ASL with a purpose

[MMcC]

Hi everyone,
I had an interesting chat with someone last weekend, and it has stayed on my mind all week. Several posts here have also contributed to what I've been thinking. So, I'm going to throw it out there for your comments and feedback.

Over the past few months, as a part of my reacquisition of ASL, I've been going to one of the Deaf chats that are held at Starbucks on the 2nd Saturday of each month. Sometimes there are only 3 or 4 people there, and sometimes there have been as many as 10. It has REALLY helped both expressive and receptive skills. If you are learning ASL on your own, I strongly (I can not stress that word enough) suggest that you find out where your local Deaf community gets together and take the plunge. Even if you are a novice, your effort in connecting won't go unnoticed. I've made some great new friends, both hearing and Deaf.

OK... so, last weekend, I was chatting with a woman who has been profoundly deaf since childhood. We exchanged backgrounds and I told her all about how I learned to sign as a child...she told me she had a hearing friend as a child who learned to sign. It was great to hear about the other side or my own experience. Anyway, she asked me, "Now that you can sign, what are you going to do with it?" I never really thought about this. I am a hearing person, living in the hearing world. It is not my intention (at least at this point in my life), to work in the Deaf community or become and interpreter, etc. So this is my question for all you hearies out there who are so charged up to learn ASL: What will you do with you ASL skills?

I really enjoy my Saturdays at Starbucks chatting with my Deaf friends, and it enriches my life. Next month, I've been invited to my first Deaf dinner. I'm really looking forward to it. I will be the only hearing person there. But, I feel like I'm not the average hearing person. I'm not religious, and I don't attend a church... so signing at church is NOT for me. I find it kind of ridiculous, too. I've seen interpreters at churches who aren't signing for anyone. They are just up there fumbling along.

The woman I chatted with had several suggestions. One was to become a Big Brother for a Deaf child. That sounds like a rewarding commitment, and serious commitment. I'm not certain I have the time to do that. She also suggested that I could just add my name to a list of hearing volunteers at our local Deaf Community Center. OK... I am going to do that, but I have no idea what types of things I will be asked to help with. My general impression from the Deaf that I have met is that they are fully capable and self-sufficient in their lives. They don't really need help from some hearing stranger.

So, those of you who are hearing and member of AllDeaf... what do you plan to do with your ASL skills? I'm talking about those of you who got past your love of "Switched at Birth" and the amazing Marlee Matlin...those of you who actually are capable of holding a conversation with a Deaf person through ASL...those of you who can fingerspell at a decent speed so that a Deaf person doesn't roll their eyes.

I feel like I'm an outsider to the Deaf community until I actually do something to contribute and join in. Coffee chats are nice, but it isn't much more than a visit to the community. I'm married...so I'm not looking for some creepy hookup with any Deaf person that comes along (eww!). No one in my family is dD/hh. I'm left with my own plan.

Finally, those of you who are dD/hh...do you even want a hearie who signs reasonably well to cross your path in any meaningful way? ASL was a part of my childhood and not something I wanted to lose. But, once my connection to a deaf family was gone, I never used ASL again until recently (ok... there was that one time at an airport). It may be very important for the zillions of hearing people who want to acquire ASL to know whether or not our presence in the dD/hh world is even welcome. How often have we all read that intro post of a teenage girl who wants to learn sign? Is it even welcomed by the dD/hh community? And...what do you plan to do with your ASL skills once you learn? Newsflash: You can't sit in your room and sign to a mirror...that isn't communication.

OK... I leave it now to all of you.

 

[Nic]

MMcC, thanks for sharing your experience!

I guess I'm not technically just a hearie anymore since my hearing loss has progressed and I consider myself HOH now, but I am a new student of ASL and new to really exploring my hearing loss and what it means to me and might mean to me in the future.

My purpose for learning ASL is due to my hearing loss. It's been gradually getting worse. With my right ear as far along as it is having experienced what it's like to not be able to understand voices with that ear, if my left catches up, I'd like to be conversational in ASL before that happens. Docs told me hearing aids won't get my right ear speech discrimination back, and they can't tell me what my future holds, so that's where my desire to learn ASL came from.

Beyond that, I've always been interested in language and enjoy learning new languages; so has my wife. So learning has been fun for both of us so far. I've been learning ASL with my wife, we've so far only been through the first course offered at our local community college. The learning experience has been great and our instructor is awesome. She's Deaf, class was taught with no voice from day 1. We'll be taking the second class soon.

My intention is to start attending ASL meetups (there's one every month at a local Tully's that seems to attract a good number of people) to take our skills to the next level. I'm glad to hear you had a good experience with your local Starbucks ASL meet up.

I tend to be less chatty in person, but I've been trying to figure out if that's related to my hearing loss and not being able to follow conversation frequently, or if it's just something else. It's weird how gradual changes creep up on you and you can't really remember what it was like before. I'm worried I won't have anything to talk about, I tend to listen a lot more than I contribute in conversations in person.

I like the idea of becoming a Big Brother to a Deaf child. It's something I honestly wouldn't have thought of. But, I've always thought the Big Brothers Big Sisters concept is incredibly awesome and something I've thought would be awesome to do. I had a coworker who had a little brother and he and his wife found it incredibly rewarding.

Beyond having friends or family members who use ASL, I'm not sure what I would do with it. For me, it's a way to guarantee I can communicate if my hearing loss continues. I imagine once I'm conversational, if I find it more comfortable, or at least equally comfortable to communicate with ASL, I'll seek out people who use ASL and expand my circle of friends.

Taking it far enough to become a terp is a serious commitment and a lot of work. I agree about the church signing. I can't really think of other applications, for me it's about preserving my ability to communicate easily with my wife, and improving my social situation in the future should my hearing loss continue to progress.

 

[MMcC]

If you are learning ASL, or any language for that matter, conversing with others is vitally important. I found my receprive skills very weak at first. Native ASL users sign very differently than instructors, videos and textbooks. I would advise anyone reading this post to get out there and learn ASL from those who use it daily as their common means of communication. To do otherwise is a waste of time and disrespectful to the language.

Then there is the issue of culture. I'll let you know if I make a complete fool of myself at my first silent dinner.

 

[Swedeafa]

I am hard of hearing, so I am mainly learning sign language because I am tired of how much focus listening requires. If I can have a break from time to time and sign a little, it will give me more patience and energy for the hearing part of life. I would love to have the opportunity to get an interpreter for the occasions when I feel excluded because my hearing is not enough for the specific situation.

I feel like I have to do something more with my signing skills both in order to learn and to keep the skills. It is said that it takes 10 000 hours to become an expert in any field. Well, how on earth am I going to get 10 000 hours of signing if I only meet Deaf for an hour every other week at a coffee chat? My colleagues at work, friends and family do not know how to sign. Even if I am getting a few new Deaf friends, I still would only sign ones a week or so. Getting a boyfriend/husband who knows sign language is not really realistic. Getting a job where I would use sign language frequently is difficult, but I would love that. Teaching would be a great option. I have always been annoyed that Deaf kids do not get enough quality education. However, before doing something like that, I need to be as fluent in signing as possible. A problem would be that teaching is paid much less than my current profession.

I would not mind to actually use my signing skills for something, but I am not sure there are any good opportunities for doing so.