Teacher Discussion Forums

naturegirl321 · Joined: 18 Jun 2003 Posts: 10 Location: Suwon, Korea

Just wondering., where did you study sign language?

futureaslinterpreter · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 4 Location: Kent, WA

I'm currently at KL and GRCC, but I will be transferring to Seattle Central and hopefully later on to Gallaudet for my Deaf Studies program.

Carin · Joined: 14 Jan 2005 Posts: 1 Location: On. Canada

Is there a need for teachers for hearing impared schools? I'm from Canada if that matters. If so Is there a special program for such a thing and of course does one need to be hearing impared to teach the deaf? Are the majority of the teachers in these schools hearing or hearing impared. I hope these questions aren't rude. And If there are courses do they include information on deaf culture? I think that might be helpful If I was to do such a thing.

futureaslinterpreter · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 4 Location: Kent, WA

Carin, your questions are good ones. However, in our struggle to be politically correct, we often offend people more than we avoid doing so. They are Deaf (culturally deaf) deaf (what you would call hearing impared) or hard of hearing. Rarely do you find someone who prefers to be called anything other than that. It offends them to be called 'impaired'.

That put aside, there are many programs you can go into to study Deaf culture and education. As a preriquisite you must be fluent in ASL. If you would like more information on it, email me.

Airwreck · Joined: 13 Feb 2007 Posts: 1

Stumbled on this when searching another subject.. and had to add my 2 cents.. This is Strictly a North American thing.. In the Caribbean where I live there is definatly a seperation between the Deaf, Hard of Heaing and Hearing impaired and all three groups use the differnt "lables" the Hard of hearing applies to old folks.. the hearing impaired applies to the group of folks who have lost some hearing, still thinking hearing and the Deaf are people who Think Deaf and Live in the Deaf world. Politically correctness is not an issue here.. Bottom line talk to the folks involved before saying one lable is right or wrong..

JettAustin · Joined: 12 May 2010 Posts: 2 Location: Dallas, Texas

Hi naturegirl, going back to your question.
You can buy books about learning American Sign Language from bookstores or any online stores.
You can also search online for centers that teaches ASL.

Good luck!

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jooooooey · Joined: 08 Sep 2009 Posts: 15

At least in the US, you can find colleges that teach ASL in most states at least. At Portland State they recently changed it so that ASL can fulfill you foreign language requirements. They only taught it for 2 years, but at that point, at least if you are socially inclined, you can get yourself involved in the deaf community enough to get fluent. And then I'm sure you can find better programs at that point. But I think that the community college (in Portland) had a better program. They trained for interpreters.

I never took enough ASL to get good at it, but it has proven to be the most useful of all the languages I studied. I mean, there aren't that many people in the world that speak ASL, but it taught me how to learn to communicate without having a common language. After a certain point of fluency, ASL becomes much more symbolic, but all the same, I have heard that speakers of sign languages learn other sign languages quicker than speakers of a spoken language learn other spoken languages. Anyway, I'm getting way off subject.