I haven't posted much on alldeaf, because as a hearing individual without any friends who are more familiar with either ASL or the Deaf community, I am still very much in the process of learning and don't want to come across as "throwing my ignorance around". That said, I would like to see if anyone had any thoughts about my current setting/question. I have grown to truly respect and appreciate the Deaf community, and I was hoping I might get some advice on how to handle my current situation while (hopefully) avoiding both causing offense and largely abandoning pursuing ASL until I have graduated from my current program.
I only seriously decided that I wanted to study ASL when I was surrounded by a (relatively) large group of signing individuals when I was job shadowing an Occupational Therapist. I was struck by the expressiveness and elegance of ASL, and decided that along with wanting to enter the OT field, I would also like to study to be an ASL interpreter. I was able to take ASL1 last year before I realized that I will have to wait for at least a few years before I can seriously study the language.
I am finding my ASL skills are getting rusty already, so when I see people signing I find myself torn by the fact that I am too much of a beginner to be able to offer interesting conversation, and the desire to re-immerse myself in the language.
My question is, I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on ways that I could avoid completely losing my communication skills without imposing on conversationally capable people, I would appreciate it. Also, if you think I am making a mistake in planning to try to connect my role as an OTA with my studying ASL, I would like to know that too (I'd still plan to study ASL for my own sake, but I'm open to learning if it would be off-putting for me to make a point of it as an OT professional).
Thank you for your time. Back to wandering the site in obscurity I go.
(I realize this is a bit of a long post. I wanted to get the question out there before I neglected to do so, but I'll review and edit it when I'm less tired, and therefor a bit more succinct)
I only seriously decided that I wanted to study ASL when I was surrounded by a (relatively) large group of signing individuals when I was job shadowing an Occupational Therapist. I was struck by the expressiveness and elegance of ASL, and decided that along with wanting to enter the OT field, I would also like to study to be an ASL interpreter. I was able to take ASL1 last year before I realized that I will have to wait for at least a few years before I can seriously study the language.
I am finding my ASL skills are getting rusty already, so when I see people signing I find myself torn by the fact that I am too much of a beginner to be able to offer interesting conversation, and the desire to re-immerse myself in the language.
My question is, I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on ways that I could avoid completely losing my communication skills without imposing on conversationally capable people, I would appreciate it. Also, if you think I am making a mistake in planning to try to connect my role as an OTA with my studying ASL, I would like to know that too (I'd still plan to study ASL for my own sake, but I'm open to learning if it would be off-putting for me to make a point of it as an OT professional).
Thank you for your time. Back to wandering the site in obscurity I go.
(I realize this is a bit of a long post. I wanted to get the question out there before I neglected to do so, but I'll review and edit it when I'm less tired, and therefor a bit more succinct)
