I thought I had a decent understanding of the culture of ASL based on
previous information I may have received from a wide variety of outlets. Most
of my information seemingly came from a question that randomly came up
and I wanted to find the answer to. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any deaf
friends that I could go to for this information, so google was my best option.
From the first look of the pre-quiz, I knew I could answer at least a few
questions knowing that I was right. However, the more I looked at it, the
more I realized how much I didn’t know.
The only reason I knew that ASL had French history is because the
professor has mentioned in my class on the first day that we’d get into how it
had dealt with the French. Using my intuition, I concluded that it was the
logical answer. However, if you would have asked me before that class, I
would have assumed it was from the British. Another example of something
that corrected an assumption is that “hearing impaired” was a widely
respectful term when referring to deaf or people who may be hard of
hearing. I love that this class has a professor who is deaf, as I feel like having
a professor who isn’t deaf or hard of hearing might not be as insightful when
it comes to how they feel as a deaf person.
I knew beforehand that facial expressions and body language were
more of a grammatical thing rather than just a stylistic choice. I thought of it
as facial expressions being the punctation on the end of your sentences, if
you sign “why” without utilizing your eyebrows, it’s no longer a question and
now just a word with no emotion behind it.
Throughout the semester, I’d like to be able to learn how to be
respectful as possible when communicating with others. I want to make sure
that all signs are correct, ensuring that no ill-intent can be implied when
communicating. I would also like to explore how different versions of words
came to be, or how important it can be to use different versions in specific
situations, if that’s something that happens. For instance, Spanish uses
different endings or words to refer to someone depending on the formality of
the situation. Overall, I just want to make sure I can communicate as
effectively as possible, I love ASL so far and can’t wait to dive in.