Hearing person that would love some extra help!

smdavis

smdavis

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Hello! My name is Savannah, and I am currently in college studying to become a Sign Language Interpreter. I'm a month away from finishing my ASL I class, and I want to take ASL II this summer, but I feel that I'm not progressing as fast as my other classmates. I still have trouble understanding fast fingerspelling, an even though I can understand the majority of what my professor is signing, I'm always in a state of feeling hopeless, because if I can't even do the basics, how would I do in the future as an interpreter? It has gotten to a point where I always apologize for not picking up on what people are saying, and even though they say that it is no problem, I always feel embarrassed to ask for help from people that I know.

If anyone hearing or deaf could help me with tips or tricks in fingerspelling recognition or signing in general via video pen pal or by simply giving advice through this thread, that would be amazing! I really do love ASL and the culture surrounding it so much, it is just taking me a little bit longer than my peers to keep up with everything.
 
:welcome:

It would help if you could socialize with the Deaf community. Until you immerse yourself in the real life Deaf world, you won't totally "get it."

When I went thru ITP, one course we had was just about fingerspelling and numbers. If your school offers that, take it.

It also helps to not think "ASL-to-English" and "English-to-ASL" -- your brain needs to learn "ASL (period)". That is, don't try to make your thoughts sign-to-word or word-to-sign -- just conceptualize your thought and go straight to the target language.

A lot is about practice, practice, practice. Besides, your classmates may not be as advanced as you believe.

Whatever you do, don't fake understanding. There's no telling what you might end up agreeing to. :lol:
 
Reba said:
:welcome:

It would help if you could socialize with the Deaf community. Until you immerse yourself in the real life Deaf world, you won't totally "get it."

When I went thru ITP, one course we had was just about fingerspelling and numbers. If your school offers that, take it.

It also helps to not think "ASL-to-English" and "English-to-ASL" -- your brain needs to learn "ASL (period)". That is, don't try to make your thoughts sign-to-word or word-to-sign -- just conceptualize your thought and go straight to the target language.

A lot is about practice, practice, practice. Besides, your classmates may not be as advanced as you believe.

Whatever you do, don't fake understanding. There's no telling what you might end up agreeing to. :lol:
Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice! I attended a Sign & Dine event at a local mall and I felt very overwhelmed with the 20+ people around me signing, but I'm confident that with the proper learning skills, it wont be as scary! :dance2:
 
Hello!I

I'm excited to meet you here! :D I'm HOH but I tell people that I'm deaf all the time. I can tell you that I've been learning ASL for 3 years but I'm still learnin', you know I am more than enough but there's many things to learn. You know, that comes from massive action and consistency to become fluent in ASL. You gotta get used to it for a long time so that you can feel like 'a deaf person' in the deaf community. By thw way, I'm Carlos.

See you later!
 
Carlos Ruiz said:
Hello!I

I'm excited to meet you here! :D I'm HOH but I tell people that I'm deaf all the time. I can tell you that I've been learning ASL for 3 years but I'm still learnin', you know I am more than enough but there's many things to learn. You know, that comes from massive action and consistency to become fluent in ASL. You gotta get used to it for a long time so that you can feel like 'a deaf person' in the deaf community. By thw way, I'm Carlos.

See you later!
Click to expand...
Hi Carlos! Thank you for the advice!
 
Hook up with a practice partner (or partners would even be better) that you can get together with on a regular basis...face to face. You have to practice continuously. Find someone local or nearby or groups meetings that meet regularly and "only sign". You must practice.

Also, RULE #1 for learning anything... (ASL, tennis, golf, math, business .....) ....Always work with someone better than you...otherwise you will not be learning or improving...you will only be teaching the other person.
 
Welcome :wave:

Since you are in college, you might want to see if there are any ASL tutors available on campus. Some colleges offer free tutoring to students (tutors are paid by the school).
 
Hi everyone,

My name is Jennifer, I'm hearing, and I'm currently learning ASL. I'm enjoying learning about the language and the culture, but its a bit more difficult since I'm not active in the Deaf community. I'm hoping getting on this site will help some. Feel free to message me!
 
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