Interviewing My Mentor || Blog Post #5

Before I start to really use sign, I would like to know the basic perspective of the community that uses this language. Language is more than words, it is a culture as well.

Here are some of the questions I will be asking my mentor, Teri Voorhes.

Personal Questions:

• How did you become associated with learning and teaching sign?
• Do you remember the moment you decided to learn sign? What was it like and what helped your decision?
• How has ASL impacted your life and family?
• Has there been any obstacles in the past learning and or teaching sign? 
• What is your favorite thing about sign language?

Opinionated Questions:

• Do you think it is important for people to learn this specific language? Why or why not? 
• Do you think that people in important professions should learn a few signs in order to understand their clients/patients?
• For example, should a doctor learn a few signs for the body, temperature, and emotions to understand their patients in order to give better care?
• Do you think the deaf community has any limitations when it comes to doing basic tasks in their everyday lives? Why or why not? 
•  If yes, what is an example of one of their limitations?
• In your opinion, what do deaf people or people who use their hands to express themselves excel at more than people who can hear?

Factual Questions: 

• Is there other groups of people, other than the deaf community, who uses sign to express themselves?
• Why are there different versions of sign language in different countries?
• When your deaf, are your other scenes heightened?* 
• How do hearing ads work? *
• Whats the standard for being legally deaf?* 
• How do people become deaf? Illness?Something happened when they were born?
• Why can someone deaf people talk and others can't?

Other (questions random people have asked):

• How do deaf people wake up in the morning if they can't hear an alarm clock? 
• How do they know when someones knocking on their door or ringing the doorbell?
• How do deaf musicians know what their doing and if they're doing it correctly?*
• Is it safe for the deaf community to drive if they can not hear other cars? *
• How does the deaf community have internal conversations with themselves if they don't know what an inner voice sounds like? Do they imagine hands signing to them?*
• What's signing grammar like?
• What does it feel like when deaf people talk?
• Are there any signs that have more than one meaning? 

This is the video: