Now that is so foreign!
Foreign language is not my friend even though I want it to be my friend. When I was younger meaning grades first to the fifth, I had no choice of what language they were going to teach us. The language was Spanish. I was kid so that means I could care less about learning a foreign language I wanted to do kids’ stuff. That means I didn’t really learn anything.
Sixth grade which is middle school I got a choice between three languages German, Spanish and French. What do I pick? Of course Spanish and it was not fun. Seventh and Eighth grade I decided I needed to pick a different foreign language. I looked at German and it looked really hard so I picked French. Well I was in for a treat. French was so hard for me. I have no idea why I took two years of it. Also in Eighth grade I was failing and my only redemption was going to French camp for two days. My teacher told me if I wanted to pass I had to go and make an effort she would pass me. French camp was horrible! Once I got there the only rule was no English only French. Since I sucked at speaking French I couldn’t say what I wanted or needed for two days. But it was worth it to pass the class so I didn’t have to go to summer school.
In high school ninth to twelfth grade I got the same three choices German, French or Spanish. The only difference I only had to take a foreign language for three years instead of all four. I do not know how but my mom convinced the principal to let me not take a foreign language but to swap it for a bunch of computer classes. I think that computers could be a foreign language. So I took a crap load of computer classes but it was worth it not having to take a foreign language also I liked my computer teacher he was awesome.
After high school I didn’t think about learning any foreign language, I always thought what is the point because for whatever reason I can’t learn them. Not until I joined Livemocha remember I told you about that. That site makes you pick a foreign language so my fall back foreign language is Spanish so I picked that. I didn’t have any interest of learning the language just wanted to meet new people and help them with American English. Anyways I met my friend Helen there. Her language is Russian and I thought I would learn Russian. Now that is a very hard language! In my mind I thought I could learn Russian and someday I could speak to Helen in Russian and she could speak to me in American English. I would like to say if you speak Russian I admire you because your language is super hard to learn.
A couple of months ago I gave up learning Russian. I did learn some numbers, the alphabet, greetings and some random words. Russian was a lot harder than I thought to learn and I didn’t have the drive or the discipline to want to learn Russian. However that doesn’t mean I do not want to learn about Russia. I love learning things about Russia just don’t want to learn the language.
I was thinking about it and I know my best friend April is learning a foreign language. I didn’t give it any thought till I gave up on Russian. This foreign language I have always that it was unique. I think because they do not teach this language I didn’t think I could learn it without a teacher. The foreign language is American Sign Language. I didn’t come in contact with this language till I was fourteen. When I was fourteen had my first job I worked at an ice cream shop in the food court of the mall. We had a mother and daughter who would come and buy ice cream. The mom was deaf so the daughter would order for her. I thought wow talking with your hands is interesting. So back when people actually went to the library, I checked out a book on American Sign Language which is ASL for short.
It was really interesting learning some of the culture and learning some signs. I have no idea why I didn’t try to learn more. I guess I figured because I couldn’t learn a foreign language why bother, even though I thought it was really interesting.
Being older and rediscovering ASL I really wanted to learn this language. I understand Helen more and why she loves learning American English. You really need the want, drive, fascination and discipline to learn a foreign language. Also with ASL there is no pronunciation just have to watch what I sign because I am learning that some signs are pretty similar just need to pay attention what I am signing.
Why I think I will stick with this language because I have never been truly excited to learn a foreign language before. I really want to learn this and I am having fun doing it. Also it helps that I have a good teacher. My friend is teaching me and that is what she wants to do with her life. She wants to become an ASL teacher. So she can practice with me till she gets her degree. It’s cool!
One more thought, my friend April told me that music can help you learn a foreign language. I will have to agree. Since I am huge music fan learning the signs to a song and then practicing till I can sing along in ASL will just add to the fun. I decided to go with Sixx A.M. and their song Stars it’s one of my favorite songs right now. She is going to teach me all the words to that song. That means I will know more words plus I get to sing along with them eventually. Neat!
Here is a video of her signing Sixx A.M. Stars also I found these huge sunglasses and told her she had to put them on to make the video. Just being silly. April is so good at signing this song and she didn’t even know this song till I told her only couple of days ago. I filmed this on my phone this is her first attempt of the whole song. So I am really impressed!