Here in Blackfriars (in central London, specifically the south-west corner of the City of London), I have been teaching at a certain venue, just shooting distance from River Thame. We started with our “Introduction to Sign Language” and of late I had my third visit for another all-day session. The participants have been absolute superstars and are loving the course content.
You might think an all-day course is a bit much, but the time really does fly. The participants were loving learning everything. I was teaching the basics of how to spell words on their fingers, primarily their names and then where they live or come from. Usually the latter is more challenging, for me if not them, reading back from their finger spelling and working out where they are from. We all had a fun session, there were some villages I had never heard of but we got there in the end!
The session on transport was very entertaining too. I put up lots of pictures of different modes of travel and the reactions from the participants were priceless. Now when you think that when I first start teaching, any class, the participants are normally a little reticent or nervous at self-expression.
In Sign Language we rely heavily on facial expression, body language and intonation through gesture and intensity of producing the signs. The facial expressions are sometimes something that as somewhat reserved folk, we as a collective can struggle with. More so for people learning to sign as it feels so unnatural and sometimes forced. This class, the expressions were flowing and when we moved onto animals and the wild species, it was an absolute blast. There were some I definitely wouldn’t want to have an argument with, their sign language production and expressions were quite terrifying when they were describing certain animals, I think the lion was my favourite. So scarey! The funniest part was that they were describing one of their class mates as a lion based on his rather voluminous beard and saying he just looked like one. When your participants can banter with each other, wind each other up, you know they are able to really communicate because they are relaxed with it. That is how I gauge success in my teaching, by the fulfilment in the participants and their enjoyment and learning, so evident by their expressions and participation.
At the end of that day. having started off with some rather reserved and reticent participants, I was warmly thanked and my hand shaken by nearly every single person. It was quite overwhelming, but in a positive and good way. They were all buzzing. When I went through to the Head Office, in a rather nice building inside, I was delighted to see that electronic information boards at the reception area, included BSL announcements regarding transport arrivals and departures. I really enjoyed teaching there, their business is in Railways, I was delighted to be given freebies and treated to drinks and snacks. I was able to use their facilities including a massive smart board/television where I could display my PowerPoint presentations.
When I teach groups like this, I like to use Interpreters to enable communication in the group and between myself and the participants as they are still grasping the basic signs. For this particular group, unfortunately, a BSL interpreter were unwell with covid. I needed someone short notice and I was delighted with the service I received from an online Remote Video Interpreting provider – SignVideo. They provided online interpreters, two in the morning and again in the afternoon which we had up on the screen on Zoom. It couldn’t have worked better, it was so smooth, just like they were sat in the room with us.
A fantastic service as usual.
Teaching this group in person got me out of the house, away from my office and I even achieved 12, 000 steps from all the walking. Win win!
See these photos of the great group we had. I am very much looking forward to teaching a group like this again next year.
