Once upon a time I took an American Sign Language class at a local community center. I loved it, so I took another. I also loved that, so I began to volunteer with the teacher of the class in the deaf preschool class that she taught. There I met some of the most amazing 3 and 4 year olds in the world.
I loved it so much, that when I started my community college education full time at the naive age of 17, I jumped headfirst into an ASL interpreter program. It was only then that I learned that loved the language, but I didn't appreciate the Deaf Community (there is a distinct but complex difference between deaf people, and the Deaf Community. I have nothing against deaf people, but wouldn't survive in the Deaf Community. It's complicated).
My favorite aspect of interpreting is actually the theatrical / musical side of it. I saw a Shakespeare play interpreted in ASL once; that was glorious. We also had a professional interpreter who specialized in concerts / Broadway, etc, come to class one day and show us a few numbers. It was breath taking.
Unfortunately, I do not have a theatrical bone in my body. Performance makes me nervous. I got to tour an Opera House recently, and just walking onto the huge stage and looking out at the empty theater, knowing full well that I didn't have to do anything, made me nervous. Yeah. So I quit the interpreters program. And went on to major in English. A nice safe major.
Anyway, the point of the post is this: I still love ASL as a language. And love to see it "performed" to music and the like. And that love has recently been renewed - because a friend of Mon Amour's randomly linked this on her facebook.
He's fantastic! But from there, I went on to find lots of quality ASL interpretations to popular music, and I am addicted. I LOVE being able to understand most of it, and learning new signs, and figuring out how to interpret idioms into something that makes sense in ASL.
Now I have written too many words. And I doubt many people but me will appreciate this. But it had to be posted.
Tomorrow, something more universally appreciated. Sunsets.
I loved it so much, that when I started my community college education full time at the naive age of 17, I jumped headfirst into an ASL interpreter program. It was only then that I learned that loved the language, but I didn't appreciate the Deaf Community (there is a distinct but complex difference between deaf people, and the Deaf Community. I have nothing against deaf people, but wouldn't survive in the Deaf Community. It's complicated).
My favorite aspect of interpreting is actually the theatrical / musical side of it. I saw a Shakespeare play interpreted in ASL once; that was glorious. We also had a professional interpreter who specialized in concerts / Broadway, etc, come to class one day and show us a few numbers. It was breath taking.
Unfortunately, I do not have a theatrical bone in my body. Performance makes me nervous. I got to tour an Opera House recently, and just walking onto the huge stage and looking out at the empty theater, knowing full well that I didn't have to do anything, made me nervous. Yeah. So I quit the interpreters program. And went on to major in English. A nice safe major.
Anyway, the point of the post is this: I still love ASL as a language. And love to see it "performed" to music and the like. And that love has recently been renewed - because a friend of Mon Amour's randomly linked this on her facebook.
He's fantastic! But from there, I went on to find lots of quality ASL interpretations to popular music, and I am addicted. I LOVE being able to understand most of it, and learning new signs, and figuring out how to interpret idioms into something that makes sense in ASL.
Now I have written too many words. And I doubt many people but me will appreciate this. But it had to be posted.
Tomorrow, something more universally appreciated. Sunsets.
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