Take Pity on my ASL Teachers

Tonight on Halloween, only seven people showed up to our ASL on the go community education class. With only four teachers, this meant we had plenty of time to ask questions and practice. We met at Barnes and Noble at the Apache Mall, and Denise, David, and I started with the interpreter and Julie in the music section. We did not really learn about music so much as park ourselves down in the corner and learn signs such as "school", "educate", "chemistry", "history", etc. that have to do with education.

After that, my group of three was sent to Stacy and Greg over in the children's section where Greg sat in the King Chair on the stage, and the rest of us sat on the teeny-tiny benches around him. We practiced verbs and whatnot dealing with communication. Then, Greg read us a story about a Frog and a Toad going sledding. It was kind of cute.

At the end of class, Greg was going to sign and perform a song with the music (for the benefit of us hearing people), but we had to find the other group before he could start. As we were wandering around, I decided to try to talk to Stacy, who seems like a nice person. Unfortunately for Stacy, I am not at all good at sign language. Fortunately for me, Stacy is very patient.

Our conversation went something as follows:

Me: Where work you?
Stacy: (something) work (something something)
Me: Work where?
Stacy: (something something) not work (something) live farm (something about parents) work students one on one (something) hearing (something something)
Me: Ok. You have what farm A-N-I-TNM-A
Stacy: 2 (something)
Me: 2.....
Stacy: 2 (something.....something....SOMETHING)
me: D-O-N-??? H-O-R-GHA-S.....H-R-.... H-O-R-S-E?
Stacy: Yes. (something something) dead (something) horse (something) sleep (something) horse.

Me: (Sad face trying to express regret at what I think is the loss of her two horses)

Stacy: I have 14 farm cats. They live outside (something something). (Something something something).

Me: I like cats. You more cats. More cats?....not more cats....A-L-O-T (What I meant was, "you have a lot of cats.")
Stacy: I have chickens. (Something)

Me: Chickens? You eat eggs? Eggs?

Stacy: Yes. I eat the eggs. They are delicious.

Me: You eat chickens?

Stacy: I eat chicken eggs. (something)

Me: You eat chickens?

Stacy: I eat chicken eggs. Chicken (something something something) brown not good white good (something something) chicken (something something) egg (something) Eggs are good.

Me: I like chicken. Eat chicken.

Stacy: I have cats in the house and two dogs in the house.

Me: I have one cat. No more. I have one fish. No more. No more. Not noisy my house. Me. No more.

Stacy: (something) house (something)?

Me: Restroom? No....R-R-......Rochester?

Stacy: house? Apartment?

Me: Apartment. Me teacher. (Remembering I think she lives with her parents or maybe her grandpa) Two happy new years before me live mom dad house.

Stacy: That saves money. Apartments are expensive.

Me: Yes. But now not mom dad house. Me. No more.

Stacy: Living alone is expensive.

Me: I teacher Rochester. Mom Dad house Twin....(something, probably something obscene)

Stacy: Twin Cities?

Me: Mom Dad house Twin Cities.

Stacy: That is a long drive.

And so on and so forth. Poor Stacy was probably wondering why I was asking her these questions and telling her these inane details of my life. Really, I just wanted to practice, and I love watching her expressions as she signs. Also, she is pretty low-key and patient. Maybe I will practice and prepare some sentences and questions to bombard her with next week for the last class.

At the end of class, Greg performed and signed along with "Hotel California", which was really very cool. He is very dramatic, and it was exciting to see signs I knew and try to catch new ones. His rhythm was really quite good, and the whole time I had a huge smile plastered on my face. When I wasn't watching Greg, I was watching Julie as she smiled and showed her delight in Greg's performance. I have heard this song several times before and know it by heart. Julie has never heard it before.