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KiwiTerp

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HI Everyone! :wave:
My name is Nadine and I am a new member to alldeaf! I live in Wellington, New Zealand(or "Middle Earth" for any LOTR fans!) where I work as a sign language interpreter. I am really interested in travel and other cultures(I was actually born in Lebanon-I speak Arabic). I would love to visit the US (no state in particular, although San Fran is on my list of destinations!)

Ofcourse, when I do, I would love learn more about American Deaf culture and ASL. So, I thought it would be great if I could work as a teacher aide at a Deaf school/Deaf unit/or other. I would really appreciate some feedback on this idea of mine. Does it sound too impossible??
Can anyone recommend to me schools or organizations to contact to find out about working there?

Although I am not a fluent ASL user(yet! :P ) I think working with Deaf students would be a great sharing of knowledge and cultural exchange.

Thanks! :ty:
 
Hello and welcome to Alldeaf KiwiTerp! There are a few members here in AD that are interpreters here in the USA--I'm sure any one of them would be glad to direct you to a number of outstanding places/schools and information which you could check into...also, you can google it for the specific information you're earnestly seeking.... ;) Hope you'll enjoy your stay here in AD! :)
 
KiwiTerp said:
HI Everyone! :wave:
My name is Nadine and I am a new member to alldeaf! I live in Wellington, New Zealand(or "Middle Earth" for any LOTR fans!) where I work as a sign language interpreter. I am really interested in travel and other cultures(I was actually born in Lebanon-I speak Arabic). I would love to visit the US (no state in particular, although San Fran is on my list of destinations!)

Ofcourse, when I do, I would love learn more about American Deaf culture and ASL. So, I thought it would be great if I could work as a teacher aide at a Deaf school/Deaf unit/or other. I would really appreciate some feedback on this idea of mine. Does it sound too impossible??
Can anyone recommend to me schools or organizations to contact to find out about working there?

Although I am not a fluent ASL user(yet! :P ) I think working with Deaf students would be a great sharing of knowledge and cultural exchange.

Thanks! :ty:
Click to expand...
Before I say anything... Welcome to AD community! Enjoy your stay, Nadine! :thumb:

Back to your question: I actually think it is great idea for you to work as a teacher aide at deaf schools... you will learn how to sign language faster in that way but it is largely depend on schools and their policies. I believe CSDR/CSDF (California School for the Deaf in Riverside and California School for the Deaf in Fremont) require the certain level of ASL before they can get the job... Since I am not working at CSDR or CSDF so I don't have any idea however my mom does, I will send her a message thru pager to give me some information about CSDR/CSDF for you to look into. Sorry but I am not sure how good you are at ASL.. however I hope this 'limited' information will help you somewhat... I will pm (private message) you the information about CSDR/CSDF once I get the message from my mother.

btw, New Zealand is very, very beautiful country!
 
Thanks Magatsu! Any information I get is really helpful! So I appreciate the info you have given me. I've done searches in the net for schools, but as you can imagine, so much information comes up it is hard to sort things out!! That is why it is a great help when someone from the area actually recommends a place/school/org.etc..

I have VERY basic ASL skills, but ofcourse, if I do get the oppurtunity to go to any school in US, I will take a course or night class in ASL. I am fluent in NZ sign language, so hopefully that will give me a bit of advantage..I know that grammar, syntax, and classifiers are similar but vocabulary is different and ofcourse "cultural signs". My first sign language teacher was from america, he married a new zealand interpreter and that is how he ended up here! and now he teaches at the university with his wife (and they have a research unit). They use ASL with their hearing kids. I'm sure he will have no problem in giving me some lessons before i travel. I'm a quick learner;) I love languages.

So again thanks for your advice!
this is my email: (--'pm' me for my email address, thank you!--)

And yes, New Zealand is very beautiful. If only it wasn't so far away from the rest of the world!!!!!!!:P
 
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Understandable. That does represent a problem... Google is very excellent search tool for all of us to find the informations but toooo many informations, it becomes harder and harder for all of us to sort these out. I went these many times and it is getting tiring.

Since you already are fluent in NZ sign language, I think you shouldn't have any problem with being fluent in ASL but again, I may be wrong about this as well. I am sure that my mother couldn't get the information during this weekend due to school closed or didn't bring the information with her to her home but she sure will give me more information during weekday so it may take a bit while for me to gather and send it over... However you can check these links out that I provided for you about positions and requirements. If you have any question, please ask right away! I will do my best to answer any of your question(s).

Employment
CSDR: http://csdr-cde.ca.gov/employment/index.asp (I believe there is more available position.. they probably didn't update page yet but I may be wrong about it.. however I would recommend to contact them to find out)

CSDF: http://www.csdf.k12.ca.us/employment/

Homepage
CSDR: http://csdr-cde.ca.gov

CSDF: http://www.csdf.k12.ca.us


btw, for your safety or spam reason, I wouldn't recommend you to post the email address in the public. However I already copied/pasted your email address and will forward the information whatever I get from my mother :)

And no problem! :thumb:

Edit: btw about New Zealand, I am very curious about NZ for long time... may I ask you the few questions about New Zealand? I also want to visit there someday.
 
Very useful websites! I will look into them properly tomorrow (it's bedtime now here in nz:) )
and no rush with getting info from your mum, don't want to trouble you too much! you've been very kind.

In regards to differences between ASL and NZSL...NZSL is related to British Sign Language(BSL), so if you've ever made a signing brittish person well it's 80% similar. we fingerspell with 2 hand, I can fingerspell ok with ASL but "reading" it woooo you'll have to go slowwwww.....hehehe

Anyway, it's already 9.15pm Sunday night here, so better head off and prepare for monday(urgh!)

OH! and thanks for the spam reminder! i totally forgot about that!! such a nice experience talking to you that for a moment i forgot that the net also has an evil side!
 
KiwiTerp said:
HI Everyone! :wave:
My name is Nadine and I am a new member to alldeaf! I live in Wellington, New Zealand(or "Middle Earth" for any LOTR fans!) where I work as a sign language interpreter. I am really interested in travel and other cultures(I was actually born in Lebanon-I speak Arabic). I would love to visit the US (no state in particular, although San Fran is on my list of destinations!)

Ofcourse, when I do, I would love learn more about American Deaf culture and ASL. So, I thought it would be great if I could work as a teacher aide at a Deaf school/Deaf unit/or other. I would really appreciate some feedback on this idea of mine. Does it sound too impossible??Can anyone recommend to me schools or organizations to contact to find out about working there?

Although I am not a fluent ASL user(yet! :P ) I think working with Deaf students would be a great sharing of knowledge and cultural exchange.

Thanks! :ty:
Click to expand...

NO! NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!!! lol. That's EXACTLY what i want to do!!! I want to work in a Deaf school and/or teach Deaf Culture in a hearing school (i'm HOH) It's amazing that hearing ppl want to do this since there isn't much attention paid to Deaf Education (IMO).
 
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