I am officially a student again, I started a language class. It really fun. I used to know sign years ago when my mum worked with deaf people. That was so long ago I'm not exactly sure what she did other then some translating. Anyhoo, if you don't use it, you loose it, and I did.
There is a fairly significant deaf community around my work, back when I first started in that store I thought I should take a course and then I was transferred to a new store and time went on. Now 5 years later I am back in the same store and thought this time I am going to do it. It helped that a woman who does tasting in our store wanted to take the course too. It's always more fun if you have someone you know and that way you can practice.
My first class was last night and I had so much fun. I haven't laughed so much in ages. Our instructor Brian is a blast. He's really funny and loves to tease us when we don't know what he is signing. He wrote relax on the board and kept pointing at it when we would sign things. Expression and body language is a BIG part of ASL, also make eye contact. I should add that Brian is deaf and doesn't speak, so it get interesting at times, but the man has ssssoooooooo much patience. It helps that he a very animated person so even if you don't know the sign you can often figure out what he is trying to say.
One of the funniest moments is when we would finally figure out what he was getting across and all of us would be calling out the answer. He would make a 'ba ba ba ba' noise, make a locking motion in front of his mouth. Then make a funny face at us. Kinda like saying, 'I'm deaf remember, why ya'll talking?'
I'm looking forward to my next class.
