Last weekend, I went to Deutschfest, which was sort of like a German competition/festival between about seven schools around our area. Competing in a foreign language - and the fact that I'm presenting really soon - made me reflect a lot on learning sign language.
My Language Experience
Going to Deutschfest made me reflect on my language abilities. I was born in South Korea, so I learned Korean as my native language. I moved to America when I was eight years old, so I had to learn English. When I entered seventh grade, I was required to choose a language, and I chose German. For my Genius Project, I decided to learn ASL. I'm fluent in two languages and have touched the surface of the other two.
Each language has its own set of perks. Korean is probably the easiest to read, so Korea has one of the highest literacy rates. The low level of difficulty for reading Korean is one big reason why I can still read it. It's also very descriptive and you can come up with really creative ways to say things, even when you don't have "advanced vocabulary." I found a funny diagram online on different ways to say "yellow" in Korean.
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| Different ways to say "yellow" in Korean |
I've had a love-hate relationship with German, although now I love it. In seventh grade, I was initially not that bad at it, but from eighth to ninth grade, everything just went downhill. But now I'm not that bad, and I'm starting to enjoy its perks. I like how there's only one way to read things in German (just like Korean). The difference is, Korean is harder to figure out the spelling, but German isn't as hard to figure out (unless you've got a word like Tschechische Republik, which the teacher can't even spell). German also has a very formulaic grammar, and I'm pretty sure that has some sort of relevance to the high number of geniuses produced in Germany (oh that sounds weird...please excuse my bad wording).
How ASL Crept into my Life
Another thing I thought a lot about was how I came to learn ASL. Korean, English, and German were all languages I sort of expected to learn - English and Korean for obvious reasons, and German because my mom learned German before. I've had no connection to ASL whatsoever (which should be clearly established by now), and although I never saw myself learning ASL, I it was one of the only good decisions I've made in my life. It's a true passion now, and I don't know what I'd be doing without this passion.
Five years ago in 2010, I was in fifth grade. Being a South Korean girl, my role model was naturally Yuna Kim, the South Korean figure skater who broke the world record eleven times. One day on television, Yuna Kim said that her coach persuaded Yuna's mom to get her into figure skating by saying that Yuna was born with the right anatomy for figure skating. After hearing this, I asked my mom, "Mommy, what if Yuna Kim never started figure skating lessons for some reason?" Then my mom replied, "Then she would have lived her whole life without knowing her talent."
I got chills down my spine when I realized that people living in the streets may have the capability of becoming a better violinist than Itzhak Perlman, but can't because they can't invest the 10,000 hours into it, and they may not even have been able to touch a violin their entire lives (Malcolm Gladwell did outline that successful geniuses had an ideal environment when investing the 10,000 hours).
I am nowhere near proficient in ASL as Yuna Kim is in figure skating or Itzhak Perlman is in music, but I do have a big passion. I could have gone my whole life without knowing that I loved this topic and language so much - but I did. And I've come so far.
Mastery?
Six weeks is never a proficient time to start a whole new language (unless you're really really smart and have a lot of time in your hands), but I did try my best by pulling all-nighters and cramming as many vocabulary words as I could in my already-messed up brain. Although I still have a lot of room for improvement, I still have the basic foundation in my head that I probably won't forget. If I meet a Deaf person, I could introduce myself through sign but would probably communicate more through pen and paper. But I'm not ashamed of that. I know that I'd make the decision to use pen and paper because I know in their culture, that's what they'd prefer, and the fact that I know that is what makes me proud. I've learned so much about Deaf culture and Deaf pride, and that information is what makes me happy to have done this project.
Wish me luck on my presentation, and thank you for staying with me.
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