Real talk: I’ve been really struggling with how I want to proceed with this blog.

I am a hearing person, therefore my personal opinion is that I absolutely should not teach ASL. There are many reasons for this, but that’s an entirely different blog post for a different day.

Even sharing my “aha!” moments feels dubious. I should not be a language model for ASL. Period.

Getting Past “Stuck” in ASL

Attempting to take my ASL level from a low-intermediate level to an advanced one through self-study has proven to be extremely difficult.

If I’m struggling with it? It’s likely that other people who need this language are as well. People who are learning for their children, people who were denied access to language growing up, people who were late-deafened — if it’s hard for me, I assume it can be difficult for them.

This struggle is not just one of passion, it is one of necessity.

Instead of writing long-form about things I’ve found helpful, I think I may instead serve as more of a “connector”.

Qualifying

At this point, I have:

• Refreshed my earlier college courses (ASL 1 and 2 through MSU Denver) with Dr. Bill Vicars’ free LifePrint.com’s courses (ASL 1, 2, 3, and 4)
• Studied with teaching pro and Deaf native Jason Gervaise of ASLPinnacle.com
• Taken ASL 3, 4, and 5 (and Principles of Interpreting) through the University of Tennessee
• Connected with the Tennessee Bridges Program and started their ITP Program
  • Took a the practice EIPA Written Exam and managed a passing score on the first try

I am also presently taking several different paid and free courses:

• One on fingerspelling,
• one on ASL structure,
• one on ASL Linguistics, and
• one on Interpreting Theory.

None of this qualifies me to teach ASL. However, as a former teacher, I can definitely evaluate the quality of courses.

When I think about what I needed two years ago, it wasn’t yet another hearing person trying to serve as a language model. Instead, it was someone who was at a similar level as me, sharing what helped them grow too!

So, that’s what I think I’ll do: link to resources that helped me up-level efficiently.