Sign language

Yesterday was my last sigh language class and I believe it will be my last for the next few years. The SL for UK is different so I can't really continue my SL classes when I'm at UK and the Level 1 class is commencing in January and end after I fly off so it's really sad that I can't continue the lessons.

Anyway, yesterday we had our last class at Old Town Coffee opposite YMCA and 4 of us signed and laughed a lot. I am proud to say that I could hold a 2 hours conversation without muttering a word. If I don't know how to sign the word, I just finger signed it and my teacher, Loula would teach me the proper way. It was so fun.

I will upload the pictures here soon =)

My teacher praised me at FB hehehe
"Hwei Jene, What short simple name should i call u? HJ? Call me Loula. well, we had a great conversation via sign language. I notice you have potential to become a fluent signer some day. Will keep in touch always so that u will pick up signs."

Match make me??!!

3 stuff to blog about:

1.

It was about 10ish when this lady staff from 10th floor came up and find me. I was at the filing area and was feeling nauseous because of my low blood pressure and repeatedly standing and squatting made it worse. So anyway, I was searching for this file when suddenly that lady appeared and asked me how old am I. So I replied her and the next thing I know she's telling me about this nephew of his who's still single and the mother (her sister) is worried. Bla bla bla....and she wanted me to get to know the nephew.

Oh ya, according to that lady, her nephew is 30 something years old very tall doctor who's working at England and very shy around girls and hence no girlfriend. His 2 younger sisters are doctors too and are at England (1 of them is at Scotland) and they're all from IMU. After coming up to my floor a couple of times to ask me more questions about myself, she decided to ask me to email that poor guy. I, who was still feeling nausea and was frantically smiling and shaking my head (which made me feel like puking on her) could not stop her from continuing her mission. So I end up asking her to ask him to add me in FB and I gave her my name to end the ordeal of shaking my head.

Few minutes later, she came up AGAIN and this time, I tried to push her mission onto another female worker who's older than me by a few years. Instead she told me she prefers me even though she didn't even look at the girl I recommended!! Anyway, she came up and gave me that guy's name instead and asked me to add him.

So here I am feeling stupid and dumb for not lying that I'm attached, just came back from googling his name and guess what, he's a gold medalist from M1/00!!! Gold medalist is an award for the best student of the batch. Wow, brilliant guy but not around girls I guess.

Wait, let me tell you how I felt when I was at the office before googling the name. I didn't really gave much thought about this guy who is still single at the age of 30 and is a doctor, but maybe it's because
1. He is very dedicated to his job and don't have time for relationship?
2. He haven't told the mother that he's dating someone?
3. He don't plan to get or want a relationship?
4. He's a psychopath?
5. He's a huge geeky not attractive doctor?

But after seeing him as a gold medalist, what I have in mind now is no 1 and 5 =P

Anyone interested?? Just tell me and I'll tell that lady staff. Just get me out of this mess. Grr...

2.

Had farewell lunch with the seniors and big boss of my department for the staff who's last day is Tuesday (today). They talked, I pretended to smile and gave up half way because I can't hear them. Than god a junior sms me to ask me about his electives which gave me something to occupy my time.

8 of us went and 7 of us are Malay so you do the Math and tell me who's the awkward one. Anyway, didn't dare to eat much because I don't feel well. So when we went back to the office, I continued with my work at the filing section and overheard the seniors discussing about how much each of us need to pay (our boss paid 1st) so I went to my seat and took out my purse, ready to fork out whatever crazy amount and to my surprise they say I don't need to pay. Whee~~Good news for me because I am broke.

3.

Sign Language Class was so fun today. We learned how to sign greetings, time and occupation. Lastly, we learned how to sign fruits. We had 10 more minutes to go so we played a game. Do you guys know how to play "bomb"? It's a game where each group name themselves (usually a country) and the starting group will go "bomb (own group name), bomb (own group name), bomb (own group name) to (another group's name)" while pointing to that group and that group repeats. It's fun because it gets faster and definitely they'll be mistake. Either the whole group don't start together and shout the same other group's name or they point at the wrong direction.

