Hi Kobecon!
I've always been interested in languages, and I had initially planned to become a Mandarin / English translator back in college, but I couldn't stay in Beijing longer than the year I was there so I lost my level of fluency (I got to a point where I was pretty conversational...so cool). The people I spoke with were impressed that I tried to speak in their language when I was there, and helped me if I didn't know a word or was unclear. I was surprised they weren't impatient with me, and moved by it.
I've always wanted to be understood by the people around me. I think everyone does, to some point, but something I really noticed coming back to the U.S. is how our culture can be so unhelpful or even hostile to people who don't speak English. I didn't ever want to be like that...it has always been important to me that I do what I can to meet people at least halfway. You never know what amazing things someone else might come up with, unless you're looking and listening for it!
A few years ago I was hanging out with my family, including my cousin who has substantial autism. He was using a few signs with his sister during a time when he was upset, but didn't want to speak. When I learned from my aunt that he was using sign language, it made me want to learn too, since he and I have never really been able to communicate closely before when speaking. I started thinking about how hard it must be to have to communicate when not only the language, but even the modalities are different. Language had fascinated me yet again.
In 2019 I went to an ASL Immersion week at NM School for the Deaf. There I started learning more about Deaf culture and history, and it just kinda went from there! I liked the school so much I thought it'd be cool to end up working there someday.
Personally I think we should all be learning ASL and Spanish from preschool on in this country. I wish I'd had that kind of background so I could communicate with more people and be a point of access without needing to go abroad...it would have made going abroad easier for me too. It would make others more understanding overall, I think, about doing things differently than they normally would. We could use that right now to become more unified, too.
Thanks for replying to me! Sorry about the above novella. XD