ASL: or, What the hell is she saying?
My ASL class continues to be both interesting and really frustrating. Some of the signs are reasonably intuitive, which is good, but for the most part it's a case of "you just have to know it," which would be great if there were some sort of vocabulary list I could study. Unfortunately, the course doesn't appear structured that way: it's heavily memory-based, which means yours truly with her brain and short-term memory like cottage cheese is SOL.
I have come to a tentative agreement with a couple of the girls in my class to get together (perhaps this coming Sunday) and practice our signing. After today's practice quiz I have decided that I definitely need to spend more time doing the fingerspelling drills on aslpro.com so that I can get used to seeing the signs from the other side. I'm going to try to spend at least 15 minutes a day doing drills, so that I won't be caught unprepared. Today it took me several tried before I got the hang of it. If it had been a real quiz, I only would have had 70%.
I am having trouble with the lack of formal structure to the classes. I can appreciate how the teacher is working, but the lack of reference material is really stressful to me. I think that once I get the basics mastered, I may develop more confidence. Right now my memory is my own worst enemy.
The other disadvantage for me is that the whole class is silent, and uses gestures only to communicate. This is fun and challenging, but I am never entirely sure if I've understood the context of the sign exactly. I'm constantly wondering if the sign she's showing us is a noun or a verb, because contextually it might be both (Is she saying "review" or "to review?"). Hopefully this too will resolve itself in time.
I have come to a tentative agreement with a couple of the girls in my class to get together (perhaps this coming Sunday) and practice our signing. After today's practice quiz I have decided that I definitely need to spend more time doing the fingerspelling drills on aslpro.com so that I can get used to seeing the signs from the other side. I'm going to try to spend at least 15 minutes a day doing drills, so that I won't be caught unprepared. Today it took me several tried before I got the hang of it. If it had been a real quiz, I only would have had 70%.
I am having trouble with the lack of formal structure to the classes. I can appreciate how the teacher is working, but the lack of reference material is really stressful to me. I think that once I get the basics mastered, I may develop more confidence. Right now my memory is my own worst enemy.
The other disadvantage for me is that the whole class is silent, and uses gestures only to communicate. This is fun and challenging, but I am never entirely sure if I've understood the context of the sign exactly. I'm constantly wondering if the sign she's showing us is a noun or a verb, because contextually it might be both (Is she saying "review" or "to review?"). Hopefully this too will resolve itself in time.