This week in ASL, our focus was on learning how to express activities we like, love, or dislike, as well as numbers 1-30 and a variety of animals. At first, I felt a little overwhelmed by the amount of new vocabulary, however, I made an effort to set aside time each evening to review and practice. Repetition is very important for me when learning new signs, it is not just memorizing them but also paying attention to handshape, movement, and facial expression. What I found most meaningful this week was learning signs for activities. I love how expressive ASL is, I am beginning to see how you can really show who you are, even with limited vocabulary.

Here I am signing “I love biking, I like playing with my dog, I don’t like clothes shopping”

Deaf Culture and Community

In our exploration of Deaf Culture, we learned about different perspectives on deafness and the concerns of many Deaf individuals have about the potential loss of their language and culture. One of the points discussed was that Deafness is not viewed by many as a disability, but rather a cultural and linguistic identity. This was something I had not thought about before but is so important to understand Deaf culture is something to celebrate, not to “fix” or “cure”, and this comes with its complex understanding and controversy when it comes to procedures and research. Our instructor made an amazing comparison between being Deaf and queer. Sometimes it may feel hard but it’s not something you want to change, it’s who you are and something to celebrate, the hard part is being queer or Deaf in a world dominated by straight or hearing people.

Based on this topic, we watched a short mock-documentary called “The End” which was especially moving. It portrayed a future where Deaf language and culture are at risk of disappearing, and it invited viewers to consider what that loss would truly mean through different perspectives. Watching it I felt such empathy for all the characters, as each choice is valid in their own way. I did feel such sadness in imagining what it would be like to lose your language and identity. This film highlighted tension between technology and medical “advancements” and cultural preservation and created a great opportunity to think critically about all perspectives.

The following website is a great resource on this topic.

https://www.deafhood.org/recommended-materials

Favourite sign of the Week    

Starfish

Next Week

we are exploring emotions and how to have a conversation about what languages we have learned in school throughout our lives.