At the beginning of the week, I continued to learn vocabulary that would be helpful to use in the classroom. A lot of these involved different subjects, grade levels, and school names (preschool, elementary school, middle school, etc.). While I was finding this path of learning very useful, as it would help me in my future career as a teacher, I ran into an interesting situation this weekend where I reconsidered my ASL learning path.
This past weekend I went to a bar and noticed some people signing to each other. Intrigued, I went up to them to introduce myself. One of them was hard of hearing. As I attempted to sign to them, I quickly realized that my conversation strategies were very low. I could only confidently sign my name and ask how they were, other than that, I was lost. So, the next day, I decided to watch a YouTube video focusing on conversation signs.
Some of the signs demonstrated in the video were just review as I had learned them in previous weeks, however there were some signs that were very helpful especially when signing with someone who is deaf or hard of hearing.
The video demonstrates how to sign that you are learning ASL, how to ask someone to repeat themselves or sign slowly, and how to ask if someone is deaf or not. The video also reiterates how to have proper grammar in sign language. For example, when signing “I’m learning ASL” you would sign “me” “learn” “ASL” “me.” With “what’s your name?” you would sign “you” “name” “what” “you.”
The video also talks about proper signing etiquette and what you should watch for when you’re signing to somebody. You should ensure you’re maintaining eye contact, that you are turning off your voice to avoid using English grammar, and practicing daily. ASL can be a difficult language to learn, and if you are not practicing often enough, your skills will not be as sharp. I’ve noticed this first hand as I’ve gotten carried away with other school work. I’ve put my ASL learning to the side and have fallen behind on my process. Running into someone who uses ASL as their primary form of communication felt like a real wake up call; that I need to freshen my skills and keep practicing.
