Grayma
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30 years ago I took sign language classes at college. I took three or four altogether, in two states. I thought before it was two classes, but I just remembered I took a couple others offered at the library:
a beginning course at the library in Arizona when I was a teen. I think it was ASL, but it's been so long and the course was so basic that I can't be sure anymore.
SEE in California because that is all that was offered, at least all I knew about, taught by a hearing instructor.
ASL in Oregon, taught by a CODA who also sometimes interpreted for some metal bands that came through- Guns n Roses, maybe?
Now:
I use Lifeprint, thanks to Kristina and this sticky thread she created:
http://www.alldeaf.com/sign-language-oralism/75825-links-websites-learning-asl.html
I use it with my kids so I get some practice at home, but not as much receptive practice as I would like.
On Sundays I 'interpret' at church for my deaf friend. I am no interpreter, but she sees this, I think, as a hands on training class for me. She sets up our seating the way she likes, and then I interpret. She stops me when I make a sign she doesn't know, and whenever I fingerspell a word she stops me and signs the word, and then I have to keep signing it back until she approves, and then we go on- I don't bother trying to catch up what we missed during my impromptu sign lesson, and I don't think she expects me to.
On Sunday afternoons a handful of people from church, including my deaf friend, meet in the afternoon for about an hour of what I would call ASL club. We practice the Lifeprint lessons, she watches us, corrects or signs, and sometimes tells us that she would not use that sign, she'd use another one.
Sunday nights I get another working class on ASL during the sermon for about half the evening service, then she leaves to go somewhere where there is a real interpreter who knows what she is doing.
During the week, I watch one of the Bravo family videos. Once a week I go back into town and meet one or two of the guys from our ASL club and we practice some more- more vocabulary than syntax or grammar. Interesting, both of them speak Russian and English.
Twice a week two Mormon missionaries come to the house for sign language tutoriing.
During the week I also usually will watch one or more videos in ASL on youtube or vimeo, although vimeo often refuses to load for me.
Also I write down a list all week long of words I've heard that I do not know the sign for, and ask either my deaf friend or the Mormon girl when I see them next.
With all that, I feel like I ought to be making more progress than I am. Sundays are particularly beneficial, I think, but also intense, and by the end of the day I am exhausted, my shoulders ache, and my brain feels like it's been wrapped tightly in a spider web and sucked empty.
I'm curious how others learned, and if you have any suggestions to me for what I could do better. I would love to meet more deaf people, but I don't know how. I don't know of any signers in my town.
a beginning course at the library in Arizona when I was a teen. I think it was ASL, but it's been so long and the course was so basic that I can't be sure anymore.
SEE in California because that is all that was offered, at least all I knew about, taught by a hearing instructor.
ASL in Oregon, taught by a CODA who also sometimes interpreted for some metal bands that came through- Guns n Roses, maybe?
Now:
I use Lifeprint, thanks to Kristina and this sticky thread she created:
http://www.alldeaf.com/sign-language-oralism/75825-links-websites-learning-asl.html
I use it with my kids so I get some practice at home, but not as much receptive practice as I would like.
On Sundays I 'interpret' at church for my deaf friend. I am no interpreter, but she sees this, I think, as a hands on training class for me. She sets up our seating the way she likes, and then I interpret. She stops me when I make a sign she doesn't know, and whenever I fingerspell a word she stops me and signs the word, and then I have to keep signing it back until she approves, and then we go on- I don't bother trying to catch up what we missed during my impromptu sign lesson, and I don't think she expects me to.
On Sunday afternoons a handful of people from church, including my deaf friend, meet in the afternoon for about an hour of what I would call ASL club. We practice the Lifeprint lessons, she watches us, corrects or signs, and sometimes tells us that she would not use that sign, she'd use another one.
Sunday nights I get another working class on ASL during the sermon for about half the evening service, then she leaves to go somewhere where there is a real interpreter who knows what she is doing.
During the week, I watch one of the Bravo family videos. Once a week I go back into town and meet one or two of the guys from our ASL club and we practice some more- more vocabulary than syntax or grammar. Interesting, both of them speak Russian and English.
Twice a week two Mormon missionaries come to the house for sign language tutoriing.
During the week I also usually will watch one or more videos in ASL on youtube or vimeo, although vimeo often refuses to load for me.
Also I write down a list all week long of words I've heard that I do not know the sign for, and ask either my deaf friend or the Mormon girl when I see them next.
With all that, I feel like I ought to be making more progress than I am. Sundays are particularly beneficial, I think, but also intense, and by the end of the day I am exhausted, my shoulders ache, and my brain feels like it's been wrapped tightly in a spider web and sucked empty.
I'm curious how others learned, and if you have any suggestions to me for what I could do better. I would love to meet more deaf people, but I don't know how. I don't know of any signers in my town.