Home Institution: Gallaudet University
Program: LIS, Italian and Italian Deaf Culture for Hearing Students, Summer 2009
The Siena School was amazing. Two days in particular stand out when I reflect on my time at the school. Both experiences helped me to see how much I learned from Siena School and how much the school has to offer.
The first was only two weeks into my time in Italy, when the ENS folks invited us LIS students to a dinner. I was thrilled to meet some Deaf Italians but I was also nervous that I wouldn't be able to communicate. However, I spent the evening chatting with all sorts of people and completely forgot that I "couldn't communicate". Towards the end of the dinner, an interpreting student approached me and asked me how long I had been signing LIS. When I told her two weeks, she balked and repeated it back to me, "two weeks?" I nodded and she explained her reaction: "I've been learning LIS for two years and I'm not that confident! And you've only been studying for two weeks?!?!" The comment caught me off guard and made me think, "have I really learned that much?"
The second event was in our Deaf Culture class. Rita, our teacher, came in one morning and told us she'd sign her lecture - the linguistics of LIS - in LIS. I was thrilled! It was probably the most fun I had during my whole time in Siena (with the only possible exception being our MJ tribute dance in the Campo!) At the end of the lecture I was taken aback at the fact that I had actually understood. Much like how I reacted to the ENS dinner, I thought, "wow! I've learned so much!"
Siena School not only taught me how to sign LIS, it taught me how to learn. I was shown that learning LIS wasn't about learning a new language, it was about learning to use what I already knew and then building on that. I was constantly encouraged, nurtured and respected. As a result, I couldn't help but be confident. I brought that attitude back with me to America. Now, I'm the teacher and I'm the one responsible for my own students' learning. And I've found that when I encourage, nurture and respect my students in the way that I was treated, they flourish.