So many signs!!

It's the second class of my Signing Exact English class and I feel like it went by so quickly.  At first it was so difficult to learn signs because I didn't know any. Now that I know many more signs and I know the head of the family groups, it is much easier to learn new signs. Head of the family group means the main sign (that it usually does not have a letter with it) that other signs related to its concept are derived from. For example, I believe the main sign for vehicle is car. Other vehicles like jeep, bus, taxi, truck, and some others are like a car, just the letters are changed to match the word of the sign.

Lately, I've been trying to come into contact with people who sign or are deaf. I think it'd be quite interesting to immerse myself into the deaf culture. Lois, my S.E.E signing teacher, just finished 3 lessons on deaf culture with the behind the scenes and what goes on from birth until later on. Some of the things she explained made me stare in wonder of how deaf kids go through life.

Since my last entry, the 2nd class started, but it's been a lot easier (as I typed about above). I've also been watching this drama show on ABCFamily entitled Switched at Birth. In a nutshell, two girls find out they were switched at birth. One family is a middle class Latino family who raised Daphne who is almost completely deaf. Now that I think about it, Regina (the mother) and Regina’s mother were one of the families that learned sign and tried to make Daphne’s life easier. The other family, the Kennishes, raised Bay, who looked nothing the rest of her relatives. They were of high class. The show has lots of signing, but they  mainly sign ASL. With the captions and the signs AND the mouthing of words it has been extremely easy to learn signs. Although, ASL is much more conceptual. S.E.E. signing doesn’t conform to the slang of English. For example “break” can be used in many different ways. There’s “break in,” “break out,” “break off” and much more. Going back to Lois’ mini lectures on deaf culture, it is so hard for a deaf child to learn words as a hearing child would because they don’t hear it or even see it.

I am so glad I am taking these classes and learning about a world I’ve never been a part of. I wish I knew someone who was deaf. I think now, I would appreciate them much more than I would have before this class. As far as signing goes, I think I’m one of the students that remember a lot of signs. I’ve kept all the paper on the signs we learned and which words they belong to. Sometimes I think of what signs belong to words that people say and sign it inside my head. I attempt signing to songs, but that’s impossible… It’s so fast and I haven’t signed enough just yet. Even though this project is for school, I think I’ll continue pursuing it and learn more and more as the years go by.

I do hope to meet with deaf people. The difficulties they have are unbelievable. To communicate with someone using only my hands, I think, will definitely be a challenge, but a GREAT way to practice. I hope to email my mentor and teacher to set up meetings with those hard-of-hearing people. I can’t wait.