Final Video Assignment

Hi. My name is Shawna. I want to go to Mexico beach for my dream vacation. I would enjoy going when? Best time I think early Feb. Why? Fairmont, WV becomes cold and lots of snow. And since I live 140 Avery Street, life is boring. I think leaving during boring month is fun. Maybe Feb. 14, 2010, Valentine's Day. Also would be exciting if I can call someone who live in Mexico to ask questions. Phone numbers different for person, 011-52-350. I would take bus. Why? Gas is expensive since economy. So I don't want car. Maybe I'd pay $2,150 for 1 week but add gas, maybe more than $300, and buy different outfits of course, maybe $250.

Finals

I was very happy with how my first ASL final turned out. I studied both by myself and with friends and I was very excited that it went well. I think ASL is easier and more fun to study with friends. That way we can quiz each other and have fun learning about Deaf culture and remembering signs.
I am pretty nervous for the Dictionary final. There are over 3,000 words in there that we get to learn! but that makes the final pretty stressful. We will all do fine though. Good luck to everyone taking the NMS final and the Dictionary final!

On Saturday, the ASL students went to the FAD, or Fairmont Association of the Deaf. It was a very good learning experience for all of us. Each of us met and talked to at least 5 people during the course of the evening. I met Joan Forman, Jim, James, Regina, Lisa, Jr., Gerald, and Christie at FAD this evening. I enjoyed getting to talk to each of them and get to know a little bit about them. I am very glad that they took the time to talk to me and help me learn and grow as I am trying to learn ASL.
Joan Forman is a sweet lady. I really enjoyed chatting with her. She went to Romney when she was 7 years old. She was sad to go to Romney at first. She wanted to go home. She said her mother wouldn’t let her sign at home, she had to learn to read lips and speak, so once she started school and learned sign language, and then she wanted to be at school. She also talked to me about how there need to be more people who want to interpret, especially for doctors and nurses during doctors visits. I’m sure it is frustrating sometimes trying to find a good interpreter to help during very important circumstances.
Jim is an interpreter. He interprets for students at WVU and Potomac State College. He also freelances on the side when he has time. He is given a car and gas money by the agency he works with to get to Potomac State College. Not too long ago, he hit a bear with the car they gave him to use. The car only had 1,000 miles on it, but it was not damaged too badly. He said he thought he was crazy because he didn’t think he could have really hit a bear. It was a pretty funny story.
James is Ruby’s father and I have met him before at Deaf Bowling League. He is very fun to talk to and very patient with the ASL students. He came to sit down with the ASL students, including me, who were not playing the game LCR. He asked us why we were not playing and we told him we just wanted to watch. Then I asked him why he wasn’t playing and he said because it is boring.
Regina is Ruby’s mother and I have seen her at Deaf Bowling League, but I have never officially met her. She was very nice and helped explain to us how to play LCR.
Lisa was also an interpreter. She now has two children, one is a four year old little girl and the other is a two year old little boy, who I also met. Her son’s name is Jeremiah. They are both hearing. Lisa does not interpret very much anymore because she stays home to take care of and be with her children.
Jr. is Lisa’s husband. He is Deaf and a very nice man. He came over to where the ASL students were sitting to talk to us. He was nice and funny.
I did not get to talk to Gerald or Christie very long, but they were both very nice and patent. Christie’s son just got married last Saturday. She showed us pictures of the wedding. It was very pretty.
I really enjoyed talking to the people at FAD. They were all very nice, fun people and had patience with me as I tried to understand and communicate. I learned a couple new words and was reminded of a few that I had forgotten. Although I did get a little frustrated at time, it was a good learning experience for me, both in sign language and social skills. The times I was the most frustrated were when people would announce things and I couldn’t catch what they were saying because they would sign so fast. I love watching people sign fast because it is such a beautiful language, but it does get frustrating when I can’t understand. It was a very good experience and I really hope I get the chance to go back again sometime to talk to the people I met again.

Videos

The videos we watched in class this week were really informative and really showed different points of view on issues surrounding Deaf Culture.
The video we watched about the family with two different situations regarding Cochlear implants was really interesting. I liked hearing the different opinions each person has regarding this issue. Although this is a very important issue, I thought it was sad that the family allowed it to divide them. As I mentioned in the paper I wrote on the video, one thing that someone in the video said that really made me think was that the cochlear implant would make them a robot, not a part of either world. Also, with the cochlear implant the child is encouraged to speak, not sign, taking away that child’s natural culture and throwing him/her into a different world.
As for the Deaf History video, I liked learning about how Deaf Culture was started, grew and is still growing today. Although I know i will never be able to understand how it feels to be deaf, it was really neat to watch deaf people tell their stories, thoughts and emotions.
I enjoyed both of the videos because they helped me to realize some things I never thought about before.

Update

Well, I can't think of much to write about right now, but here i go. My ASL classes are going pretty well. I've good grades and I'm really enjoying everything we are learning in class. I didn't think i would like the dictionary class very much, but it is nice to know words when I am signing with someone at bowling or Pam or Ruby. Speaking of bowling, I am sad that I have only gone once so far, but I do plan to go more. Hopefully this Sunday we can all go. One thing I know I really need to work on is receiving. I think it is pretty hard to know the signs when I see them. I have a hard time getting my brain to remember the sign when someone signs it to me in a conversation, but I'm sure with a lot of practice I will get better, slowly I'm sure.

Silent Game Day

So I haven't got the chance to write about the Silent Game Day we had on Wednesday! I had a good time. The group I was in played apples to apples. That's a fun game, but it didn't give us a whole lot of reasons to practice our signing. Next time I think a different game might be more benificial for me to play. I really like getting the chance to have time when we are only supposed to sign. Learning through experience is always the best way to learn things. I had a great time getting to use the signs we have been learning in class. Being in the dictionry class is a lot cooler then I thought it would be too. I was so nervous when i realized that the dictionary class actually just goes through the dictionary and teaches you signs from a-z. I have to admit that was very intimidating at first, and still kind of is, but I was very excited when I used some of the a and b words at Silent Game Day!

Bowling

Tonight I went to the Fairmont Bowling Center with Sarah and Lauren, two friends in my class. I got the chance to talk to some of the people on the Deaf Bowling league. All of the people there were very friendly and it was great getting to communicate with them. We spent a lot of our time chatting with Ruby's father. He's a really cool guy. He was patient with us and helped us when we didn't know a sign. We talked about everything from cats to school. He asked us some questions like, "what do we think when we see people sign, since we don't know what they are saying?" and some other tricky questions like that. We asked him a few questions too. It was nice of him to be so patient with us and willing to sign with us for a while. I was a little nervous to go tonight, but I'm very glad I went. :) I really enjoyed chatting with people and observing everyone sign. It was truely beautiful. We didn't actually bowl, We just sat and watched and chatted. It was very awesome to get a chance to use what we have been learning by signing with very nice people and I hope I can go many more Sunday evenings.