new to the site- need help please

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heidi:)

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I am brand new to this website so please forgive me if I am posting in the wrong place. i wanted to say hello and introduce myself. My name is Heidi. I am a 28 year old year hearing woman from ohio. I am a college junior in psychology. I recently started taking ASL classes as a part of my requirements and immediately upon taking the first class I felt a passion about the Deaf community. We were first taught about the things that deaf people have been through. Being forced to attend hearing school, forced to be oralized things like that. I never knew the efficiency rates of lip reading and never thought about what it would be like if I was deaf until I took this class. I dont really know how to explain how I feel with words other than passionate about making a difference somehow. I am brand new though like I said and I dont have many personal experiences with deaf people firsthand so I come from a point of view of ignorance. But I am dead set on changing that. I have been reading as much as I can get my hands on about the Deaf community. I think its a sad shame that more people dont know about ASL. I think everyone should be able to communicate with each other hearing and Deaf and it only makes sense to me that hearing people should learn ASL. So now I have become an advocate of sorts when it comes to this concept. I read someones personal story on here about attending Thanksgiving with the family and none of the family knew ASL so therefore the person was always left out. I can not explain the feelings this brought out in me. This is 2009 and people are still being left out like that. I have a billion questions about the Deaf community and such if anyone would like to help me out. Please take into consideration I am brand new to this and not sure of correct terms yet and please do not take offense if I dont word things properly. I want as much knowledge as possible about anything that anyone deems important. My sign language teacher is a Deaf woman who is a former graduate of Gallaudet University who has been teaching me as much as possible but other opinions are valuable to me. She told me that since I am catching on so fast in ASL and I am so fascinated and absorbed by it that I should look into Gallaudet for a prospective graduate school. Which seemed to make sense because I can not explain the passion this brought out in me. I have questions though ( sorry I am rambling) What are the general views of hearing people attending Gallaudet? I dont have any Deaf relatives either I just think it would be a great opportunity to become fluent in ASL and study psychology at the same time. Maybe in the future helping with deaf children. Are there people with negative attitudes towards hearing who want to be a part of the Deaf community? I am not sure how to put into words my mission. I know help is not the word I should be using because Deaf people certainly do not need my help so is advocate a good term to use to explain how I feel? Anyways thank you for taking the time to read my story I know its quite long but I have many questions. If anyone has anything I should know or any resources I should read please let me know. I am dying for as much information as possible.
 
I can totaly relate with you. I am an ASL Student and I am slowly working my way towards becoming an ASL Interpreter. I have felt the feelings you are going through. It drives me crazy how careless and incompitent people can be. I have been trying to educate as many people as I know on the Deaf community as I can to try to help spread knowledge instead of ignorance. I absolutely wish you luck on your mission because I too am on roughly the same one just in a different area and different part of the US.
 
welcome, who was your teacher who was a former graduate of Gallaudet University?
 
:welcome: to AllDeaf forum. I hope you have fun reading and posting all the threads here. See you around. :wave:
 
Thank you all for welcoming me to your forum. im still not quite sure of how to work this forum so if i am posting this somewhere aia shouldnt be someone let me know lol. My ASL teachers name is Nancy Resh I am not sure of the year she graduated. I go to Kent State University now and thats where she teaches. She is a great lady who has sparked an interest in me. I cant remember the other students name forgive me I am not very accustom to forums yet but it is nice to know that I am not alone in my mission as I call it. :)
 
welcome to this board :]

i believe that this is site is great place for you to browse through where you able to find the informations. Enjoy!

Peace-
 
The best way to learn more is to mingle with deaf people-meaning that looking for deaf clubs, pubs(though as ur in the u.s probably bars is an easier pronounciation)-everyone is always discussing ASL but personally what about BSL?-like i said mingle and find deaf friends thriough either safe sites on the web or in publications.-good luck x:ty:
 
your interest in Gallaudet University

Heidi

hello. my name is wednesday luria and I am the graduate school recruiter here at Gallaudet. I am going suggest that you email me at either: graduate.school@gallaudet.edu or wednesday.luria@gallaudet.edu. I would be happy to chat with you about graduate school opportunities.

you can also request materials via our online site: https://securedgspp.gallaudet.edu/gradschool/inquiry/

I look forward to chatting with you

wednesday luria, coordinator
graduate school recruiter
gallaudet university
 
Celticty said:
I can totaly relate with you. I am an ASL Student and I am slowly working my way towards becoming an ASL Interpreter. I have felt the feelings you are going through. It drives me crazy how careless and incompitent people can be. I have been trying to educate as many people as I know on the Deaf community as I can to try to help spread knowledge instead of ignorance. I absolutely wish you luck on your mission because I too am on roughly the same one just in a different area and different part of the US.
Click to expand...

