American Sign Language (ASL) is a unique language consisted of using hands and bodylanguage to communicate over spoken words. ASL is also the primary language for Deaf Culture.
What is Deaf Culture you might wonder? According to my ASL at Work textbook, Deaf Culture, by definition, is the “visually-based culture of people who are deaf and form a linguistic minority that uses American Sign Language (ASL) as their primary language for interacting with other members of their group.” Why does all of this matter if you attend RIT, a prospective hearing student might ask? One of the things that makes RIT unique is we have the National Technical Institute for the Deaf with over 1,200 deaf and hard-of-hearing students. RIT is one of two deaf schools in the nation; the other being Gallaudet University. Coming to RIT means an unique opportunity for hearing and deaf or hard-of-hearing students to interact and learn about each other.
For me, this was a great chance to learn more about Deaf Culture. I am hard-of-hearing myself, but I use spoken communication and never learned how to sign. I had a hard-of-hearing roommate last year who signed a little and two deaf roommates this year so I picked up some sign; however I did not know enough about grammar and sentence structure to carry a decent conversation which is why I took an ASL class. The ASLclasses here are “total immersion” which means your teacher typically is deaf and has an interpreter for the first day of class. After that first day, you learn by observing or writing on the board. This class expanded my understanding of ASL grammar and sentence structure as well as Deaf Culture. The best part about the experience was all the creative ways my teacher tried to explain what a sign meant without verbally saying the word. It was truly asort of “charades” for the class. I strongly encourage any students to take ASL, learn a little sign, and meet some students in a new language.
Comments (1)
I lived on a floor that was 80% deaf or hard of hearing last year, it was awesome because I picked up a lot of sign just based off of where I lived. I just decided that i'm going to concentrate in ASL (i would minor, but they dont offer that). I like that the classes are total immersion it forces you to try harder and get the full experience. I'm taking an ASL class next quarter
Posted By Emily Okey at
9:34:30 am EDT. October 30, 2009
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