I am required to attain a certain level of proficiency in ASL (American Sign Language) by my third anniversary date in order to keep my job at the National Institute for the Deaf. To help me, NTID makes a variety of resources available. I take a class four times a week, have a tutor twice a week, and am going to attend residential camp this summer.
I have been pretty surprised at how little hearing people know about ASL. I didn't know much about it, but I assumed it was a fully developed language. After all, there are many many Deaf people using it to communicate on a daily basis, right? But my hearing friends and family seem to be kind of surprised by this news. It makes me realize how much we (humans) tend to think that if people aren't doing "it" -- whatever "it" is -- the way WE do it, then they just couldn't be REALLY doing it, right? ASL vs English isn't my blind spot, but I wonder what my blind spots are?
Learning, thinking, dialogue.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Labels: ASL
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2 comments:
Clare - your heart is, as we Deafies would say in ASL, "CHAMP!" (grinning)... love your mind, too. You are one of our most ardent allies and we love working with wonderful souls like you! Thank you for making NTID and the world a better place just by being YOU!
you have a nice site. thanks for sharing this resources. keep it up. anyway, various kinds of ebooks are available from here
http://feboook.blogspot.com
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