Last week I drove to Orlando, Florida, with Betsy and one of my sign language study group friends, Gina, for the "World's Largest Silent Weekend." There were over 600 people there, and it was my 3rd year to attend. It is wonderful! It was held at a hotel in Orlando.
This was the first year I went to the advanced classes! They have classes for every level from a novice signer - one who knows no sign at all - through beginner, intermediate, and then advanced. Sign language interpreters can earn CEUs for the classes - maybe someday that will be me!
The conference begins on a Thursday night with a large meeting, where we meet the teachers, hear the schedule, etc. There are so many choices of classes to go to all weekend that it can be confusing. There are over 100 different classes to choose from! Then, at the end of that meeting, the silent weekend begins, and we are suppose to remain "voice-off", using only sign language everywhere we go, including our hotel room, shopping, restaurants - everywhere! We actually started our own "voice off" as soon as we left home. We did, however, allow ourselves to talk in the car - Gina and I aren't good enough at sign language skills to drive, sign, and pay attention to the other person's signing at the same time!
I took several classes - most of the ones I took were 2 or 3 hour classes, so I didn't get a lot of different ones in.
Here are the ones I went to:
Introduction to Legal Interpreting - not that I want to do legal interpreting, but much of it does come up in other interpreting situations, and I think it is a fascinating area of interpreting.
City, State, and Country Signs - many, many US cities, and most of the states have their own signs for their names and are not just fingerspelled, and so many countries have signs for their name.
Theatrical Interpreting
Developing Receptive Skills
Trilingual Interpreting
Religious Songs
Also, I went to 2 different ASL storytelling shows that were lots of fun and very interesting! Many of the teachers and the storytellers are Deaf themselves.
Some of the other classes offered for the different levels included fingerspelling, numbers, ASL idioms, Deaf culture, ethical situations in interpreting, and quite a few classes on religious signs and interpreting. Many classes are repeated year after year, so I have taken some of the others in the past.
It was a wonderful weekend! We did very well remaining "voice off." Sometimes, Gina and I would forget and we would need to remind each other. It can be quite a struggle to think of what you want to say, then think of how to sign it, and then actually sign it correctly! I bought a few DVDs of some of the things I want to continue to work on.
One night there was a show called, "ASL Idol" where the audience can compete in several storytelling situations, using ASL features, and it is all improv. So, there are stories using alphabet handshapes, number handshapes, classifiers, personification, and more. Betsy was in it, and she won a prize for her story!
The whole experience is very worthwhile and a lot of fun, and every year I have come home with my skills having improved. The classes are all taught in sign language, so I am working on my receptive skills the whole time I am there.
For anyone reading this who is interested in this Silent Weekend next year, the website is
www.drsign.com. And for my local sign language and interpreter friends, there is a reduced group rate and reduced rates for registering early, so do let me know if you are interested!
Comments (4)
It sounds like a wonderful event! Once our ASL classes ended, we lost touch with our classmates. It would be fun to get together for something like this.
What a great organization. I think it is so wonderful to see how you put such love and effort into learning. It shows such love for your girlie. God is using you in such special ways! You just keep on keeping on! Love, Polly
A Silent Weekend - how interesting! I never knew such an organization existed. It was fascinating. Thanks for sharing about it.
And you got to travel and stay where you didn't have to lift a finger to make beds etc. And you are keeping such an active learning mind. Good for all of you. Great that Betsy won a prize.