It's too cold...where's my blanket?

Monday
Our first class was cancelled today...way too cold! We did...tried to voice some videos in the second class. We're so used to seeing certain people sign that when we're supposed to voice for someone else, we can't do it. I was glad that I could understand some portions of the videos that we watched though. I know that the things we learn from the books are important because of the concepts we learn from them but at the same time, I'm glad that we get to do the real-life things too. The concepts are important to apply but I think it's really good for us to actually see people signing on a regular basis; it's the only way that we can be somewhat prepared for the different signing styles that we'll come across when we're interpreting. While we all may wish that our clients signed exactly like April or Ruby or someone else we're used to, that's only a fantasy land unfortunately. But, just like all of us have different ways of saying things, so do the Deaf community have different ways and styles of signing things. And yes, Rachel and Sarah laughed at me today for saying 'writ' but hey, that's my different way of talking - haha.

Friday
Well, I need to remember to start writing this immediately after class because then I forget what all we've done. After finishing the red book test on Wednesday, we have started into a new chapter. This one discusses things about transitions in a conversation. It points out different signs that can be used to transition from one idea to another and some of them are really subtle. These signs let the conversation flow more easily and provides a connection between the ideas. It's like writing a paper and using certain phrases to move to another paragraph. In Ruby's class today we talked more about how to describe a house. By making us tell a lot of details about something, it gets us in the habit of doing this in everyday conversation. The details given are important to the deaf culture, even though it is typically against our nature in the hearing culture.