Sunday, September 13:
Hello and welcome back! Week three is completed and I can confidently exclaim that these past two weeks were really successful with my ASL carrier. For three out of the four of my classes, Reba and I were reviewing a lot of the material that we covered last semester including days of the week, time, numbers, colors, animals, typical breakfast foods, countries, class subjects, people, common verbs and adjectives, emotions, and several other subjects. Surprisingly, I remembered much more than expected making the conversation between the two of us much lighter and seemingly smooth. Regardless, I do find it interesting how some signs, such as the word “night” (as in the time of day), are much more difficult for me to remember than other signs. For the most part, many of the signs are institutive after guidance and teaching -an airplane looks like an airplane made with your hands, the weather is simulated by moving your hands and fingers in specific patterns to mimic specific weather patterns, and etc. As I previously mentioned, however, some words, despite the practicality and sense to the sign, some continuously slip my mind when conversing in ASL. From a neurological perspective, I wonder why some words are so much more easily lost than others?
Regardless, the most exciting thing regarding the past two weeks was my opportunity to act as a sign language translator. When I first began learning sign language, every other class with Reba, a sign interpreter would also be present, to help me establish an initial foundation for the language and a generalized understanding of basic words and fingerspelling. This was especially helpful in the first few weeks of ASL because I could ask questions deeper than surface-level regarding grammatical structure, plural and singular forms, cause and effect, history, and other aspects of the culture that are difficult for a beginner to understand. Furthermore, Somyung, a new student of ASL with Reba, had one of her first sessions and I was asked to join as a mediator. Granted, none of the conversations was philosophical or deeply serious in any way, but, it was really cool to be able to exchange information between a hearing and a non-hearing individual. Reba and I both helped Somyung learn the alphabet as well as some common introductions and responses. I know that this opportunity does not present itself often, but it was an incredible opportunity to practice my ability of understanding ASL in real-time and translating it to someone else as well as translating English into ASL. One aspect of the translation that I found interesting was that I proved to be more of a challenge to go from English to ASL than from ASL to English.
I am excited to see what the next two weeks will hold in our lessons. We are currently still online learning, but Reba and I have gotten into the swing of things. Although I have questions and signs I do ask her to teach me, she has an established learning plan which she has used for dozens upon dozens of other ASL beginners. Thus, I trust her judgment and guidance when it comes to her teachings.
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