Monkey See, Monkey Do, Learning ASL

I am sitting in ASL 101 at my university. Since the professor required silence for the two whole hours that we were in class, I didn't see the point of wearing my CI. I asked my new friend AG if she wore her CI. She said that she did and just heard all the little sounds like chairs creaking and scratching along the floor and people breathing. I told her that I couldn't do that. I supposed it was from my old days of wearing my Spectra when silence meant something was wrong. (My Freedom now tells me with a beep that there's something going on.) And I liked to hear my own silence that I've created for myself.

It's been quite fun learning ASL but a little frustrating at times because we learn so much over the course of 2 hours. I would guess that we learn probably upwards of 20-40 new signs in each class as well as grammatical structure. I'm learning quickly without much outside studying. Unlike in my spoken foreign language class, I can mimic the teacher as she signs. We've all learned to sign with correct arms and hands. You just learn. Sometimes it's entertaining to watch her act out because she can be a total clown (Outsiders of the Deaf culture would indeed think she's a clown). She's really good at clarifying signs if you can't figure out the hand and finger positions.

Of course, it's a visual language and people like me would pick it up quickly. But I didn't think I could communicate so clearly in front of the entire class. No worries about mispronouciations. No worries about not picking up the accent. But we did have to worry about signing in the right direction and with right finger positions...and of course, using our eyebrows to suggest the meaning of our sentences/questions. I think it's the professor's biggest obsession.

Our class is mostly made up of women with two men in there. The men are actually quite good and somehow I could see them working well with deaf people. So unlike at UMass, we do not have football players. *grins* I was actually afraid of that but neither are in sports, I believe. We do have one girl who I think is on field hockey. I think it does say something about the student-athletes at my school. And half of the class is black. Hm... even more interesting to me.

One of my dumb moments just happened yesterday when she was teaching us family vocabulary. First, she had our male and female students who shared the same first name to be the newlyweds/parents. Then she had them give birth to two daughters. At one point, she signed that the two daughters were together and I missed the sign for "sisters" so my brain was confused, "Lesbians?" I almost chuckled to myself.

I did have my frustrations when I have to communicate with someone so close to me. I realized this when we got up to question each other about our housing and transportation situations. I signed with a girl who's probably like 4'11" but our area was getting a little crowded so she was literally a foot away from me. I totally, totally missed almost everything that she said because her hands were in my blind spots. I got really scared and I realized that either A) I need to step back, or B) use the opportunity for tactile signing. I chose to take 2 or 3 steps back to have at least 3 feet between the two of us. That was much better. It wouldn't matter where I sit in the class- I could see my teacher from all around the room, but if I was in one-on-one conversation, I needed room. I also noticed that I couldn't even sign with someone next to me because they're just too close. Sometimes, I also missed the fingerspelling when it's done just too quickly. I was beginning to think about sitting with AG and take her right hand with my left and following the fingerspelling. She knew about my blindness but nobody else in the class did. They will find out when I give a lecture at the end of the semester about deafblindness.

Nevertheless, I enjoy going to this class. It's meaningful to me personally. It's not really much of a break from my masters program because it's still work. And I actually have a real purpose of being here. So much of studying actually happens in class, not necessarily outside of it. I am excited to show off my knowledge to one of my very best friends from home. I think I will run into her mother first though and you know what happens.

You know when your brain gets a really good exercise when you have a headache after class? Sometimes I got that when I studied Hebrew or Yiddish in my intensive courses, but I never thought two hours of ASL could wreck havoc on my ability to think straight or absorb new material for the next few hours. And it's only twice a week. (But I have to cut my Thursday an hour short due to overlapping time with my graduate seminar, darn it!) I guess I must really be getting more information than I'm used to in my other language classes. And that's a good sign.