It is official, Reba and I had our last meeting this past week. Not to reiterate, but I will be missing the ASL course we had together. I have never had a class that was as much fun as hers, and I always find it a gift to find a subject that doesn’t feel like schoolwork, which ASL does.
The semester has been an incredible one, and, looking back, I am very proud of the accomplishments that we have made. With the topics I have covered with Reba, such as family relationships, numbers, time, quantity, a numerous amount of verbs, sports, meals, games, jobs, tenses, holidays, places, culture, and more, I feel as though I have a strong understanding of the foundation of ASL. Although I do not think I can survive very easily in a deaf community, I do believe I now have the ability to deaf individuals in a way that could establish a basic level of friendship and respect. However, I still want to improve my ASL abilities. I do not want to stop my journey here, thus over the summer, I plan to continue my studies of ASL. I still have the books Reba has lent me, such as the “Signing Naturally textbook”, the application “Sign School” and I have my own American Sign Language Dictionary. I will also be using resources like udemy.com and italki.com. Udemy will help me build and developed my overall vocabulary, while italki will help me strengthen my communication skills and really solidify the usage of new ASL vocabulary. Learning vocabulary through memorization is a fine way of learning, but being able to actually apply those terms in communication is a completely different skill set. Thus, italki, or any type of conversing, is important in order to solidify my understanding of the new terms and language itself. In addition, I have also been looking into what events are being held in my area for the deaf. As it turns out, there is a deaf school around 20 minutes from my house! This must mean that there is a sufficient deaf population, at least within that area. So, I have been keeping tabs as to any community events that may be occurring either to support the deaf or even to interact with the community. Although I am nowhere near the appropriate level to do so, I would love to be able to help take care of children while also practicing my ASL. Whether that means I work at a deaf summer camp, or just help an individual family out and act as a sitter for a deaf child, I don’t have a preference. But, if I could kill three birds with one stone, hanging out with kids, earning some money, and practicing my ASL, that would be an incredible opportunity.
Reflecting upon the program itself, I was very happy with how it was structured. I apricated the time and energy I had to invest in learning the language, and I also enjoyed having to learn about the cultural aspects of the program. I knew very little about ASL before this course, not just the language, but the culture as well! This course has given me the opportunity to expand my understanding of both. Thank you.
Comments
This is great to hear! That is awesome to know you have achieved your goals to be able to basically converse in ASL. Maybe in your senior year, you could find a sort of organization in Richmond that you can volunteer with or just be a part of and spend time practicing ASL. I am sure people in the Deaf community would love to work with you.