Okay okay, first lets get this gender situation corrected. I'm a guy. please, refer me as "he." thank you very much. sorry if this truth disappoints anyone...
And no i have not left, i was busy past week. I don't always have time to be on the internet, you know. There is what is called, an outside world. Not just the world wide web.
English is NOT his primary language. Who decided that? He doesn't even know english. How would that be a primary? He knows ASL waaay more. But just not enough to understand deeper concepts. I was born in Brazil, moved to the US, but I'm korean. So my 'mother tongue' was korean. then my 'primary' became portuguese. As I moved here, my primary became 'english', and now I know more ASL than korean. English is my 'primary' because I can understand it, read it, express it, translate and interpret it than any other language. English is not his primary.
Yes, i'm not specialized to teach ASL, but how can I teach english if he doesn't know what the word is in his own PRIMARY language? For example: get one hand to do the number 1 sign, but signifying a person. now with your other hand, make a shape of a open palm but closed fingers. now move that hand up and down facing the other hand with the "1". this is roughly translated as "qualities" "who that person is". How do you teach the word "quality" in english if he doesn't know the sign? Dictionaries use other words in english to describe an english word. But how will he learn it if he doesn't know english to begin with? So, yes, ASL IS his primary. Not english. I know what I'm talking about, and I don't need criticism.
Whether or not he's a candidate for a surgery, I have no idea. I spoke to his dad today and he said he's going to get a "counselor" regarding that situation. So it looks like he's going to check it out. Hope that goes well.
As for his "depression" at least from my observation according to your guy's inputs.. I told his dad he's very sad and gets frustrated often. And he knew. So I can't really do anything beyond that. I'm not the family, and I'm only assigned to teach english and math. So like some of you said, I'm just going to stick to teaching that. I can't control what the family wants and doesn't want, so as much as I'd love to look for help and other specialized people in the field, I wouldn't be able to because his dad knows of what's goin on. He just decided not to do anything about it, and wants me to just befriend him and keep him happy.
It does make me sad that I can't help him mentally, but we'll see how it goes. I'm going to try to make him comfortable and happy around me, maybe that'll help in the long run.
Family just wants him to be able to make a living on his own some day. Parent's can't feed him all his life you know. You know what they say, Kid's are the parent's retirement funds. But in this case, they won't get much out of him besides physical service because at this rate he won't get anywhere. But there can be drastic changes in short periods of time, so I'm no judge of that.
Parents just don't want to sign much. They don't bother expanding their vocabulary, and because of their minimum knowledge in ASL, they don't speak with him very long. Just little commands like "learn, study, read," little stuff like that. KSL wouldn't help, because then my student would need to learn ANOTHER language, and he'd only get more frustrated.
He got kicked out because he caused a lot of trouble. He's self-centered. He only cares about what he wants and what he likes. And he doesn't like a lot of things. So when there's something he doesn't like or someone he doesn't like, he'll express it, and get in trouble for it. Either someone beats him up, or he gets punished for his actions. And that's why he was kicked out/pulled out of schools. And now the school he goes to is moving to another city, so he wont be able to attend that. It's an adult school.
I'd teach him speech but I don't know how to. Like someone mentioned earlier, if the parents wanted him to talk, they'd hire a specialist. But the parents want him to learn english reading and writing, and some help in other school subjects. Which is why they asked the school, which I work under, to help him out with those.
So i'm not UNDER qualified, I'm actually OVER-qualifying myself by teaching him other things. One in which I believe is more important that anything else, socializing. He has no friends. I'm the only guy he can open up to freely because I'm the only one he knows that knows sign language. I take my time to take him out to places and hang out with him. I buy him food, and everything else on my own expense. I interpret stuff on tv, i read him stuff off the internet, and countless other things. I felt pretty offended when you called me un-qualified. Not knowing my full background. That was pretty harsh. I'm the only good thing that happened to him in his life. He's never done anything else and never been to many places, but I took my time and took him out. Not for the money, but because I wanted him to progress mentally, and socially.
Sorry if there are some questions unanswered.
And any more 'help,' not criticism, will be appreciated.
Something that'll help him at least feel good about himself. I'm trying to take him out to do different sports and activities. What do you guys think?
