The Last Week!

So it has come to an end. A semester long trial and error filled goal of learning sign language, or trying to that is. I would have to say that as always I started this project filled with optimism and goals that probably weren't realistic. But I'm okay with that and I've accepted that sometimes, you don't always achieve your goals. Or maybe they just take longer to achieve. I do not regret doing sign language as my project because in reality it has aided in keeping me interested and one day I will be fluent is sign language. I've enjoyed learning so much about a different culture of people because I feel as if most people do not give themselves the opportunity to open their eyes and see the rest of the world. I am happy that I've spent this time and now my main focus is creating my presentation to show the rest of the class what I have learned. Until next time!

Week 10!

Ok, so that was a little update on the progression of my project! Sorry about how out of order it is, but as I said in week 6? The time just got away from me. Any how as I mentioned I have soely been working on memorizing what I have already went over for the class, in order to maybe be able to sign a little in December. I'm still working on the whole "fear of signing in public" issue, so we will see how that happens. I believe that perhaps I might continue this project on into second semester in order to learn some more stuff before I go to college. This project has opened my eyes as to how beneficial learning a language is, it opens up a whole group of people you could have never communicated with before, and I believe that communication is one of the key ideas in life. I plan to try and learn as many languages I can obtain in my life. I planned on either taking sign language or spanish in college, but who knows I might end up taking both!

Week 9!

Greetings! I talked to the woman at Arby's! Her name is Maria and she is 22 years old. She came in earlier this week and because I already knew what she was going to order, I instead tried to talk (or sign?) to her. I only got out "I'm learning ASL" and she started to smile really big! She started signing to me and I only understood because she was mouthing words as well. I don't think she realized that I couldn't understand her signing, she had had numerous years of sign language while I only had about 3 months of sketchy memorization. Either way it was an extremely cool experience I thought I'd share with you all!

Week 8: I'm becoming slightly more confident.

In my project that is, I'm actually terrified to sign to anyone else. It's like a stage fright thing, I get really nervous whenever I have to sign in front of somebody because I'm afrad I'll mess up. With the project however I am beginning to realize that it doesn't matter how much I try to memorize something, if I don't understand it. In order to really succeed at learning a little bit of the language you have to know that you will mess up, just like you will when learning anything different and new to you. With this project, I am tryijng to learn sign language, but I also just enjoy learning about the culture of the people who are involved in this community. It's like they live in their own little world because no one can understand what they are saying except for those who know the language. I don't know why, but that is really cool to me. It also got me thinking about how some people who don't have english as their native language think and feel when they hear english speakers talk. It must sound so foreign and alien to them. Anyways, I am happy with the progress I have made this far. With the words and sentences I have now, I think I'm going to try and memorize them to share with the class in December. Until next time!

Week 7: On to Vocabulary

I'm surprised to say this, but I'm actually excited to start some vocabulary. In any language you enhance your skills by broadening your vocabulary, so why not with sign language.Also with how busy I have been, its been really hard to keep up and make as much progree as I wanted to. But hoenstly sometimes, life just gets in the way. Any how, online, there are numerous "vocabulary assignments" for beginners that really help. The one I choose to look at included all of these sections: family, time, temperature, food, and many other things. My favorite one as of right now is "cold" which can really come in handy especially now that its becoming colder and colder as the days progress. The sign is simple, just put your arms up next to your body and shake a little bit to represent shivering!

Week Five!

So, i have realized that I suffer from? Maybe short-term memory loss? Because none of my information is sticking with me as much as I would like it to. I will frankly remember how to sign a word, but I won't get it exactly right. It's really frustrating me and wearing me down. Maybe this is normal and I am just a perfectionist, but it is upsetting to me. As a result I have decided not to try and learn the language in its entirety, but instead try to focus and learn some sentences that could be built on in my future. For example after my encounter at Arby's ( by the way that woman comes in almost every week) I have tried to learn how to sign "I am learning ASL". Here is how I managed.
You first sign "I". Not the letter but with your first finger pointed at your chest.
Then sign "Am" which is simply the letter A followed by the letter M
To sign 'Learning" you put a hand in front of you and act as if you are grabbing something out of your palm with your other hand and putting it to your forehead.
Next simply sign the letters for A, S, and L

Week Three: Learning the basics!

