Emma’s blog post #2 for In-depth

In-depth blog post #2

How did my mentor gain her experience and expertise? 

Sandra, my mentor, is Deaf, and uses ASL as her way of communicating. She gained her experience at a young age. She attended a school where they focused on how to read lips, and they tried to teach Sandra how to speak English. This was extremely difficult for her as she was, and is, Deaf. When Sandra was eight years old, she met a neighbour her age who was also Deaf. Her neighbour’s family taught her how to communicate through ASL, and Sandra joined Deaf camps, Deaf sports and Deaf clubs, although she unfortunately remained in the oral school until she graduated. 

What were those experiences like for my mentor? 

Learning how to communicate using ASL was an amazing experience for Sandra. Her Deaf friends were her family, something she could never feel with the others at her oral school as she could not communicate with them very easily. It made her feel alive and fresh because she loves being with her Deaf “family”. After graduating the oral school, Sandra fully embraced the Deaf community. Sandra says she would be lost without ASL, and she prefers to be called Deaf and is proud of it! 

What wisdom have I gained from my mentor so far? 

So far, I have met with my mentor twice, once with an interpreter, and once without. At the first meeting, which was with an interpreter, my mentor taught me some basic phrases such as ‘nice to meet you’ and ‘what is your name?’ Although I already knew how to fingerspell the alphabet in ASL, Sandra gave me a sheet that would help me fingerspell quicker. She also gave me a sheet to help me learn the numbers up to twenty. To help me quickly recognize finger spelled words, as that is a large part of ASL, we played a game. She signed a combination of two letter, and then either repeated the same two letters or signed another combination. My job was to, using the signs Sandra had taught me, tell her if the combos were the same or different. I quickly realized that it is extremely difficult to recognize what Sandra is signing when she signs so quickly! I will continue to work on rapidly recognizing fingerspelling so that I can keep up with Sandra in a conversation.  

Sandra also taught me some of the basic grammar rules for ASL. She explained that facial expressions play a large role in ASL, just as tone plays a large role when you are speaking English. She explained that for questions like who, what, where, when and why, you must furrow your brow and lean your head forward. For yes or no questions, you must raise your eyebrows and lean your head forward. We practiced asking each other what our names were, and we would respond using different finger-spelled names, to practice fingerspelling.  

Strangely, though I learned a lot the first meeting, I felt that I felt I learned even more the second time, when there was not an interpreter. I needed to pay more attention to her signs because there was not a person there to tell me what Sandra was saying if I missed something. This encouraged me to ask more questions and learn more signs. We reviewed some of the signs I learned in the first meeting, and we did a bit of practicing of fingerspelling. Sandra then taught me the signs for the colours. She also gave me another lesson on grammar. In a sentence in ASL, when you are referring to the topic, you raise your eyebrows. We practiced the colours and the grammar I learned by describing people and their clothing around us.  Here are a few of the links that Sandra recommend I use to learn those signs:  

ASL That colours

ASL That clothes 

www.handspeak.com 

What have I learned so far, in terms of facilitation strategies, that might contribute to my own development as a mentor? 

In terms of facilitation strategies, I have learned a lot from Sandra on how I could develop as a mentor. Even though we cannot communicate through words, she makes it easy to understand what I am learning, and she always gives me time to practice and to make sure I understand. She is also very organized. She brings a folder to each meeting containing papers she plans on giving me, and extra blank paper in case we must write something down to communicate. I find that the way she facilitates the meeting is really effective and allows me to learn a lot in just one hour each week.  

 

I will continue to work on quickly recognizing signs and fingerspelling and learning new signs, too. Sandra is an amazing mentor, and I look forward to meeting with her again to learn more!

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