Hi everyone! During the pandemic, I’ve noticed that many people have used the quarantine as an opportunity to pick up a new hobby, acquire new knowledge, or do something that they didn’t have the time to do before. Personally, I’m someone who loves to learn about other cultures and different languages, so for a while, I’ve been wanting to try picking up a fourth language. I obviously already know English and have been taught Hebrew and Spanish for some years now. Nonetheless, I have always been curious to know even more and have had trouble deciding which language I should learn next.
Then, I came up with the idea of starting an American Sign Language club at the school because I’ve always been interested in learning it and figured that there would most likely be at least a few other people who felt the same. I had never taken a class in ASL before, so it may sound strange to others that I’m starting a whole club for it, but I thought it’d be a great, fun chance to learn/practice it together with a group of peers. However, I realized if I were to be leading a club teaching ASL, it’d be a good idea to not be entirely clueless. I decided to put aside a few hours over the past week to become acquainted with this language, become familiar with some basics, as well as come up with interactive ideas/games that will motivate others to learn it with me. The first video I came across was a 45-minute lesson on YouTube that is actually silent, within the conditions someone hard-of-hearing (HOH) or deaf would have to deal with. Here’s the link to the video if anyone wants to check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaMjr4AfYA0&t=1022s
I thought this video was very interesting and helped to clarify some critical foundations for ASL. I even made sure to learn the American Sign Language alphabet, so now I know how to spell my name in ASL! If you’re interested in learning ASL, I would recommend that you go for it. It’s fascinating and isn’t too difficult right off the bat. Also, it’s important to learn because there’s a deaf/HOH community that often relies on sign language, so it would definitely help to bring more effective communication with these people, as well as awareness for this minority; this factor happened to largely play a role in making the decision to start this club. Anyways, I’m excited to advance further in ASL over this next year and will track my progress! Let me know in the comments below if you’d be interested in learning ASL or perhaps another language in general (and if so, which one)!
Hi Dori,
ReplyDeleteI love that you started learning ASL. I always was intrigued by it and thought it was so cool. When we went to the blind and deaf museum in Israel, I went to the deaf part of the museum. I thought it was so cool and it was crazy that we had to try to communicate with one another without talking. I love sign language and I would love to start learning it one day.
Hi Dori! I never became aware about the struggles of the deaf community until I came to tiktok and saw so many people putting captions in their videos, or even signing so the deaf people can follow along. I would love to learn ASL and might even watch that video you talked about. I also really admire your dedication to this! Learning a new language is hard and you seem to be doing very well.
ReplyDeleteHi Dori, I think it's so great that you are learning sign language. I think we take for granted how lucky we are to be able to hear. I love sign language, and I actually tried learning ASL a couple years ago. ASL is just an interesting way to interact with the deaf.
ReplyDeleteWow Dori I think what you're doing is really amazing. A lot of times we take for granted such important things such as being able to hear, and the people who are deaf would do anything to be able to hear. I also think that people in the deaf community feel more included when non-deaf people learn ASL, so overall I think you're doing an outstanding thing.
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