Has anyone done sign language for their foreign language? If so.....

[mcmom4]

could you tell me what you used that would be equivalent to two years?

Thanks so much!

[LuvingLife]

I did!!!! I am doing that and Spanish and sign language is amazing let me tell you!:D I love it and will keep going with it. My mom bought flash cards, borrowed books from the library, used youtube videos and the hs as well. You could probably take an online course, maybe google it and you'll get something.

[Alyce]

If you're planning on using this as your child's only foreign language, not all colleges accept it. If you are only going to use this check with the colleges your child is interested in attending to see if it will be allowed to used as the foreign language equivalent. If you're doing another foreign language along with it then there should be no problem. Sign language is fun and enjoyable to learn. I took a couple of semesters in college but unfortunately have forgotten most of it although I still have my textbooks.

[FaithManor]

Diddo Alyce,

 

Many, many colleges will not recognize it as foreign language credit because American sign language is English based and so the child is not learning grammar, etc.

 

That said, it is a wonderful and practical thing to know. DD, paramedic student, is learning because it is a leg up in the hiring process. A medical professional who knows sign language will get hired over another equally qualified candidate and especially if that person knows it well enough to "talk" medical terms fluently and can interpret for doctors and nurses. It is very difficult to get "informed consent" from a patient if they are not good lip readers or they are dizzy, etc. and can't lip read as well as usual. Plus, when a medical professional is working on a patient, he/she can't always lift their head into the perfect face on position for lip reading. So, it is a handy skill!

 

I would at least do a couple of years of Latin if your student is not interested in any other modern language. With the number of homeschoolers growing and many of those students learning Latin, many colleges accept Latin on the transcript.

 

Faith

[Rosie_0801]

Diddo Alyce,

 

Many, many colleges will not recognize it as foreign language credit because American sign language is English based and so the child is not learning grammar, etc.

 

Well that would be a poor reason, because it isn't based on English and it does have grammar.

 

I don't know how many hours "two years" means, but I studied Auslan for the equivalent of two years full time and that got me as fluent as I was capable of being.

 

Do remember that the ability to interpret does not necessarily come with fluency. I had the best receptive language in my class and probably the third best productive skills, and can't interpret for beans.

 

That said, it is a wonderful and practical thing to know. DD, paramedic student, is learning because it is a leg up in the hiring process. A medical professional who knows sign language will get hired over another equally qualified candidate and especially if that person knows it well enough to "talk" medical terms fluently and can interpret for doctors and nurses. It is very difficult to get "informed consent" from a patient if they are not good lip readers or they are dizzy, etc. and can't lip read as well as usual.

 

 

Now things might run differently in the US, but specialised medical vocabulary did not form part of our course and to be a medical interpreter, one must pass the top level interpreting exams. Talking with a patient about medical issues is different to interpreting for another medical professional. The average medical person wouldn't know any better and the hospital might want to cut corners, but the Deaf person ought to have a proper interpreter in these situations. Over here, you require years of experience and extra study to get from paraprofessional to professional (law and medicine) level interpreting.

 

Rosie

[FaithManor]

DD is taking American Sign Language classes through a community college and they are not rigourous in the same way that a spoken foreign language is....no college credit of any kind is offered upon completion. There is simply not enough work in the first three classes to qualify for high school credit...she willingly admits that. Apparently you assumed that dd was not pursuing professional medical interpreting and would therefore be unqualified to interpet. You are wrong. She is pursuing it to that level which will of course take time; but she has to start at the beginning just like everyone else. However, due to a complete and utter lack of any medical professionals in our area knowing any sign language whatsoever and only three professional medical/legal interpreters within a 150 miles radius, just having basic ASL will give her a huge resume boost when she applies for her first paramedic job. The difference between being completely unable to communicate vs. even being able to state some basics, offer some comfort, being able to say, "We'd like to take you to the hospital. Is this okay with you?" is huge when we are talking about not being able to transport a patient without consent - a conscious person over 18 years of age that does not display altered mental status cannot be transported to the hospital without informed consent in the state of Michigan. She has already gotten to use it in the field just to say, "My name is R and I will be helping M take care of you. Are you in pain?" and it got her massive kudos because this patient did not have lip reading training and there was absolutely no other way to communicate with this her. There is not one paramedic in the EMS company she works for that has taken a single basic ASL class. They are usually too busy taking their annual continuing education credit medical classes so they can renew their licenses.

 

Maybe Auslan is done differently in your country and the classes are much more rigorous and could qualify as high school or college credit. In most communities here, the first level and sometimes even the second level of ASL would not be difficult enough to meet the minimum requirements for the amount of time and study to give credit for. Now, maybe if one were taking an entire certification level in one semester, then yes. As for professional licensing, yes, it is going to take a long time to get there. Will hospitals and EMS companies still see her continuing education and current knowledge of ASL as a huge asset? Absolutely, she has already been told this and encouraged to do this.

