What is sign language?
Sign language is a system of manual, facial, and other body movements as a mean of communication. This is the predominant way that deaf people speak to other deaf people, or to hearing people. However, there are multiple forms of sign language, just as in different languages. Some examples are American Sign Language, French Sign Language, British Sign Language, and many more. These different types of sign languages even have specific dialects within them like jargon or slang of a particular area. The sign language I have decided to learn is American Sign Language, as I live in America.
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| Sign Language in use. |
Sign language is used all over the country and all over the world. It is utilized in a school setting, with deaf children, a community setting, a business setting (meetings, collaborations, etc.), even in a wordly situation (Interpreters for a country/area). Fields including jobs that require sign language are numerous. Some of these fields are: Government, Education, Health, Recreation, Social Services, Therapy, and more. Sign language can even be utilized in dangerous situations to communicate to someone quietly in order to decrease your risk of getting hurt. This skill can even be used in situations like on set for a movie or T.V show. For example, in the show "Switched at Birth" on abc family, two actors are actually deaf, and all of the other actors were required to learn ASL for their roles. As you can see, sign language plays a huge role in the lives of everyone, and it is definitely a helpful skill to have.
Why do I want to learn ASL?
I would like to learn American Sign Language for many reasons. First, I have a strong desire to work with disabled children or to be an interpreter, whether that be in terms of language translating or sign language interpreting. My long-term goal would be to become an interpreter in either a school, business, or government setting. Additionally, I have tried multiple times to learn sign language, with no way to use it in my daily life and refresh my knowledge. This skill would be a great tool for me to use in the future regardeless.
Goals:
How will you measure your progress?
My progress will be measured depending on how close I come to my weekly and overall goals, and if I feel that I learned an adequate amount and put in enough effort over the course of the week. I will make at least one blog post about my progress each week. If something occurs and I do accomplish more than my goal for the week, I will make a blog post at that time to talk about what new goal I have for the end of the week. My first goal is to be able to recite the entire alphabet in sign language by the end of this week.
Possible issues and solutions:
Predictions:
I know this project will not be easy, as is learning different languages or forms of speaking, but I am motivated to achieve my goals and use sign language as a tool for my future career. The first step I intend is to learn the alphabet. If a achieve this in less than a week I will make another change my goals, and make another blog post to update what I intend to do next. I believe that through this experience I will learn that sign language is very difficult and requires attention to detail, but that it is useful and exciting to learn. I also think over the course of the journey I will learn that I may not be as determined as I think, or I may be more determined than I think, and that I will enjoy learning sign language as much, if not more, than I enjoy learning a different language.
DID YOU KNOW?
37 to 140 of every 1,000 people in the United States has hearing loss.
Works Cited
Fant, Louie J., Barbara Bernstein. Fant, and Betty G. Miller. The American Sign Language Phrase Book. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Print.
"My Smart Hands." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.
"Signing Savvy, Your Sign Language Resource." Signing Savvy Blog. Michigan State University, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.
Vicars, Bill. "ASL." American Sign Language. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.
Jenna! I'm so excited for you! I've always wanted to learn sign languages, and I've mastered the alphabets. However, I think it's a reality that if you don't continue to review and practice everyday, you tend to forget a certain letter. I think your purpose for this project is very sweet and just by looking at your plans, I think you can master sign language. I'm really impressed with your plans, because it is thoroughly planned out and covers what you need to know in order to hold a short conversation. My question is this: How would you be able to show to our class that you can hold a conversation?
ReplyDeleteI agree with your problem about not having someone to teach you. For me, a friend of mine showed one to one, so it was easier to learn. However, I think your solution will definitely work, too. Nice job!
Your motivation was excellent, for you are learning something that you actually want to apply to your life, which I thought was very interesting. I also liked how you explained, briefly, what sign language was and how it is found in the media (reference to ABC Family). The idea of showing the problems and then the solutions to the problems was well done and the reader of this blog can tell you put a lot of time behind this project. One think I have a question about is the solution of practicing a simple conversation in sign language with your friends. Do you have any friends that know sign language to practice with? Anyways, overall, the motivation and timeline was well thought out.
ReplyDeleteHey Jenna. I love the idea of learning sign language. It is helpful mostly in fields of education and business. My main problem is that you do not list any sources for actually learning sign language. I hope that you simply forgot to mention this. Make usre what ever program or book you use teaches you how to converse, not simply vocabulary. I shall leave that up to you. I like how you included hypothetical problems you could encounter and solutions to those problems. I did like how you took into account that there is a possibility that you could say something rude and not know it. This is important to think about when conversing in any language. Nice use of real world applications (the ABC). It proves that you have given this a lot of thought. The timeline was a nice touch as well. I suggest making this blog fit your personality. I felt as if I was reading a paper. Make it so that you write what you would say to someone when explaining about your journey learning sign language. All in all, good job.
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