Just started ASL 1

My current ASL teacher is Deaf, but he voices a lot of words, too. He also lets other people talk in class. It drives me nuts. I will interrupt the entire class to have him spell out words that are voiced because I can't understand them, and he knows it. So if he thinks I'm "not deaf enough" and wants to play some hardball, fine. Let's play ball, bitch.

Good thing my ASL is much more advanced than the rest of the class thanks to signing with deaf friends and practicing on my own, otherwise if I were counting on this class to teach me anything, I would be sorely disappointed.

IMO, voice and even English to a certain degree, have no place in an ASL classroom.
 
my ASL class is voice-off...when I first started going there I did not talk to show respect for Deaf environment. In the last couple of weeks the teacher has really been trying to remind people in the class not to talk - among themselves while in the room, and not while signing. I naturally tend to watch more than I talk anyway. While my ASL is not so good, it has helped me that I have had some experiences with my friend informally teaching me ASL when we're able to get together and she'll remind me - ASL, no English!
 
i'm in ASL 1 right now and consider myself lucky to have a Deaf professor. our class is "voices off" and i think i'm learning much more (and faster) that way, because i can't fall back on speaking to ask questions if i'm unsure about something. i find that i'm learning even more new signs and my fingerspelling is improving from trying to explain my questions.
 
I've completed ASL 2 and would like to take it again, have to keep checking back on it!
 
Im hearing also but learning form the Deaf is awesome. Im in college & final able to take ASL1 :( wish i could have taken it in high school but by time my school got ASL as a 2nd language I was already 3 yrs in Spanish, but yeah I have a deaf teacher & he is great but he can speak to us because he turned deaf later in life so I guess it kind of makes it easier for me to learn from him
 
I'm really nervous for my first class. It's taught by a hearing instructor, and an interpreter will be there.

I'm deaf and only know a little sign, so I'm not sure how it will go. Why the interpreter is there is up for debate, considering it's a beginner class...Will the teacher talk and then the interpreter sign it? I have no idea. I have no clue if it's voice off or not, but hopefully I won't have too much trouble understanding.
 
JennJenn said:
Hey everyone :D

So basically, I'm hearing (my whole family is) but I decided I want to learn ASL because I have known how to fingerspell since I was a kid (they had diagrams in the back of my children's dictionary :P) and I know BASIC, BASIC asl...so why not expand my vocabulary. Colleges also enjoy it if you have a second language...so yeah.

My teacher is deaf...which threw me off at first because I was thinking, "How do you learn from a deaf teacher" but so far it's going really well. He had an interpreter come in for the first hour to do introductions and stuff, so that was helpful, and when he's teaching by himself he basically writes words on the board, points to them, then signs them. He'll then sign something and have us go up to the board and point to the word or phrase he signed.

Has anyone else had a deaf ASL teacher and found it difficult? I think so far it should be okay. He seems to have been doing this for a long time, and he wrote "RELAX, NO PRESSURE" on the board like a thousand times, so I think he gets that it's confusing for us.

I think this is going to be one class in school that I have to pay attention to. haha. I'm only 16 by the way. 11th grade...and I'm taking ASL once a week at night school.

:)

Jennifer
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Learning from a Deaf teacher is the best! My ASL 1 teacher was deaf and it was amazing! Really the best way to learn is to be immersed in it, so a deaf teacher rocks!

My first day in class, my professor wrote 'little red riding hood' on the board and then signed the story to show us how much of ASL was body language and it was awesome. We understood everything.

It may get difficult at times for you, but trust me you'll get use to it, and soon you'll understand your teachers signing accent better than hearing signers. Since your professor is Deaf, they not only understand their language but have a love for it, so he'll be a good teacher!

I love having Deaf teachers!
 
natty_4ever said:
I'm really nervous for my first class. It's taught by a hearing instructor, and an interpreter will be there.

I'm deaf and only know a little sign, so I'm not sure how it will go. Why the interpreter is there is up for debate, considering it's a beginner class...Will the teacher talk and then the interpreter sign it? I have no idea. I have no clue if it's voice off or not, but hopefully I won't have too much trouble understanding.
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My class was taught by a hearing instructor. I am total deaf. I was able to read his lips a little, but we had enough handouts and he was prepared for me and gave me a lot more info than everyone else. We did have 3 videos that he showed that were not cc'd, but the instructor managed to get a transcript of them for me. Now, my class was only 18 hours, but He still did his best to make sure I learned as well as the rest of the class. I was the only deaf and there were no hoh people in the class. It was all school teachers for our local school district.
 
KristinaB said:
My class was taught by a hearing instructor. I am total deaf. I was able to read his lips a little, but we had enough handouts and he was prepared for me and gave me a lot more info than everyone else. We did have 3 videos that he showed that were not cc'd, but the instructor managed to get a transcript of them for me. Now, my class was only 18 hours, but He still did his best to make sure I learned as well as the rest of the class. I was the only deaf and there were no hoh people in the class. It was all school teachers for our local school district.
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Hmm..I think I'll email the instructor ahead of time and let them know that my friend and I taking the class are both deaf, then. Thank you for that bit of insight!
 
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