I had extra space in my senior year semesters to take a class that was outside of my major and minors to learn something new. I took full advantage of this opportunity and enrolled for American Sign Language 1 in Fall 2016 and American Sign Language 2 in Spring 2017. With an intimate class size, helpful teacher’s assistant, and enthusiastic professor, I took the journey to learn a different language that uses detailed hand movements and strong facial expressions. I decided to take this class because I had the space in my schedule, and I thought I would succeed at learning ASL compared to Spanish from my high school years because ASL requires you to remember body gestures and movements. This is very similar to learning choreography and steps in a dance class, which I have done for nearly seventeen years now. These classes provided me a new appreciation for a language that is not as highly recognized in the United States. Here is an article to share my experiences in and out of the classroom while learning and practicing this language.
When I started ASL 1, I began learning the basics and parameters of the language and fingerspelling. Then I moved onto to simple conversational signs such as greetings, types of feelings, and goodbyes. Each chapter was segmented into various topics such as clothing, food, personal hygiene, ethnicity, countries, school, activities, and family. At first with only knowing a few signs, it was challenging in practicing complete conversations with other classmates. After learning each unit, I was able to add more to my sign conversations. Now at the end of completing ASL 2, I have learned many signs that allow me to fully connect with others who I could not converse with before.
In these classes, I also had to attend at least four Deaf community events each semester in the local area. I went to Grace Baptist Church a couple of times, and enjoyed services filled with sign, beauty, and community. The members were welcoming, and they were excited to sign with students learning the language. I also attended an event at USF in the fall in which Nyle DiMarco came and gave a speech about his experiences and how he helps the Deaf community as an activist. He also was the second male winner and the first deaf winner of The CW’s America’s Next Top Model Cycle 22, won season 22 of the ABC televised dance competition Dancing with the Stars, and acted on Freeform’s hit family show Switched at Birth. After his presentation, I was able to meet him with some other students in my class. He is just as beautiful in person as he appears on TV. I never would have known about this opportunity with the connection with my ASL professor.
During the two semesters, I completed projects that required me to practice sign language more intensely and study the history of the Deaf community. I learned our national anthem and recorded myself signing it while Luke Bryan sang it for the 2017 Super Bowl. I also created a video of me signing to the song “A Whole New World” from Aladdin as the interpretation for music is different than regular conversations. I loved this assignment because the ASL hand movements look beautiful and bring life to the lyrics when performed.
I am grateful for the community experiences and new language I have learned from the past two semesters. While I could have had more free time, I decided to utilize my college time and opportunities, and take advantage of adding a new ability to my skillset. I am inspired by sign language because the movements of it are beautiful, and I have found a way to connect with others in the community so I can converse and learn from them as well. I want to continue practicing sign language and hopefully become proficient in it so I can share my knowledge with others, and immerse with a friendly and diverse community.