It has only been one week since my last bi-language weekly journal post. However, due to the late start regarding my language instructor meeting, this post may have less content then future ones. Nevertheless, I had my first sign language courses this past week! In total, I had three meetings: one on Sunday, January 26th through italki.com, one on Monday, January 27th with my language instructor, Reba, and one on Wednesday, January 29th with Reba. To say the least, every session was incredible! Not only was every session informative towards ASL vocabulary, but I also got to see parts of ASL culture and, most importantly, it was a BLAST!
My first ASL session was on italki.com and was taught by a deaf man. The reason I chose him as my instructor was because, out of all the instructors, he was the only one that I found who was deaf. Although I was nervous about how the two of us would communicate, I know language is learned best through emersion, so I dove in! My instructor and I were able to communicate through a chat box during our learning session; however, we kept such usage to a minimum to really expand my understanding of ASL. We started the lesson with introductions, followed by learning a series of signs regarding movement, emotion & feelings, animals, and common adjectives. An interesting aspect of the language that he taught me was storytelling. Although I know ASL is a visual language, storytelling resembled that, almost, of a charades game. Now, I do not mean for this to be interpreted as ASL is a charades game, but rather that fingers were represented of people and events that happened in the story were demonstrated through action. It was an incredibly eye-opening process that not only revealed deaf culture’s stories but the beauty and emotion of the language. I had not realized the importance of facial expressions within sign language prior to this learning session, but after seeing the story my instructor told, their importance became clear.
For the remainder of our learning session, he would have me infer his facial expressions and have me mirror them on my own. These facial expressions when signing can have an impact on the meaning of a sign, thus making ASL, not just about the signing, but rather a holistic langue that encompasses action and expression.
Now, for my instruction with Reba, I learned just as much. We went over simple, essential phrases, question words, family members, days of the week, and common verbs and nouns. However, the main focus of our first week of lessons was ASL spelling. Because the two of us will not always have an interrupter or writing utensils to communicate, the use of ASL spelling is an essential component to learning the language. Spelling out words allows a learner to learn words they deem necessary for their language developmental tasks while learning to read ASL spelling is essential to understand new vocabulary. Now, as one with reading and spelling disabilities, this is extremely hard for me. Not only do I have to decipher which hand symbol is correlated with what letter, but I also have to string all the letters together to create a word. I am getting better as I practice more, which is too be expected. However, the process often feels tedious and frustrating at times.
Reba, like my italki.com instructor, is also deaf. So, our only consistent form of communication was through whiteboard messages. Nevertheless, the amount I learned was more than I could have imagined. I find myself remembering and practicing signs throughout the day that we discussed in the classroom and I can not wait until the two of us meet again.
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