Hello!! Learning signing has still been tons of fun. Last class we practiced finger spelling. It means to finger spell a word. It may sound easy, but even after memorizing the signs for each letter, it is extremely difficult to just finger spell out of nowhere. It is not a one person job either. When having a conversation with someone and you may not know a sign, it is much easier just to finger spell. Sounding out the letter instead of spelling the entire word in your head is a lot easier, too. Say the word "eat." When you see it on paper it's easy, but when reading it through finger spelling, although it is only a three letter word, one might read it as "ee-ayyy-t." I don't know about you, but "ee-ayytt" is not a word. Haha. Since we know English, it is easy to correct ourselves since it is a small word, but with younger kids who are deaf and can't hear themselves, it's difficult. A lot of words have different sounds than others. Some have silent "e"s that you can't tell someone just through finger spelling. So "ate" could be phonetically read as "aahh-t-eee" instead of "ate." Longer words....well that's a different story. With practice it is most definitely a lot easier for me to read, but before all the practice Lois (my teacher) gave us in class, it was SO hard.
Now about my mentor... I must admit, my Senior Project has been mainly taking the class, practicing in class, teaching a small amount of words to my friends and family, rarely signing with my sister, signing words to songs, etc etc. I haven't been working with my mentor to the full extent is mainly because I've got so much on my plate and so does she. I've got Chemistry two nights a week. My signing class in between the two nights of Chem (so Wednesday nights). I used to meet with my mentor, but especially this semester everything has been piling up in both of our lives. I promise to try harder and call her and talk to her about this. To be honest, life just catches up to us and it's not easy.
I have grown in this process though. Learning signing, the background of it all has been so much fun and I'm not even stopping at the end of Senior Project. This is something I want to pursue even in school or in my future career somehow. I hope to continue my studies in the deaf culture and learning signs and practicing them so that I don't forget. It is something in this world that not everyone knows about and maybe my small part in knowing about it may help.
Which reminds me, one day at Tech, one of my friends seemed to be interested in signing. I think I was signing at one point just for fun or someone asked me what the sign for a word was. James (the friend who asked) asked a lot of questions too. I was really happy to answer them. I remember explaining to him the differences between ASL and S.E.E. signing. I learned it all through the signing class I am currently taking. It's on its third class and boy, it easier, but with so many words, I don't remember them all. Anyway, back to James... It was a great conversation. I told him why ASL is merely conceptual whereas S.E.E. signing is the exact word. Some may say ASL is much better (for reasons I do not remember) when S.E.E. signing, I believe, helps children learn English. All those difficult words that may "sound" wrong when used in a sentence are not applicable to deaf children. They can't hear those words because of their deafness. Through S.E.E. signing, it is a tool that assists them in learning these things.
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