[00:00:00:00] Please state your name and a little bit about yourself [00:00:04:00] My name is Megan, I am a senior and [00:00:08:00] I'm a Econ major with a Math minor [00:00:12:00] Okay and what's your literacy story about today? [00:00:16:00] I took sign language as my foreign language here and [00:00:20:00] basically it's better [00:00:24:00] to teach sign language at a younger age because [00:00:28:00] when children are young their brains are like sponges [00:00:32:00] and they absorb information a lot easier such as languages [00:00:36:00] and it's a lot easier to pick up the language and learn the language [00:00:40:00] when they're younger [00:00:44:00] So children are currently learning sign language before normal language? [00:00:48:00] yea both .. a lot of children [00:00:52:00] a lot of hearing children learn it as they're learning English [00:00:56:00] they learn the sign at the same time [00:01:00:00] and then deaf children obviously are learning sign language before [00:01:04:00] Okay, so you learned sign language here at Ohio State and did you have [00:01:08:00] any experience that were really difficult for you in the learning process? [00:01:12:00] I'd say definitely in the beginning it was extremely hard it was [00:01:16:00] an entirely new concept [00:01:20:00] showing you know facial expressions and using your hands [00:01:24:00] and not being able to talk at all in class was definitely hard to get used to [00:01:28:00] And can you tell us a little bit about how you learned [00:01:32:00] sign language? Like what your teachers did to teach you? [00:01:36:00] Well a lot of times we did in class activities and [00:01:40:00] we weren't allowed to talk at all in class so that was really [00:01:44:00] new, it really forced us to learn or use what we had learned [00:01:48:00] and if we didn't know the sign for something [00:01:52:00] act it out and we just went [00:01:56:00] through activities of you know she'd show us a picture of something that we already [00:02:00:00] know the word for and then learning the sign for it and then [00:02:04:00] you know using them in sentences almost as if you were [00:02:08:00] learning how to read [00:02:12:00] So you think learning sign language was similar to your experiences learning how to read? [00:02:16:00] Yes especially because i you know knew what to relate the signs to and with the [00:02:20:00] pictures and all of that [00:02:24:00] Okay, can you tell a story about a time you felt illiterate in a particular situation? [00:02:28:00] In our sign language class we were ...we had to [00:02:32:00] go to a deaf event for extra credit and [00:02:36:00] so there were many like... deaf and hearing individual there [00:02:40:00] and it was in the beginning of my ASL classes so I still wasn't that [00:02:44:00] good so it was really hard to communicate with people [00:02:48:00] there was... it was a silent event you weren't allowed to talk at all just [00:02:52:00] at of respect for the variety of people there [00:02:56:00] so it was really hard to communicate with people and [00:03:00:00] you know talk to them and be able to get my point across and still you know [00:03:04:00] have fun because I wanted to be able to talk to people and [00:03:08:00] sign with them so that was really frustrating [00:03:12:00] thanks