And the months have slipped past like a bar of soap you're trying to hold in the bath!
So much for a monthly post/discovery. An amoeba of months, plural, have swooshed happily by, and ushered in a new year.
In all honesty, I've fallen short of my goal to learn something new--every month, that is. There are nonetheless many new things which I've learnt, or am learning; mostly things I never foresaw to add to the Wonder Book's To Learn List: and currently an ongoing one is picking up sign language.
For some background: I am not, despite my incompetence in math and the sciences, a linguist. (something a considerable number of people have assumed I am, based on the above weakness as well as my love for English) I have been in love with English since I could read, and manage neither to disgrace or distinguish the Chinese language (that is, I'm not always sure about the disgrace part; but let's be generous. I did score a 5 for AP Chinese) but otherwise I am quite hopeless at languages. That is partly why I am so desperate to learn tagalog. I need to prove that I belong to the non-math-science race of people. *sarcasm alert*
Thus, when a close friend who had, with truly wonderful natural talent, become amazingly fluent in sign language on her own, started teaching a few of us, there was some doubtful cynicism underlying my enthusiasm. Betcha I'll remember none of this by next week. With that cheerful thought, I proceeded to pick up a handful of signs, convinced it was not going to get me anywhere further than being able to play the game we used to learn a few first signs.
With great joy, I am able to proclaim that I misjudged myself. I forgot everything by next week, exactly as I had predicted--that part, unfortunately, was accurate--but somehow or other I continued to learn it again (and forget it) and learn it again. This may sound strange to you, and if it does, you're blessed. Having obviously been endowed with a mental capacity of a terabyte, you will never know the pain of going through education with a goldfish's memory. Basically that is the story of how I learnt any maths at all: learn. forget. cry. repeat. Thankfully homeschooling reduced the amount of crying, or it would have been a way more sadistic parody of Live. Die. Repeat.
So far, I have learnt the alphabet (the basic of basics--so at the very least you can spell everything out, and drive your poor hearing impaired friend and yourself mad with your incompetency) and am vandalizing a little green notebook with horrible looking scrawls and even more horrible looking scribbles (meant to show hand positions which words cannot describe accurately.) Pixar will not hire me, but at least I remember to count five fingers.
I am learning that sign language is actually very much a form of beautifully simplified acting, delicately polished mime. Watching our hearing impaired friend, I realize that he signs with his face, his body, almost as much as his hands. Facial expressions and mouthing the words all help convey meaning, and that full-body involvement/unity in communicating is something I'm incredibly clumsy at. So far, if I get the hands right, I'm making progress. Talk about clumsy. I felt physically like an elephant on the ice rink; I feel mentally and physically like an elephant when I'm signing.
To be sure, I have no idea whether I will ever be legitimately competent in signing--my goldfish memory may plunge me back to square one and the depths of despair. Nevertheless, I shall continue to work at my sign language and train my brain--and body--to multi-task.
On a closing note--I want to share one of the cutest signs! Try it.
Put your thumbs and pinkies down on either hand and hold them up on either side of your mouth. Make sure you open your mouth nice and round and ideally your eyes too for the best effect!
Be proud! You have just expressed a WOW.