Several years ago, I took a sign language class (ASL) through the Canadian Hearing Society. I had a deaf friend in high school and was always keen to improve communication. I really enjoyed the class, and our deaf teacher taught us about a lot of things in the culture that I hadn't realized, such as the availability of close-captioning machines in the back row of movie theatres. I wanted to continue on to the next level, but there weren't enough interested people to run the class.
Usually when I'm learning a new language, a terrible shyness comes over me and I have a hard time trying to use what I've learned. For some reason, ASL is less intimidating. Maybe it feels more like playing charades. Maybe it's because it's non-verbal. Whatever the reason, it just seems to come easily to me, and I'm eager to try to communicate, rather than shy. I also find, when I'm learning other languages, that the previous, most recently-learned language rises up to interfere with the one I'm currently studying. When I tried to learn Italian, my French intruded. When I was learning Latin, my Italian resurfaced. Similar things happened when I moved on to Welsh, Hebrew, Mandarin, and German. But with ASL, I'm not finding any conflicts or intrusions, since they're structured so differently.
Sign Language isn't "English." I might be hearing English in my head as I do it, but to the deaf person, ASL is their first language, with its own structure and grammar, and English (or any other language) is their second. For this reason, writing back and forth isn't always a satisfactory substitute to signing. And of course, some deaf people learn to read lips, which could be in any language. There are also different systems of signing, of course, not just the American one.
Fast forward to last week, when a deaf individual showed up at our church, wanting to attend but having no interpreter with him. The missionaries handed him off to me---not sure why---and I did the best I could, falling back on scribbling notes to him when my signing and "acting out" failed. I managed to direct him to the correct lesson on his phone (despite my not having a phone of my own, so I'm not familiar with them). I've spent the past week madly learning 150 common signs in case he shows up at church again this week, so that at least I'll be able to say simple things like "What's your name?" and "I need to practise signing" and "See you next week!" I've also practised explaining that every other week, we have different classes at church. We alternate between meeting all together and meeting separately, men in one room and women in another.
Except today is the day the men meet separately from the women, which means I won't be in his class to sign all of this. I'll have to try to catch him beforehand to explain, and to pull up the day's lesson on his phone so that he can read along in his class. We'll see how it goes! There's also the added hindrance of the mask I wear in public, which interferes with signing, because it's not all in the hands.
It's funny how eager I am to try out my newly-learned signs. I'm an extreme introvert. I don't know this man from Adam. But languages have always fascinated me, and I actually considered becoming an ASL interpreter at one point. Maybe I'm being nudged in that direction once more.
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