September 21-27
I started week three full of excitement! I am really passionate about learning sign language and that makes it easy to look forward to learning new things. As I wrote in week two, I had been learning basic words like: mom, dad, grandparents, marriage, and the like. This continued in week three. These are all simple words but I figured you have to start small to end big. As I mentioned previously there are numerous ways to sign certain words which can make it difficult. Below I included some pictures of an example:
This is an example of a way to sign mom or mother.
While this is an example of a way to sign dad or father.

Ok, so I did not keep up.

Alright, so I have not been keeping up with my blog posts unfortunately. So I decided to make up for it! I will instead explain what I went over and learned week by week in my next few blog posts because I have it all written down, I just have not been able to transfer it on to my computer. I hope you all enjoy experiencing this with me!

Week 6: As the weeks go by...

As you know for the last six or seven weeks I have been researching, studying, and trying to learn sign language. I have been leaning numerous words and shorts phrases, but I find it increasingly difficult to memorize or remember a majority of them days after the initial learning. I try to fit in some sign language everyday, but between school, homework, and working during the week, it is really hard to balance and try to give sign language my full attention when so much other stuff has to be done at this time. I really wished I could have focused on this project second semester when things calm down a little, but I am still motivated to learn as much as I can. My aunt told me she had trouble learning at first as well,  but she admitted, of course, that she was not under the same conditions as I. I know learning an entirely new language can be difficult so I am trying to not be so hard on myself if I do not remember things as efficiently as I should.
Regardless, I am having a lot of fun with this project still and during 20% time I have the chance to look up really cool things about sign language that I never knew before.

Week four: My first encounter...

Some may not realize this, but I do have a job at a local Arby's. I usually work about five days a week, but last week was my first encounter with a deaf person who was very fluent in sign language. She was with her mom and they both were speaking to each other through sign language only. I was just standing there behind the counter trying to catch any word or phrase I could understand or comprehend, but they were moving so fast which made it impossible for me to keep up. When she was ready to order she had to take out her phone type it, then show me. I almost felt bad that I couldn't understand her, I felt like she had to conform to using her phone in order to communicate with me and she shouldn't have to. That experience made my motivation for learning sign language sky rocket. Imagine how cool it would have been if I could have just taken her order in sign language.

In other news I have found a mentor finally! It is one of my aunts whom I did not know studied sign language in college. She is not extremely fluent, but she does remember many things that are proven to be very useful to me. This upcoming week I am going to mainly focus on forming sentences. In sign language a sentence is not signed exactly how it would be spoken in English. This can sometimes make it difficult to understand how to form sentences, but I am getting there.

Until next time!

Week Two!

Hello again,
This week has been extremely informational for me. I have realized that not only are there different versions of sign language, but there are different ways to say certain words as well. That made me realize how determined you have to be to start learning the language and just how smart people who already are fluent in it are! Most fluent speakers, I have come to realize, are able to notice certain things about a word even if it is signed differently, and therefore can recognize most words easily. An example of this would be the word "MOM." It is signed by opening your hand as if about to give a high five and placing the thumb on your chin. BUT it can also be signed by signing the letter A, placing it on your chin, and then opening the hand into a high five position. Some people even wiggle their fingers or double tap their hand against their chin to sign "MOM." Some may find this confusing, but I find it really interesting because essentially it is up to the person to decide how they want to sign a word. Other than that, I have been focusing on little words and saying mostly just to start out with. I already have the alphabet memorized and I am still practicing that as well. Next week I plan on enhancing my vocabulary even more. Also I still have not found a mentor, but I plan on finding one sometime next week. Until next time!

Week 1: New Beginnings !

When I was in third grade I joined sign language club at my school.  Almost immediately I realized that I was sort of taken by sign language. All I can remember is that we learned very simple things, nothing that has stuck with me throughout the years. As time when on I began to think it was so interesting that people could actually effectively communicate without orally voicing words, and just using their body to speak. It amazed me. Of course after 3rd grade I stopped participating in trying to learn but I always wished that I could be fluent in the language because it still interests me. That's why I chose sign language as my 20% time. This week I did some basic research just to find a little bit out about the origin of the language. The most interesting fact to me is that no one single person created it. Actually numerous people did by combining and teaching different words to whomever wished to learn them. Another important fact to consider is that there are numerous different versions as well. I will be focusing primarily on American Sign Language to start out with. I am looking forward to see what I can accomplish with this journey. More updates coming soon!