Wiggee
New Member
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2012
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi,
My name is Wiggy. I'm hearing. I'm a college student, studying to become a high school math teacher. I apologize for this long post, but I've been lurking for a few weeks, worked up the courage to register, and now have enough courage to post. Skip down to the dashes if you want to see why I'm "mad" at you
After some time off from college from being burned out, I finally worked up the gumption to pick up my education and become a teacher. I wanted to make a difference to students, so I'm trying to become the best teacher I can.
As part of my transfer, I realized I needed language credits. Having studied Latin a decade prior in high school, I wanted something that would be a little more useful in teaching students. Living in Texas, the obvious choice is Spanish, but I figured we had enough teachers who were bad at Spanish. So I decided to learn sign language. When I started last semester, I was almost completely ignorant of Deaf culture. I knew ASL was not English, and that it had different syntax, that it wasn't the same as BSL, and knew 24 letters (darn you, P and Q!) and 9 numbers.
So, my logic was: hey, I can sign while I'm doing math, and help some students out? Maybe when I have a deaf student, I can help him out while lecturing by not needing a "translator".
Hoo boy, no. I quickly realized I was in over my head. As we studied Deaf culture, I realized how much of this world I hadn't even thought of yet. Reading about oralist history and some teaching techniques made me cringe. I love the English language, and I found myself falling for ASL.
As a second semester student, I know my signing is terrible, and my vocabulary terrible. My grammar is terrible, but I'm working to improve it. Being timid doesn't help.
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So, why am I mad at every single one of you? For ruining my plans. For making me want to be a part of this community, even if I can't fully be part of the culture.
I was going to take 2 semester of ASL, then continue on to become a teacher. I'm nearing my maximum credit hours, at which point I lose my ability to get financial aid, so I don't have much room for extra classes. But I've mentally committed myself to take ASL 3 and 4 so I can become fluent enough to carry on a conversation without making a complete fool of myself.
And I'm questioning my career choice. Reading about these situations where people are relegated to second class citizen status by ignorant [censored]s just sets me off. Is teaching where I can make the most difference? Or should I need to move into administration (or some other field) where I can attempt to stop the trouble that arises from belligerent ignorance?
Anyways... a very sincere to all of you for letting me peek in through the window to the Deaf world. Reading some of the posts about hearing people makes me mad - I had hoped there weren't such idiotic people in the world anymore.
If I ever seem like I'm being preachy, or tripping over my overwhelming ignorance, I apologize in advance.
And now, my novel complete, I go back to lurking.
My name is Wiggy. I'm hearing. I'm a college student, studying to become a high school math teacher. I apologize for this long post, but I've been lurking for a few weeks, worked up the courage to register, and now have enough courage to post. Skip down to the dashes if you want to see why I'm "mad" at you
After some time off from college from being burned out, I finally worked up the gumption to pick up my education and become a teacher. I wanted to make a difference to students, so I'm trying to become the best teacher I can.
As part of my transfer, I realized I needed language credits. Having studied Latin a decade prior in high school, I wanted something that would be a little more useful in teaching students. Living in Texas, the obvious choice is Spanish, but I figured we had enough teachers who were bad at Spanish. So I decided to learn sign language. When I started last semester, I was almost completely ignorant of Deaf culture. I knew ASL was not English, and that it had different syntax, that it wasn't the same as BSL, and knew 24 letters (darn you, P and Q!) and 9 numbers.
So, my logic was: hey, I can sign while I'm doing math, and help some students out? Maybe when I have a deaf student, I can help him out while lecturing by not needing a "translator".
Hoo boy, no. I quickly realized I was in over my head. As we studied Deaf culture, I realized how much of this world I hadn't even thought of yet. Reading about oralist history and some teaching techniques made me cringe. I love the English language, and I found myself falling for ASL.
As a second semester student, I know my signing is terrible, and my vocabulary terrible. My grammar is terrible, but I'm working to improve it. Being timid doesn't help.
--------------
So, why am I mad at every single one of you? For ruining my plans. For making me want to be a part of this community, even if I can't fully be part of the culture.
I was going to take 2 semester of ASL, then continue on to become a teacher. I'm nearing my maximum credit hours, at which point I lose my ability to get financial aid, so I don't have much room for extra classes. But I've mentally committed myself to take ASL 3 and 4 so I can become fluent enough to carry on a conversation without making a complete fool of myself.
And I'm questioning my career choice. Reading about these situations where people are relegated to second class citizen status by ignorant [censored]s just sets me off. Is teaching where I can make the most difference? Or should I need to move into administration (or some other field) where I can attempt to stop the trouble that arises from belligerent ignorance?
Anyways... a very sincere
to all of you for letting me peek in through the window to the Deaf world. Reading some of the posts about hearing people makes me mad - I had hoped there weren't such idiotic people in the world anymore.If I ever seem like I'm being preachy, or tripping over my overwhelming ignorance, I apologize in advance.
And now, my novel complete, I go back to lurking.