Today was the best experience of my life!
I went to see Shrek the Musical today. I saw my sign language teacher there and she introduced me to her friend Robert. He was born deaf and to make a long story short, he now has a cochlear implant due to health reasons, so he can hear most everything. He chooses to still sign but if chatting with a beginner (me) he will use his voice. He told me to come sit by him in the area designated for the Deaf. I was nervous of course, but he is so nice and wants me to learn!
After the first act I went to sit by Robert right in front of the interpreters! I was soo soo excited! It was so amazing to be so close and to see them sign and interact. ASL is such a beautiful language and the culture itself is beautiful! No one really understands or takes the time to understand that American Sign Language IS a FOREIGN language. And that the Deaf have there own culture. I had someone laugh at me not to long ago when I said that. The joke is on you though, you should probably educate yourself before saying stuff like that. It’s kind of like dissing someone because they are black, or gay. Saying ignorant things like “You chose to be gay.” Anyone the is in the LGBTQ community knows that’s not true. Well I think more people need to accept the Deaf community too.
Anyway. Robert and I have been chatting online for two hours and he wants to meet with me and teach me sentence structure and lots of ASL. I can’t wait :DÂ
