Wow, I finally have comments from people I don't know personally. That may be why they asked me things I wasn't expecting. All my friends (and aquaintences and people who happen to be around a lot) have heard over and over again about my quest to become an ASL interpreter. So I guess now that I'm part of Blog explosion, I'm going to have to be more carefull about defining my terms when I use them.
For Jenny: ASL is American Sign Language. It is a visual/gestural language used primarily by Deaf people in the United Sates and Canada. In Canada they also use a version of LSF (French Sign Language). Because of a quirk of history ASL is more closely related to LSF than to Brittish Sign Language.
For MemphisWordNerd: I became interested in ASL way back when I watched Seseme Streat and saw Linda Bove (the Deaf actress). More recently I encountered ASL in my attempt to get my BA in Theatre arts. The University decided that all students need to take 2 years of a forign language and I chose ASL (not really a forign language but it counted for the requirement). Then during my 4th semester of ASL 2 things happened. First I found myself in a meeting at work with a Deaf man and no interpreter (in the interpreter's defense - she'd been told the wrong room for the meeting). Well we wanted to get the meeting started so they asked me to try to interpret. I failed misserably but I enjoyed it anyway. Second my ASL class had a pannel discussion with 4 Deaf people and the topic of interpreters came up. All four of them talked about how frustrated they are by the lack of qualified interpreters. They encouraged all of us to become interpreters.
Well it turned out that the school I was at didn't have an interpreter training program so I transfered to a private college (at great expense and I'd better get a good job when I get out because whew look at that debt). I'm now workin gon my 2nd year of my 4 year program. And the more I learn about the language and the culture the more I like it. I think I've finally found my place.
So that's the short version of my story.
Any other questions?
Actually, I'm just one of those surfers from Blog Explosion.
I don't really have any questions; it's just that I also would like to have a career in ASL. I've never heard of another person who did; it just struck me as kind of cool.
Posted by: rachel at November 12, 2004 03:29 PMWha? *confused*
Posted by: pezwitch at November 10, 2004 07:56 PMI think it's really cool that you followed your bliss into an area where you are truly needed. That's awesome.
Posted by: Sarah at November 10, 2004 04:52 PMLet's not insult the other readers of my blog - it makes this cat cranky.
Posted by: Mreauow at November 10, 2004 03:44 PMOr, you could make the **editted** go to www.google.com and look them up.
Posted by: no at November 10, 2004 02:57 PM