I was the first generation of my family to be born in the United States, so my family often spoke English and Spanish at home. When I entered pre-school I began learning more English and less Spanish. Throughout that year I began to speak less and less Spanish at all because I was ashamed of it. I yearned to be like the other girls in my class, those who spoke without an accent. My family rejoiced that I began speaking fluent English,…
We would need to adapt the way that we communicate if they have any of the…
When I started the first grade, I was lucky enough to be placed in what was coined the tripod program. In this program were deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing students in the same class. I was in the program throughout my years in k-12. In elementary school all my teachers would Sim-com, and once I got to 6th grade we had interpreters. Being 7 years old when I started the program, I was able to sponge up the signs rather quickly.…
On my first day of school, I was not able to communicate with my peers as Spanish was all I knew. Learning English became my priority and I worked meticulously every day to close the barrier between my peers and me. Fortunately, there was a bilingual teacher, Mrs.Verburg, who became the only person who could…
However, I am personally a monolingual, meaning I can only speak one language. However in my elementary school, when you reached grade 6 you started learning small amounts of French. It was mandatory to learn and pass French class, until grade 9. Because it was mandatory I did take this class, even though I hated learning a second language. I thought it was very hard, mostly because it took a lot of time and effort, which I didn’t have. I felt that resources were lacking in our school, because the teachers did not speak fluent French. Because of this it was more difficult to learn properly.…
In fact, Mike and Monica were lucky to have the opportunity to learn sign language because American Sign Language didn’t even existed in the past. American Sign Language was created after decades of which Charles Michel, a French Catholic cleric, founded the first public school for the deaf in the mid-18 century in Paris. Many people, at first, thought that deaf people must learn speech and lipreading. It wasn’t until the rise of a concept called Total Communication of the mid-70s, which encourages “an integrated combination of speech, lipreading, hearing aids and sign language”, that sign language gradually became popular. Unfortunately, the argument of whether deaf people should learn lipreading or sign language has already formed two sides of “the War of Methods”, resulting the debates between manualists and oralists, until now.…
At the beginning of my French classes, my thoughts were that it was going to be hard but it wasn't. My Spanish knowledge helped me gain control of the language quicker. It was challenging, but nothing I couldn’t overcome. Whenever I needed help, I would ask my French teacher or classmates for clarification on what I was struggling with. In other words, I love learning and every little thing that I learn becomes part of who I am. Learning French was an amazing opportunity that my school gave me. This relates to the person that I am because, I love interacting with people and learning things from them, for example their likes and dislikes, where they come from, and getting to know the variety of people that live on this planet because we are all human but we aren't the same. We are all different in our own little ways, so being able to speak with other people who speak English or Spanish or French in my opinion is an enormous…
5. The exact beginnings of ASL are not clear. But the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders state some suggest that over 200 years ago it arose by intermixing local sign language and French Sign Language. According to the CDC the United States has an estimate of 100,000 to 1 million people that use ASL as their primary language. Most sources state that ASL is the third most used non English language in the US.…
Finally the day came and it was time for me to go to school. I was scared; I did not know where I was, and I did not know a single word in English. There was no way my mom would stick me in an English classroom. They moved me to a Spanish one; there I had a more clear idea of what I was learning. The teacher was a sweet, calm lady; she had patience with my wiggly and off place writing, to this day I have not figured out whether she understood it or not. Once I learned my ABC’s here came the small words of animals and things like for example “oso” which means bear in Spanish. Learning to read and write seamed so boring. I had to sit down and do homework which required my attention, but I preferred to draw and play. Learning was torture; I would read very slowly, even when I tried to read those small picture books for small kids, I was useless by that time.…
Having lived in Spain for some months and living with native Spanish speakers and bilinguals, I had in the past and I currently have the good opportunity to practice spoken Spanish every day.…
Sign language is a system of gestures that is used to convey general ideas or thoughts.…
Knowing sign language truly does come in handy. American Sign Language has been an important part of my life since I was six years old. I have learned and taught sign language to children. I have also done interpreted for deaf people. Sign language is one of my greatest passions. It is very fun and interesting to learn. It is also great to share my knowledge of sign language with the children that I teach. I enjoy learning sign language because it is a unique and useful skill in life. It is helpful for communicating with deaf people. I have also signed with some deaf people while volunteering at St. Vincent de Paul. Knowing ASL is helpful because many deaf people have to read lips to understand what people are saying. However, it is much easier for them to read sign language.…
If you had the chance, which foreign language would you like to study? Give reasons for your choice.…
Please think of all the language related activities you do on a daily basis in your native language –…
I was talking with a friend of mine about a year ago, about what humanity has done and is capable of doing. During this discussion, we came to the conclusion that language was one of the most impressive feats of humanity. My friend said that language really is just a bunch of sophisticated grunts, and I have to say I agree with him. There are thousands of languages in the world, and multiple dialects to each language.…