I remember wanting to take a wooden mallet to all the people who thought they could do some of the things they do to Deaf people, my first signing (SEE) teacher, for example.
 
thank you all for welcoming me. I have learnd alot from this site already and I look forward to hopefully making some friends here. I am happy to report that we our now trying to start a Deaf awareness group at my school. I got the paperwork to start it just need some organization and members lol. I also strated a petition because I felt like I needed to do something somehow. I know its not much but I consider it just the beginning. The petition is about the lack of education about ASL and the Deaf community in hearing schools. I am hearing myself and I had no idea about anything to do with either. It makes me mad because I have wasted so many years being completely ignorant and now I have to try and catch up. I am a psychology student and I know that children have a critical period for learning a language and if these public schools taught ASL along with english it would really help to remove this communication barrier between the hearing and the Deaf. If anyone would like to view the petition the link is More Deaf education in Public schools Petition
 
heidi:) said:
thank you all for welcoming me. I have learnd alot from this site already and I look forward to hopefully making some friends here. I am happy to report that we our now trying to start a Deaf awareness group at my school. I got the paperwork to start it just need some organization and members lol. I also strated a petition because I felt like I needed to do something somehow. I know its not much but I consider it just the beginning. The petition is about the lack of education about ASL and the Deaf community in hearing schools. I am hearing myself and I had no idea about anything to do with either. It makes me mad because I have wasted so many years being completely ignorant and now I have to try and catch up. I am a psychology student and I know that children have a critical period for learning a language and if these public schools taught ASL along with english it would really help to remove this communication barrier between the hearing and the Deaf. If anyone would like to view the petition the link is More Deaf education in Public schools Petition
Click to expand...

Not likely to happen for such a tiny minority of the population as we are.

Since there is no legal definition of deafness comparable to the legal definition of blindness, 'deaf' and 'deafness' can have a variety of meanings. Table 2 gives the prevalence of deafness based on three possible descriptions. For example, if deafness is described as the "inability to hear and understand any speech," there are approximately 550 thousand deaf persons in the U.S. (1/4 of one percent of the U.S. population).

Demographic Aspects of Hearing Impairment
 
Hey great!

Celticty said:
I can totaly relate with you. I am an ASL Student and I am slowly working my way towards becoming an ASL Interpreter. I have felt the feelings you are going through. It drives me crazy how careless and incompitent people can be. I have been trying to educate as many people as I know on the Deaf community as I can to try to help spread knowledge instead of ignorance. I absolutely wish you luck on your mission because I too am on roughly the same one just in a different area and different part of the US.
Click to expand...

I went to a community college and I took ASL 1 and ASL 2. I sign slowly, though, and I'm not very confident in my ability to understand others who sign VERY FAST yet. I usually get some here and there if they are super-fast.

I had thought of being an interpreter, but it didn't work out. I still love the language and the wonderful people I have met!

I do speak Spanish fairly well (not like a native, but I am fluent enough to have a decent conversation), which I studied in 8th grade and high school. My high school didn't offer ASL. :(

I've had an ASL Deaf roommate before when I was still single. It was an interesting experience because she was teaching me more sign, but we had misunderstandings sometimes. She was the FASTEST typist!! :)

Currently I'm using what I know (and researching what I don't) to write a teen market Science Fiction novel about a deaf boy in a mainstream high school. He has a female hearing friend who's taken 4 years of ASL.

For my setting, I picked a REAL high school in the community where I grew up because they offer an ASL class. None of the major high schools in the area offer it, which is a crying SHAME!! (I'd like to spank them!)

I went to a mainstream middle school with a separate program for deaf students, and they had a deaf teacher (ASL). I didn't know how to sign back then, and I was clueless. When I got to High School, I had either a hard of hearing or oral deaf girl in my math class. She didn't sign, though, at least I never saw her sign, and I still couldn't do it yet. :(

I live near the WA state school for the deaf. I've seen some Deaf kids at the grocery store a few times. I've visited the one in CA before several years ago.

I'm studying on my own using the videos on ASL PRO DOT COM. I am a slow signer. :Oops: I need to get back into the swing of things and practice more!!! (I work full-time.) :roll: My former college class' video and book were really not helpful and hard for me to understand.

This is much better for me, and I can restart it faster and watch again, plus go slow motion. Repeat, repeat, repeat. :) I found books do not help me much... I get even more confused!

http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro.cgi

A couple of their signers are more expressive and easier for me to understand. (I love the video on You Tube of the guy signing with a bag over his head--I couldn't understand him AT ALL--just a good reminder of how important the FACE is!!)

JM
 
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