German Sign Language

[mothwing]

DGS is a lot of fun, not only because it's intuitive, but also because it's so quiet in that classroom. Of course we talk orally during the break, but it's signing all through class. Crocky and I did our third course today. They're intensive weekend courses, and right now we're on our way to level A2. Or at least that's what the themes we're covering would have me believe.

Sitting in language classes always reminds me of the fact that I'm a better language learner than language teacher (and god, I'm such a perfectionist little suck-up), but also how lost you can feel in a classroom in which people speak in a language in which you cannot communicate, or how much fun it is to try and make up sentences with the few words you know.

As always in this sort of course (at the VHS), there were a variety of other people of various ages and backgrounds. Many seem to be educators of various walks of life who want to work with hearing impaired or deaf children in future, but some were just there because they're interested. Others, like the other gay person in the course, have hearing impaired loved ones and relatives. People also sign at very different speeds. One person has a visual impairment which makes him slow, another person (whom I was partnered with this weekend) is fluent in ASL and is in the course to learn DGS. I was not able to keep up with him at all, but I like to believe that I didn't make too much of a fool of myself.

What is most difficult is remembering a language, correct syntax and vocabulary especially, without any form of meaningful notation system I can use. Due to my Alma Mater I'm vaguely familiar with the phonetic transcription system HamNoSys because I once attended a course on comparative phonology, but can't write it. Right now I'm using my own garbled version of the Stokoe notation and I doubt that I'll ever get behind SignWriting. I'll have to practice a lot before we're on to the fourth course in December, and it'll be long before I attempt to speak to anyone in this language. Other than Crocky.

Comments

[daharyn.livejournal.com]

This sounds like an awfully valuable skill set. There are now two people on my friends' list who are seriously learning to sign, making me think I should take it up someday soon. (ASL, in my case, and not until after I finish my bloody dissertation of neverendingness.) Best of luck! I think it's nice to have someone you can practice with at home and not feel self-conscious about it; that's always my problem, learning languages.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Oh, dissertation! I wish you a lot of strength for the work. Once your done, do give it a try, it's a lot of fun and a valuable language to know, too.

Practicing this language I also have the feeling that it's less bad to make mistakes, because while I can't stand hearing my voice saying wrong things I don't have similar qualms about signing the wrong things.

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

Oooh I'm jealous! I really want to learn sign language--ASL, I suppose, since that would be of the most use to me. I'll have to find a course in the area now that I'm not completely broke.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, do try to find one! It's really fun. I'm actually a bit jealous of the ASL learners and speakers because there seem to be a lot more movies and TV shows in which it's spoken, allowing them to practice more. There's very little with DSL.

[ysilme]

I don't remember (or did miss the post(s) ) if you talked about this before, but do you do this for a special purpose, or "just" to broaden your lingual knowledge? I think it's awesome anyway. Good luck with the learning!
At some time I wanted to learn GSL as well, just out of curiosity and to broaden my lingual knowledge, but the opportunity never arose.
But I'm surprised you're not provided with a usable system for note-taking. Isn't this a problem most of the class/theses classes would face?

(BTW, sorry that I have been so negligent with comment answering of late... busybusybusy doesn't even begin to describe it... *sigh*)

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

On LJ I didn't reeeally speak about it before. Well, I did once, back in Hannover while I was still a student and took a course, but it didn't work out for various reasons (depression, thesis, exams, mostly).

Now I'm not doing this for any specific reason rather than because I wanted to learn another language and this one looked like fun, but I think it's a nice skill to have, and we do have integrated courses for disabled students at our school, so maybe one day I'll be able to apply this skill to real life.

Oh no, don't be sorry! *hugs*