I’ve mentioned briefly before, my inspiration for learning ASL was due to my interactions with individuals and families at Chick-fil-A who were deaf. After trying to self-learn sign for a few weeks, I asked around at UR about ASL classes to see if there were any offered or if the tuition exchange could possibly be used to help students who would want to take ASL at other local schools. Thankfully, I had heard from Mrs. Creamer within the Registrar's Office and she informed me out about SPCS’s ASL 1 and ASL 2 group course.
I started training with Reba two years ago in her group ASL course, and it was phenomenal. However, it was even more of a pleasure learning from her 1:1 this semester! I think getting the chance to communicate with her for a longer period of time and through one-on-one sessions improved my ASL dramatically. I also took a new approach by actively researching videos made by deaf/HoH individuals who use ASL. It has been amazing seeing the increased interest for learning sign language in recent years. I have found myself incorporating sign into my conversations unintentionally. I catch myself signing some words when others cannot hear me or if I have to repeat simple words like "yes" or "no". I also have started using the ASL sign for three whenever I say that number. Whereas, prior to my lessons, I just used the "typical" 3 that looks like a W or 6 in ASL. I remember how, in the beginning, I would mistakenly sign 6 instead of 3 when I was practicing numbers by signing to Reba my phone number. This mistake of mine would cause her to write down the wrong phone number. Now, I tend to only use the ASL 3 instead of how I used to.
Some things that I found difficult were trying to learn more about particular dialects of ASL (such as Philadelphia ASL and BASL). Additionally, I found that, in relation to BASL and Philadelphia ASL, some of the books and videos regarding the research projects were no longer accessible. I would find many websites that had “broken links”. Moreover, if there were not closed captioning on the video and it was sign language that I did not understand yet, I wouldn’t be able to gather what the research was a presenting. I hope that there continues to be more accessibility to these dialects and that they are able to be preserved.
Going forth, I want to try to continue learning more history regarding ASL. I got to discover a bit of this in my cultural presentation, but I would still like to expand upon this. I would also like to gain more comfortability on how sign words and their placements have changed over time. I think this would only improve as I practice with more natives rather than only reading books. I also want to eventually progress to watching videos in ASL without captioning (kind of like an "immersive" approach). I found out about deafvideo.tv during the last weeks of the semester, and I think this may be the way to go!
Sometime after college (and once it is safe to do so), I am hoping to do a trip to Gallaudet University. I would love to have a meeting with Dr. McCaskill and others who are fighting for recognition of BASL.
Comments
I realized that I forgot to mention, this semester I really enjoyed the section on culture. I think that the discussions had really opened my mind to consider how important it is to learn the history and culture of a language that one is learning. I also benefitted from the phonetics section. In particular, our review of IPA. In my choir classes and voice lessons, my instructor would reference these symbols, but I had no clue what they meant. I found myself really utilizing them after we learned it in class and completed the IPA activity in which we had to break down words using IPA. Lastly, I enjoyed learning about how others in the class were approaching their language learning. I found some neat tips from their presentations!