Instead of writing about what I’ve learned in each individual module, I’ve decided to point out a few of the interesting signs I’ve learned and important aspects of Deaf culture throughout the week. Over the past few weeks, I’ve learned signs for numbers up to 100, modes of transportation, housing, indoor and outdoor activities, family members, time frames and days of the week, and more. I’ve read about topics relating to the Deaf community like customs in conversation, name signs, African American Sign Language, Gallaudet University, and Children of Deaf Adults (CODAs).
My favorite part about learning new signs is to see the interesting way that signs relate to their real-life counterparts. For example, the sign for “trailer” is your index fingers linked in front of you that move to the side, like the connection between a car and a trailer behind it. To sign the word “hour,” you put both your hands in front of you with the palms of your hands facing towards each other, form the sign for “1” with your dominant hand, and rotate your dominant hand it in a full circle against your other hand; this mimics the hour hand of a clock traveling.
Gallaudet University is one of the more interesting parts of Deaf culture history that I’ve read about so far. All of the classes at the college are taught in sign language and the students there are Deaf. In 1988, students protested in order to gain a Deaf president to lead the university. The widespread media coverage of these protests cast Deaf people in a new light and helped to educate society about Deafness and sign language.
If you want to learn a few signs, these are two ASL dictionaries that my instructor recommended as supplemental materials:
