Every person has a place they enjoy: a classroom, at home, or a club where they love to spend their time. People do not use these places for social interaction only, but that it gives them a true sense of joy and love being there. My place is the ASL classroom in Founders Hall, at the University of North Florida (UNF). The class is not only one of my favorites, but it has truly shaped the culture of my life. The class focuses on Deaf culture and the budding popularity of learning American Sign Language (ASL) as the main form of communication with deaf people. When hearing people as a whole learn to interact with not only Deaf culture, but deaf people in ways other than note passing and overly expressed speaking, hoping that the deaf individual
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The classroom, in general, is quaint. The class size limit is fifteen students so there is enough room for the desks to be in a ‘U’ shape, this is so everyone can see what every student is signing. Students need to be able to see each other because it is a silent classroom. Silent classroom for the ASL classes means there is no speaking at all, only sign, so everyone is getting a fully submerged hour of ASL. Our professor, Lisa Rose, is D/deaf (D/d means the professor follows the Deaf culture and physically is deaf) so we must sign or would be considered rude to speak in her presence and not advise her of what we are saying. The room beside the chairs being in a ‘U’ shape is very bland because the room is shared with other classes taught at UNF. There are thirteen other students, the class being one under capsize, and a small range of differing skill levels of ASL due to transfers into the …show more content…
The students are all respectful, they do not cut each other off in the middle of an answer, there is no name calling, everything is organized. I feel this is in part due to the language; in ASL you must focus on one person at a time, there is no way for the professor to watch two people sign at once, so there is a true professor to student focus that some classes and some professors cannot offer. Along with the class example, this course also exemplifies a different culture that many students and people do not know about. The Deaf Culture is something so foreign or unidentifiable to people, though it is prominent in America. Anytime two Deaf people are communicating in ASL, they are exhibiting Deaf Cultural norms. Personally, these ASL classes (one, two and three) have shaped and molded me into the perfect mix of hearing and deaf culture, I not only understand how Deaf culture works but can communicate within it and it is truly a beautiful thing. The deaf culture is a very accepting group of individuals. There are some cultures which can be unwelcoming to newcomers, on non-native speakers of the designated language, but the Deaf culture does not reflect that idea. The Deaf culture universally is accepting of newcomers, it will be a slow start to add oneself to the group, but deaf people are very accepting of hearing people putting in the effort to learn ASL, it is inspirational to
The classroom, in general, is quaint. The class size limit is fifteen students so there is enough room for the desks to be in a ‘U’ shape, this is so everyone can see what every student is signing. Students need to be able to see each other because it is a silent classroom. Silent classroom for the ASL classes means there is no speaking at all, only sign, so everyone is getting a fully submerged hour of ASL. Our professor, Lisa Rose, is D/deaf (D/d means the professor follows the Deaf culture and physically is deaf) so we must sign or would be considered rude to speak in her presence and not advise her of what we are saying. The room beside the chairs being in a ‘U’ shape is very bland because the room is shared with other classes taught at UNF. There are thirteen other students, the class being one under capsize, and a small range of differing skill levels of ASL due to transfers into the …show more content…
The students are all respectful, they do not cut each other off in the middle of an answer, there is no name calling, everything is organized. I feel this is in part due to the language; in ASL you must focus on one person at a time, there is no way for the professor to watch two people sign at once, so there is a true professor to student focus that some classes and some professors cannot offer. Along with the class example, this course also exemplifies a different culture that many students and people do not know about. The Deaf Culture is something so foreign or unidentifiable to people, though it is prominent in America. Anytime two Deaf people are communicating in ASL, they are exhibiting Deaf Cultural norms. Personally, these ASL classes (one, two and three) have shaped and molded me into the perfect mix of hearing and deaf culture, I not only understand how Deaf culture works but can communicate within it and it is truly a beautiful thing. The deaf culture is a very accepting group of individuals. There are some cultures which can be unwelcoming to newcomers, on non-native speakers of the designated language, but the Deaf culture does not reflect that idea. The Deaf culture universally is accepting of newcomers, it will be a slow start to add oneself to the group, but deaf people are very accepting of hearing people putting in the effort to learn ASL, it is inspirational to