Weekly Journal 2

                                                                                                                                       October 11, 2014

On October 10, 2014, I began to dig a little deeper into the world of sign language. Because I already learned the ASL (American Sign Language) alphabet, I decided it was time to take on a bigger challenge. On October 10th, I began to learn basic words in ASL such as “mom,” “boy,” “girl,” “t.v.,” “candy,” “marriage,” “husband,” “wife,” “grandpa,” “grandma,” “aunt,” “uncle,” “baby,” the three different versions of “single,” “divorce,” and “separate”. On top of learning these words, I also tried to practice a little with two simple phrases: “how many brothers do you have?” and “do you have a sister?” Learning those few basic words were a bit of a challenge for me, especially the three different versions of “single”: a) alone/only/something/someone, b) not married, and c) only, only one, just. Learning these three different versions of the word “single” was very confusing and continues to be confusing. I am going to need to practice these words more when I continue my project this week. As for the phrases, I was merely practicing with them and getting a gist of what the phrases are like in ASL. I believe that I should learn more basic words and master the ones that I have previously stated first and then take on the challenge of learning simple phrases. For now, I will stick to learning simple words in ASL. Learning the fundamental words of ASL is like learning the alphabet of ASL. In order to be able to communicate with a deaf-mute, I will need to be able to pull together different words to make sentences. Without learning the words first, I would simply be memorizing hand gestures for certain statements/questions which completely defeats the purpose of this assignment. I could use these words again to try and get my point across or try to ask questions when I am communicating to a deaf-mute. Any patterns in the process of learning basic words would be practicing each word over and over again and also seeing how a couple of words tie into each other such as “mom” and “grandma”. Overall, I believe I did exceptionally well with learning these fun and simple words. I am very much enjoying this project and next on my agenda I plan to master the words above and learn more words in ASL.