school just about full-time - but I’m thinking I might just hire a private tutor to give me lessons an hour a week to keep learning. And with that, it’ll give me one-on-one teaching. I’m also trying to find out about volunteering for Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and I might see if there are opportunities to work with deaf children - unfortunately, I won’t be able to communicate as well as they would probably like for a deaf child, so I can’t see being paired with one, but they seem to offer a lot of volunteer opportunities so with luck, I can do something.
Thanks, guys! I’m really happy about this - I really wanted to find something in my teaching career to concentrate on and I think this is it.
Fingerspelling was pretty easy for me to learn. I think it took me about three classes (a week and a half) to learn the letters reliably and once a person learn how to fingerspell they can communicate with anybody who signs. Of course it’s better to learn the entire language, and not so taxing on the fingers, but people can scrape by.
And yeah–the majority of it is just memorizing the vocabulary. Also, ASL has a different grammatical order than English; it’s time-topic-comment.
So you would say “I went to the baseball game on Thursday” in english but you would sign THURSDAY BASEBALL GAME GO I. “Thursday” is the time, “baseball game” is the topic and “go I” is the comment. At least, I hope I have that right.
You probably know this already but ASL is written out in “gloss”, or all capital letters.
I just popped in to say Hi to IDemandBeer. Another hearing kid from a Deaf family here My parents taught sign too! But since I grew up with BSL and not ASL, I’ll leave the advice to those who know ASL.
Hmm…never a problem with me and I am hard of hearing. I don’t mind the “hearing impaired” terminology. If people don’t understand that, I say I’m deaf. Never really bothered me. What bothers me though is - “Deaf and dumb” which kids and adults use to taunt me with any chance they get.
How much different are the dialects? My only experience with non-American sign was a German couple I ran into at Mardi Gras a few years ago. They were a hoot to talk to; we managed to converse rather well, though we did manage to confuse each other quite a bit.
I’d love to learn ASL and become an interpreter. I know a few signs and the alphabet. There aren’t any schools close enough that I could take classes at that I know of though.
Veeeeery different. To the extent that I find it very difficult to understand ASL at all. The alphabets are completely different - BSL is two-handed. Obviously, the basic signs like “eat” and “sleep” are the same, but I couldn’t converse in ASL.
I’m also hard of hearing and have had 4 ear surgeries. I’m learning ASL mostly to prepare just in case. Aside from that I also think it’s fascinating & very useful.
I don’t know any hard of hearing people who consider hearing impaired incorrect. Is that something that originated in the deaf community? I suspect that there are a lot of people who are hard of hearing that are not involved in the deaf community… Perhaps it depends on the extent of the hearing loss.
Most people never know I’m hard of hearing until we’re in a restaurant and I can’t focus on the conversation, then I have to tell them. I also have to tell people who don’t clearly articulate or speak quietly.
Mr. Heart is learning ASL (such a good man)…I suspect this will be helpful when he needs to help me sometimes when talking with other people in noisy situations.
I wouldn’t say NEVER call someone hearing impaired. There are a lot of different categories.
Deaf people (ie people within the Deaf culture) call themselves Deaf with a capital D. They refer to people with a hearing loss but not actually Deaf as deaf. People OUTSIDE the Deaf culture use “hearing impaired,” “hard of hearing,” etc. Also people who lost their hearing later in life, or who do not have a very severe loss, tend not to refer to themselves as deaf or Deaf at all.
I wouldn’t make a blanket statement like “never use this word.” I ask people what THEY want to be called. Like me, personally–I don’t care what people call me. Hearing impaired, hard of hearing, deaf, whatever. But other people have their own preferences.
Alot, but then alot of sign language is done by the face, so that can be the same. (www.britishsignlanguage.com)
Hearing people are called hearing. Thus, ‘hearing impaired’ implies someone is ‘less than hearing’ or less than a hearing person & who wants to be labeled a lesser person?
Never really bothered me. What bothers me though is - “Deaf and dumb” which kids and adults use to taunt me with any chance they get.