Goals for the semester:
Interpersonal Communication:
This is what I am most interested in this semester. I want to be able to hold a conversation with someone for a relatively long period of time and be able to talk about different topics, including music, books, religion, family, school, travel, etc…
Interpretive:
Listening:
Because ASL speakers only use their hands to speak, “listening” is really “seeing.” When I was learning Spanish, my teachers often spoke slower than normal, because we wouldn’t be able to catch all the words otherwise. The same principal applies to ASL. The people I am interacting with, specifically my language partner, will probably need to sign slower than normal so I will be able to see all the different signs.
Reading:
You can’t read ASL, so this does not apply.
Presentational:
Speaking:
I don’t think there is a high chance of there being a situation in which I would need to speak ASL in front of a group of people, but I would like to reach the level where I could do so, if needed. I want to be comfortable enough where I could speak for a few minutes by myself and just have other people watch.
Writing:
ASL is not a written language, so this does not apply either.
Because ASL is not a written or spoken language, everything that I learn will need to be documented with a video.
Tasks:
Greetings/Farewells: I can say “Hello” and “Goodbye”
Introducing yourself: I can say my name and spell the name of the town I am from.
I want to learn to ask questions (What is your name? Where are you from? Etc…) and answer them.
Identifying and talking about family members: I can say mother and father.
Telling time/asking the time
Asking/saying the date
Talking about school, college, fields of study, etc…
Talking about my home and petsI have two dogs and I really love them, so I would like to be able to talk about them and say what kind of dogs they are.
Talking about hobbies (music, books, outdoors)
People who are completely deaf cannot hear music, but many people who speak sign language can hear music (if they are not entirely deaf) and can even feel the bass of a song, if the music is loud enough. It would be difficult to have an in-depth discussion about music, but I would like to learn some signs that relate to music.
I also love to read novels, especially historical fiction and sci-fi, so I want to be able to talk about that.
Talking about religion
Talking about the past and future
How will I learn?
My language partner told me that many deaf people think in pictures. She told me that if you can “speak” using pictures the deaf will be able to understand you better.
There are a lot of great websites that are “dictionaries” of hundreds of ASL signs. The only way to really learn is to practice and use the language whenever I can.
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