Queer ASL class #1

juli  and I are doing a queer ASL class! First class was last night, on zoom. I was a little nervous because I forgot to watch the pre-class lessons, and during the beginning part of the call I often felt like I was looking at the wrong little zoom portrait because the instructor was silent and zoom kept automatically highlighting people rustling papers or something. Class was slowly paced and repetitive so neither of those things really mattered. 

Things I liked:

• For a zoom call with ASL, you point your camera differently, showing your head and torso down to your waist, so signs are fully visible. 

• juli and I were once in Ukraine and encountered a merchant selling puppets who, despite not sharing a language with us, was extremely easy to understand, and extremely persuasive (we bought a hedgehog puppet). I had previously thought of pantomime and something people just sort of did when circumstances called for it, I hadn't realized it was a skill you could learn, and I'm honestly not sure how to learn it, unless perhaps your job involves working with puppets and communicating with clueless tourists who don't speak a local language. The Deaf sign language instructor is the second person I have encountered. who was Skilled At Pantomime - after all, we don't speak her language yet.

• We did finger spelling, a couple of sign useful to class flow, and numbers, culminating in a fun activity where you had to describe a monster to your partner ("5 E Y E S, 2 W I N G S") while they drew it, and then compare your drawings at the end. So I can also sign "draw" and "monster" which honestly seem like they might be useful in my life.

• double letters in finger spelling are interesting. You can sort of make the letter shape and slide it along, or bounce it up and down. For Z, which is drawn in the air with a finger, you can draw it in the air with two fingers.

• juli  and I did a silent video call today while she was on break at work (the walls are thin at her workplace, so talking is out) and signed "L O V E J U L I" "L O V E C O R V I" at each other. Silent communication is very practical (we could have just texted, but looking at each other was nice!)

It's fun to be in that stage of learning a skill where you're looking out over a vast plain and seeing how the sun falls over it. You look forward to knowing those paths, studying hillock and tree, but for now, you're just struck by how lovely and vast this new land you've entered is, and how golden in the dawn.