Before heading out to the vet

[mousme]

I had my first ASL class yesterday. (mellybean71, my teacher's name is Jo-Anne)

It was a really interesting time. For one, the entire class is silent. There is a strict "no voice" policy while class is in session. The idea, like most language classes, is to learn to think in ASL as opposed to think of it as a translation for English or French.

Jo-Anne is a beautiful black woman with a lovely smile. I don't interact with deaf people or the Deaf community much in my everyday life, so it was interesting for me to note that there is something of a "vocal" component to her language. I noticed it in other deaf people at the Centre while I was there. I'm not sure if the small sounds they make (kind of like "mm" noises, or "mm-hmm" or "unh," if you're looking for an onomatopoeia) come "naturally," in that they are brought to use their vocal chords as a automatic part of communicating, or if it's a cultural thing particular to the Deaf community, or if it's something else entirely. Something to find out later, I expect.

It was both difficult and easy. I have a lot of trouble making my fingers do some of the letters for fingerspelling ("R" was a bitch for me at first), and kept confusing some of the letters. Overall, though, I did okay. It was very frustrating not to be able to ask questions about the syntax. The teacher would often repeat the same signs to make sure we got the message, but while I understood the signs, I never did quite figure out in which order they should go.

For instance, I learned the signs for "practice" and "home," but she used them in sequence several times, so that I don't know which would go first in order to say "practice when [you] get home."

I also had trouble with some of the numbers. There is a lot of practice in my future. I'm already much more comfortable with the fingerspelling alphabet. I also need to get myself a clipboard for the handouts.

Okay. Time to pack Gretzky into her box and get going.

Comments

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I would love to practice with you. I sent my schedule to sultrysong last night so that we can try to coordinate seeing each other more than twice a year. :)

[mellybean71.livejournal.com]

In the meantime you can do practice tests on ASLpro.com and they're awesome for working on your fingerspelling. It can be addictive though. :)