Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Whether you are new to sign language or not one of the best ways to practice your skills is to find ways to completely immerse yourself in the language. Whether it be by going to Deaf events, attending classes or even something as simple as watching ASL videos on the internet. No matter which of these you choose, the more practice and experience you have the better of you will be, especially if you want to become an interpreter.

I am reminded of the first ASL immersion night I attended which was quite a fun experience and an eye opening one as well. The event was held at the college I had been attending and on the night of the event a crowd of people stood outside the door waiting to go in. The room was set up with tables with signs taped to the front with words like "cafe", "grocery store", or "bank" to symbolize the local places you frequent every day and our professors or members of the Deaf community would be behind each table pretending to be the employees of each establishment.

This was a voices off event, which meant that when it was your turn to walk up to each of these tables, the professor or member of the Deaf community would ask you a question in sign language such as "can I help you?" and you were to sign to them an answer that was clear and concise in order for them to understand.

This was quite a challenge for me, especially since at this time I was still a novice signer and my skills or better yet my confidence was not at a place where I felt comfortable in this situation at all. However, as the evening progressed and I continued through each one of the exercises that were presented I found myself feeling very proud and happy that I had decided to attend.

ASL Immersion events are probably one of the best things you can attend in order to practice your skills as a signer as well as give you a glimpse into a silent world that people in the Deaf community live in every day which turns out to be not so silent after all.

Until next time....happy signing everyone!