HollyAlonzo – Never Giving Up Hope

I’m doing it again. I am teaching myself. Only this time it’s not braille. It’s sign Language.

There aren’t many deaf people around this area. I could go to a University that’s an hour’s drive from my house and learn, but I’m not thinking a college class is the way I want to learn. I’m really not sure how much they learn either. It’s only one night a week for a semester. Anyway, it would be too much of a stress for me to worry about getting there and back and then study and all that fun stuff that goes along with a college class.

I am more of an independent studier. I move at my own pace. It’s usually quicker than most. I learn fast. But, if I don’t practice what I have learned I forget it, unless I really got it good in my memory. That’s going to be the problem with sign language. There aren’t people to practice with. I’m not sure what good it will do for me to learn if no one is actually going to also learn it and use it with me. Well…I can teach Isaiah as I go along and he will use it with me, so that’s the major plus. My mom will also learn as I go and use it with me. The problem is going to be Edward. He’s not enthused about signing. He’s never had vision before so the signs don’t really make sense and he doesn’t make them properly or makes them too hard and jerky, not graceful the way signing is supposed to be. I try to show him, explain the harder he signs that makes me thinks he is angry. So…he sticks with fingerspelling, which works…it’s just slow.

But, I am reading “The Joy of Signing” and it is a fantastic book. It has good illustrations for my mom, fabulous descriptions of the sign for me to read. I’m really enjoying it so far.

I’m sure I’m not going to be fluent or master the sign language. I probably will not use the ASL word order either. Since I am mostly around hearing people, it makes more sense to use the English word order. But I am good at languages and can figure out what the ASL is meaning, even if I can’t sign it back. Maybe later on I can work on learning the ASL grammar structure, but for now I’ll stick with English.