I Don’t Have an Accent in ASL
Today, it was very difficult to get up. I only had about 4 hours of sleep and it was Sunday and one was supposed to sleep in.
But I had to get up! I’ve been planning this class for three weeks and nothing was going to keep me from it. If I had been in an accident, I would have crawled out of the hospital to attend this class.
See, Voices From Chornobyl had a performance at the Deaf West Theatre on April 26th, the 23rd anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. I was playing Anna again and we met a couple times with actors who were hard of hearing and who were talking in American Sign Language. It was totally inspiring! It, meaning the sign language and they, the actors.
They created their character and the words to be able to perform opposite us, who were speaking the lines at the same time as they were signing it.
I was so inspired that I wanted to learn American Sign Language. And I have been planning on taking this class since our performance. So nothing was going to keep me from going!
And I’m so glad that I did get up and went. I learned so much! And my mind was tingling from being visually, mentally and physically challenged at the same time.
We are used to talking and thinking and using our mouth muscles. But in ASL I had to use my eyes, my brain, my hands and also coordination. This was a new challenge. Every sign is very specific and you have to hold your hand in the correct position, so that you don’t “misspeak”.
Cindy, the director of Voices From Chornobyl, came to the class, so did Aaron, Kappa, Amy, and Shawn. Two of my friends who saw the play and Stephen attended the class also.
First we were introduced to Sonya Wilson, our teacher. She doesn’t speak, only does sign language and that intimidated me. I thought I would never understand her. But she immediately made us feel comfortable and at ease. She was funny and she slowed things down for us, she repeated for us, moved our hands and fingers where it needed to be for correct spellings.
After she introduced herself, we, the students, introduced ourselves and learned to finger-spell our names. Then we all talked about why we wanted to learn ASL. And we had to speak with hands and feet and Caitie, who hooked us up with this class, was helping us.
Today I learned to sign these words:
| fine | home | cute |
| change | nice | to meet |
| you | simple | doesn’t matter |
| later | no, thank you | long |
| time | enjoy | cool |
| company | member | Pippin (the play) |
| learn | mother | if |
| depend | misunderstood | try |
| deaf | I love you | expression |
| culture | hearing | not |
| like | bug | good |
| bad | actor | lawyer |
| right | fight for your right | what |
| man | woman | |
| question | cousin | Germany |
| Mexico | America | Friend |
| language | Australia | working |
| horse | dog | farm |
| racoon | snake | question |
This class was amazing! Sonya was amazing! She made us feel like real champs and she was so happy that we wanted to learn.
I can’t wait for next Sunday! I already bought a book that she recommended, “The Everything Sign Language” book by Clayton Valli.
I have my week pretty much carved out for me to study ASL and I’m very much looking forward to next Sunday!
May 17, 2009
Posted in: ASL, Auditions, Bike Ride, Rehearsals, Voices From Chornobyl, studies
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