I love sign language. Originally I knew only about 3 words (cookie, candy, and motorcycle) but it seemed like a cool skill to have. If I were ever fluent in it I would want to translate for people. I registered for a class at the local community college with a few of my friends from work. The class turned out to be a great experience because the teacher was completely deaf. Talk about throwing someone in the deep end. For the first class, the teacher had a translator to tell us what was happening. For every class after that the teacher pointed to words on a powerpoint and then signed them. We watched him and repeated. I learned the sentence structure, some nouns, some verbs, and some common phrases. It was fascinating! The teacher was so inspirational. Him and his brother were both born deaf in Greece. When their mom found out that America had better school and opportunities for deaf students, so she moved her family to America. He ended up at a school for the deaf in NJ when he was 8. He went to a deaf college, and a hearing grad school. Now he is a professor. I really feel like having a deaf teacher made the whole experience so much more real. For 1 hour every week I communicated with someone using sign language... even if I was just using simple sentences.
Goal accomplished: Learn sign language--check! 19 down, 11 to go!
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