Today I started my sign language course and it was awesome! Our teacher is deaf and only signed. She didn't speak or lipread. We had an interpreter for today but as of next week we are not to talk during class, only sign, should be interesting. The class is made up of a number of different people, a few hard of hearing and the rest hearing. All females, and most of them working with children with either disabilities or deafness. The class is held at the WA Deaf Society which is great because they know exactly how to cater for my deafness!! They had microphones for when people spoke to ask questions and the interpreter also wore a microphone so I had no trouble hearing what was going on. While it was a little exhausting watching the signing, and listening (and lipreading) the interpreter, and reading the presentation notes, I feel like I understood everything that was going on.
The first class was all about the grammar, syntax and the structure of Australian Sign Language which is nothing like English. I imagine this to be true of other sign languages (American, French etc). In English for example we would say "two mice" but in Auslan it is said as "2 mouse". English we would say "that car is black", Auslan we sign "black car". Auslan is a visual language and cannot be written or read.
So my homework this week is to read all about the background to Auslan and start to use some signs. I can't wait for the next class!
