|
My fingers are wiggling all the time lately. That must look funny when I walk down the street, but I try to be subtle about it when I'm out in public. When I'm home alone, which is most of the time, anything goes. Fingers, hands and arms (sometimes other body parts as well) fly all over the place. It would be quite a sight, I'm sure, except that I live out in the woods with the birds and gophers. They don't seem to mind.
Today I actually did it with another person for the first time. Oh sure, there have been times when I've been in group situations and something was going on. But I can't honestly count those times as the real thing. This is what it's all about. You don't truly know if you can do it until you try. What's the use of having all the tools and a little bit of knowledge if you don't apply it?
Suzanne and I got together today to practice for our ASL class. We have a test in a week and a half, and we both need to see how much we've learned and how far we have to go. Besides, it's good to compare notes. So much of what we do in class goes by so fast that it's hard to know if one person is understanding things the same as another.
There are still some signs that neither of us is completely sure about, but for the most part we were able to fill in the blank spots in each other's memory. This is really the only way to learn a language, and especially sign language. You have to be able to make the other person understand what you're saying, and you have to figure out what they're trying to tell you.
We've only been doing this for a month, so it's amazing how much we've absorbed so far. It's mostly still pretty basic stuff, but we can communicate some fairly abstract ideas already. And it was really helpful to practice together today. We even tried an exercise that hasn't been assigned yet. It was only describing shapes for the other person to draw, but it's a start. And it's a lot of fun. | 