Anyway, we played the same game where we name ourselves a fruit (by signing) and we played the same game and rules. Loser stands in the middle of the circle to catch another loser (the person who did a mistake of signing wrongly). My fruit name was strawberry and the sign for it is holding your nose (strawberry's shape is similar to our nose's shape) while the others had their own fruit sign. So everyone will sign their own fruit sign then another fruit which indicates one of us. Since mine was the easiest, everybody keep signing strawberry and it was so funny when everything went faster. They either forgot to sign their own fruit of the sign went weird!!

What a day right??

Later watch Inception, yeah!!

Deaf talk

I attended a talk organized by the deaf society and it was an eye opener for me.
For starters, I have yet to attend an event that is so quiet although there was a big crowd!!

Anyway, the topic of the talk was "Child Sexuality Abuse". There was a speaker and a translator and it amazes me to see how he signed words like "Vag**a", "Pe**s", anus...OK, I admit he signed too fast for me to know what he's signing. Come on, he has 10 years of experience!!

To actually see how the deaf interact is very interesting. As we can hear, we'll turn to the direction the voice is produced and we can actually (sometimes) manage to listen to 2 people talk at the same time but the deaf, they can't really do so because they got to focus on the face, body and hands to comprehend the message and if they want to interrupt or join in the conversation, they got to catch the whole group's attention. So I really wonder how they communicate in a huge group.

After 1 hour of concentrating on the interpreter, I got very tired so it got me thinking whether they can hold a long conversation like us. The longest talk for me is about 6 hours and if I'm tired (do I get tired of talking??), I can just take a drink and continue. But for them, it's different as they need energy to move their hands, face and body and the power of concentration. Wow, they really are fantastic!!

I really am glad to get the chance to attend such gathering. It's like a whole new culture to me. Hope I can sign and communicate with them SOON.

my 1st sign language class

Before I start my post concerning the title, let me tell you about my job today.

Reached office early like usual and begged for work so I got to do filing again. I did filing last Friday and it was easy and fun. But today it was getting on my nerves because the files are not arranged systematically, they were all over and the same company having few files with different years everywhere!! It was so frustrating because I swear I saw company XYZ seconds ago but I can't find it when I need it. There were 7 huge tall cupboard for the files mind you. Anyway, I end up with bad headache and was so glad when it was 5.30pm.

The staff that gave me most of the work keeps telling me I worked too fast. I guess she's having problem giving me work because I can't do much and the stuff that I can do are finishing LOL. Maybe I can volunteer to sort their sucky filing cupboards. That will definitely fill up my time.

I have many paper cuts on my hands =(

******************************************

So, my 1st sign language class was...quiet. We'll be having 2 instructors. One normal lady and another deaf lady. Today's class was conducted by the deaf lady and it was err, honestly, not very exciting. I was actually having palpitations while waiting for the class to start because I thought it'll be fun. I can actually see my shirt on my left chest beating along my heart beat!! So, it did not occur as what I've expected.

Class started off with introduction by the normal lady telling us about all the activities. OH YA!! We have ASSIGNMENTS and TESTS!!!! Gosh!! Attending deaf related activities consist of 40%!! I don't mind at all but the thought of written assignments (50%) is just so sad. Anyway, after the normal lady left, we were told (signed) to not talk, not to sign and not to write in the next 4 classes. We're allowed to start signing after the 4th lesson. AND this level only includes signing alphabets and numbers which I already know since Al lend me her sign language book last year.

The next 45 minutes includes us drawing and signing to explain about ourselves. So I drew this. Don't laugh, I didn't use a mouse to draw so it was not this ugly.
There were 7 of us so it took up quite a lot of time especially this aunty who is about 40 / 50 years old which have this huge family tree. Next, we learn to sign 1D, 2 D and 3D shapes.

I guess I can only look forward to attend those deaf related activities and learn their culture. Let's hope I'll be able to pass this class to proceed to the next level and be able to sign smoothly before I start my next semester.

PS: I don't know why people always assume that I'm a banana (don't know how to speak and write in Chinese) Jeez...