And finally, I am auditing an Israeli Sign Language course through the main university! It is super fun to be in a beginning sign language class again. The professor said if I wanted I could sit in on the first class, but he was pretty sure it would be too slow for me, and I would be bored. On the contrary! Of course I am grasping the signs and grammar faster than those for whom this is their first exposure to a language in the visual/manual modality, but it is so much fun for me because every time he writes on the board or gives us direction to write, I get to struggle along with my Hebrew while everyone else is struggling along with the ISL. It is such a great balance and I’m loving it. One of the other people that works in the lab with me is also taking the course and one day after class he was kind enough to videotape me practicing my ISL for you all to see. I did my best in ISL and then explained it in ASL:
Basically the video says that I was there the first day of class three weeks ago, but missed the second class because I was getting my student visa (yay!) and the third class because the location had changed and I was not aware of the fact. Then I point out the challenge of learning ISL through Hebrew, another new language for me, and say that I am understanding more and more as time goes and will include further videos along the way.
Weekends here are Friday and Saturday, so on those days I have been hiking, biking, playing with friends, resting, doing more work on my research (contrary to how it sounds, I am making time for that, as well--it's just not as interesting to outsiders yet, as I'm working mostly on coding at this point and can't even speculate on conclusions yet), and so forth.
Sundays begin the workweek here. However, we do not have class on Sunday, which has afforded me to make it my volunteer day. I am volunteering as a teacher’s aide at a place called Shema. Shema is the Hebrew word for “hear”, which I find ironic as it is an after school center for deaf and hard of hearing students. But the whole paradigm on deafness, deaf culture, deaf education, and sign language is so different here that I wouldn’t be too surprised to find that the name is wholly appropriate and self-evident once I come to better understand both languages and cultures.
http://shema.org.il/?CategoryID=220
At 1pm the children come and we have some class, helping them with their homework, etc. It is so much fun to have nine and ten year olds correcting my language and cracking up at my antics, both unintentional and laughter-seeking. People of all ages want to have something to contribute to their environment, and I think the fact that their language skills far exceed my own in both ISL and Hebrew is a very good experience for them.
After a couple hours, they have recess and I get to hang out with the other volunteers and we swap language lessons. They speak to each other in Hebrew at a million miles a minute and then very consistently turn to me and ask if I was following. I repeat whatever words I caught and make guesses of what was said. They laugh and bring me up to speed, teach me a few Hebrew words and grammar tips, and then ask how to say this or that in English or ASL. And we all try to help one another with our ISL if the deaf volunteers are not around to provide native input.
After recess there is an activity. One day there was a guest presenter that brought a few dozen drums and played with the kids through a kind of “call and answer” game, where they would watch his hands and feel the vibrations made in the room (and listen to the beat as much as each individual could), and then play back the same rhythm to him on their own drums. Being a volunteer, I was directed to also get down on the ground with my own drum in amongst the kids and join in the game. I was thrilled! All those poor adults just sitting along the walls without drums; the other amateur musicians and I had a great time.
Another day during the activity time I was included in a card game that is famous here, I believe it's name was something like "Tika"? Or "Kita"? The kids agreed to teach me, and were settling in to do so when one of them looked on the box and saw the directions were both in Hebrew and English...a quick glance over the rules and I exclaimed, "Oh! It's Uno!" We got on swimmingly then. I lost...but learned the signs for 'win', 'cheater', and "Nono, American, it's his turn!" Or something to that effect.
This last Sunday the activity was an arts and crafts activity with clay. Hanukkah starts next week, so we were making applicable crafts. Many hanukias (the thing most Americans call menorahs—menorahs have 7 branches while hanukias have 9), and a few tops I recognized and was inspired by. I started saying, “Oh, can I make a dreidel? Can I make a dreidel?” to this person and that, and they all looked at me with rather blank faces. A couple of them shrugged and said, “Sure, make whatever you want.” And the friend I spend the most time there with finally asked me, “What is a dreidel?” I was shocked and pointed to one on the counter. “Oh! A sevivon! You call it a what? A dradoo?” And we proceeded with a great discussion of Hanukkah traditions, terms, songs from our respective countries, etc. She was surprised to learn that Americans celebrate Hanukkah too, thinking it was only an Israeli holiday.
I was pretty happy with my סביבון . :-)
I have yet to take my camera with me to Shema, but I will do my best to remember next time (this week I’ll be going to a conference, but the following Sunday should do), and snap some shots of the rooms (though I won’t be posting any pictures of people, of course). More to come on Shema for the rest of the year, I’m sure. :)
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