 

Faith

[FaithManor]

I also did some checking and found that a couple, not all, of the state colleges of Michigan are accepting ASL for credit for high school but only if the course the student takes is one on an approved list by the college itself. A homeschooler could not put together their own curriculum and have credit recognized for it. There are specific parameters and textbooks that must be used and the instructor must be have a very high ASL certification in order for the classes to be considered for credit. At least three-five hours per week of written homework in addition to practicing the skill is recommended.

 

DD's course, though approved by the School of the Deaf here in Michigan, would still not meet those requirements for high school or college credit but still qualify her to continue working towards the first level of ASL.

 

It would be helpful if there was more uniformity from state to state as to the design and content of classes offered. I think this is one of those instances where the lack of a national standard is a hinderance.

 

Faith

[emubird]

My daughter used Signing Naturally in the first 2 semesters of her college ASL class (which should be about 2 years of high school). They only got partway through the first book. However, they also did more in class that wasn't in the book. (And I wouldn't recommend Signing Naturally unless you have a teacher.)

 

We had gone through You Can Sign (with the Bravo family and Billy Seago) before she started ASL I. They didn't let her place into ASL II, but they really should have, as she knew everything going on in the ASL I course just from watching those videos.

 

So, the You Can Sign videos seem to cover about one semester of college (one year of high school). They're easy to use. We learned a lot from them without any help. The Signing Naturally books and videos would cover more, but they are difficult to learn from on your own. There is no glossary in the books, which puts the self learner at a significant disadvantage.

 

This is a pretty good site:

http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro.cgi

It might lead to others that are useful as well.

 

All the colleges near us are accepting ASL, not only for admissions, but also to fulfill the college language requirement. Even 5 years ago, this may not have been true, so if people here think colleges don't accept ASL it might only mean that their info isn't current. You should check with the colleges you're interested in.

 

And, yes, ASL does have a grammar and a culture.

[Rosie_0801]

It would be helpful if there was more uniformity from state to state as to the design and content of classes offered. I think this is one of those instances where the lack of a national standard is a hinderance.

 

 

I wasn't dissing your daughter or her efforts, nor was I making any assumptions about her future plans. Why should I do that? I am quite aware that medical people can choose to learn another language to professional certification level. I was providing information for the OP. We wouldn't want her thinking you can get from fingerspelling to medical level interpreting in two years, would we? I understand that if you are the one of only four hearing people who signs within a 150km radius, what you know is bucket loads better than what everyone else knows, but that doesn't eliminate the fact that a Deaf person ought to have a medical level interpreter when they need one or that many people around don't realise the level of skill involved so cut corners when it comes to hiring. Heck, most of my deaf buddies don't realise the skill involved in interpreting and think anyone who can sign can interpret. They are wrong. Or perhaps they suffer from a lack of decent interpreters and think my efforts are better than a kick in the head.

 

While I agree that the study of a signed language isn't as rigorous as that of a spoken and written language, but if your daughter is only a beginner, it is also possible that you haven't been introduced to the complexities that exist as yet. For a person who isn't naturally a visual-spacial type, it requires training yourself to think in a whole new way, and that is hard work even if no one outside your own head can see it.

 

For what it's worth, Auslan level one is about a six week course. In a full time course, one would cover about 8 levels in a year. That depends on the course though. Some teach according to the levels, some don't. My course was about 20 hours a week, for the first 18 months, and about 25 for the last semester. Plus extra practice outside of that if you wanted to graduate fluent.

 

As to the above quote, it is quite possible that there aren't national standards because there isn't a standard ASL. I don't know about that for certain, but there isn't a standard Auslan (and it is only hearing students, not the deaf who want one!) so there are probably even more dialect differences in ASL, with America having a larger population and all.

 

Rosie

[Photo Ninja]

I have heard that some universities don't accept ASL as a foreign language, but my dd and her friends have not encountered any of them. All the universities they have applied to accept ASL as a foreign language. Since dd and her friends took the ASL courses at a cc, all the colleges will transfer the cc credits as well.

 

But even so, it is good policy to check with any university to see if the courses your dc are taking will meet their requirements. This applies to cc credits, AP and CLEP credits as well.

[Alyce]

I don't think that just because some of us said sign language wasn't accepted at some universities means my knowledge isn't up to date and personally I think it's rude for you to suggest it. I'm glad that all your state universities accept ASL but ours do not and my knowledge is current. As many people have said, the acceptance varies greatly and the best thing to do is check with the school but do not assume that the colleges you're going to apply to will take it, you may find yourself in trouble if they don't.