"It would have removed a lot of stress from my life."
She says there was an Auslan interpreter present during the first hour of the weekend course, but after the interpreter left, "our voices were turned off and it was all sign." The motivation to learn sign language is shared by Rendle-Short's family. Her daughter-in-law has neurofibromatosis type 2 , a rare genetic condition which has caused her to gradually lose her hearing before becoming profoundly deaf last year.Recently five of Rendle-Short's family members enrolled in the same Auslan class.
This includes "concentrating on the sign— the hand shape, how to get the fingers moving, the location, orientation and the [facial] expression," she says. He says there are three common reasons why people enrol in Auslan classes; they want to work as interpreters or in other jobs with the Deaf and hard of hearing community, they have family members with hearing loss, and people who just love the language."The greater exposure to the language, your skills will build," he says."You won't just learn the language. You're also learning the culture, behaviours, and customs as well.
While learning Auslan has made communication less stressful for Disher-Quill, she wants to emphasise that it is not an easy language to learn.
Anyone else think it’s crazy that sign language isn’t universal? Like an Australian deaf person can’t easily communicate with someone from America.