Chak's View - American Sign Language: Learning Experience and "Time is of the Essence"; Connections to Tri-Valley

As my morning starts on a Monday and Wednesday in Fall 2015 at San Jose State University, I typically have morning classes that I must often rush to early in the morning, as classes start in the middle of the morning - at 9AM. American Sign Language is the only non-English class that does not teach English, but instead teaches in silent form. To get the full experience of my class, I must be on time or otherwise I will be locked out.

TRI-VALLEY CONNECTIONS

I personally have lived in San Martin (pronounced SAN-MAR-TEEN) since birth, visible from US-101 of where I can see the "San Martin Ave - 1 MILE" sign, but hearing about various cities that any instructor resides in is completely different. At the first class meeting, I was introduced to the instructor known as Professor Sandra Amausen, who she indicated that she resides in Livermore, as opposed to me residing in San Martin. If she does know the map, San Martin is about 25 miles from SJSU's main campus, between Morgan Hill and Gilroy. She probably does not know that the time it takes for me to make the drive from San Martin to San Jose State University is well over 30 minutes, as there has been an increasing amount of vehicles on US-101 between San Martin Ave and Cochrane Road exits. If you recalled in a San Jose Mercury News article, the commute between Gilroy and San Jose has continued to increase by a whopping 37% due to more people living south of San Jose and shifting most of the traffic from Santa Cruz County to southern Santa Clara and San Benito Counties. It typically takes an hour to go between San Martin and Livermore just by using existing highways and freeways, as my drive times have indicated both by using time and/or technology.

While San Martin is my home nest despite being born in San Jose, I personally do have connections to the Tri-Valley and beyond, but particularly Pleasanton and Livermore, as some of my friends have relocated to those areas. When I attended Gavilan College in Gilroy, the volleyball coach have said to have commuted from his home nest in Dublin. The number of Tri-Valley trips for me did increase as I explored a lot of places thanks in part to my fellow SJSU students and alumni. One of the events that is held in Pleasanton, for instance, that I wish that was held near San Jose or Morgan Hill is the Pleasanton First Wednesdays party during late-Spring and most of the summer, as one of my friends owns a sunglasses shop in downtown Pleasanton. Another one of my friends, who I met at SJSU, works at a solar company that has a Livermore office.

Sacramento is also one of my destinations that I do drive to occasionally for long-distance relative visits. However, I am often subject to driving my parents to Sacramento to get vegetable boxes, then driving back with a stop in Livermore because I find that the van's brakes can fail if I drove continuously between the in-climb of the Altamont Pass on I-580 east of Livermore and the steep hills on both SR-84 and I-680. The most common stop that I would use for any trip involving vegetable boxes is just off Livermore Ave, at In N'Out. Normally, I would then get back on 580 and take the Isabel Avenue exit (which is also SR-84), but at one time, I had to take an alternate route because of the excessively heavy traffic on 84 and on 580, so I found out that the only choice was to go through downtown Pleasanton and getting back to San Martin.

SIGN LANGUAGE AND FIRST EXPERIENCE

Learning American Sign Language (ASL) can be difficult to my take, just like if I started to learn Spanish and French. While I may be used to getting to speaking and writing the numbers, using sign language for ASL takes a great deal of time. Amausen does expect me to learn well or suffer the fate - something that is required as part of my English major - one full year to be specific. But being on time to learn ASL is very challenging, especially when traffic is in a total gridlock near light rail stations and along US-101 in the morning and evening commutes - therefore, time is of the essence. Every driver like me must have knowledge of traffic and streets along the routes in case of excessive traffic or an accident that may block either a portion or even the entire roadway.

As Cantonese is my mother-tongue language that I still speak, English is widely used for both my written work and spoken language. In fact, all of my other classes have English-related content that puts me on the computer daily using both the Canvas website and the Canvas app (download available on phone or tablet). Unlike my English classes, ASL is more on the hands-on-learning, as I must use my fingers. My parents do think that the use of sign language is more like doing something crazy, but that to me is not true to my learning.

While ASL is new to my learning experience, ASL is nothing new to my cultural experience. If I remembered my past, I have seen ASL being used in some programs that speak Mandarin Chinese on China Central Television (CCTV) and in Cantonese on a handful of programs produced by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) and aired on the "free-to-air" channels like TVB (officially Television Broadcasts Limited). One of the most frequent programs that uses ASL is an RTHK program known as "News Review." The program speaks in Cantonese and uses ASL in an insert for deaf viewers with Traditional Chinese subtitles - there are no English subtitles in that program.

Although I am not deaf and learning ASL, I do have a disability - that is mostly related to my neurological disorder, but also have ties to my autism. My diagnosis came in 1998 as I was on vacation in Hong Kong and Macau - both of which I can see programs containing inserts for deaf viewers. At that time, I was thinking that I was going to get another measles shot, but it turned out to be a psychological diagnosis. The report was then was noted in a written statement from the Morgan Hill Unified School District. After I graduated from Live Oak High School, I went on to Gavilan College and eventually SJSU, although I had vacations here and there - most of them are Hong Kong and Macau trips.

Despite some wobbly starts to my semester, I am starting to get exposed to the ASL language, although I will promise to get the assignments done as much as I can. However, ASL to me will be best remembered for my cultural experience, which I hope to take that to my learning with professor Amausen and see more of ASL in my visits to Hong Kong - something that perhaps Amausen may want to see. While I'm still worried of how my disability will affect my grades, I do hope that making lots of inquires to all my instructors and going to Writing Centers more often will steer me in the right direction.

Original Work: Kyle Chak
E-mail: chak595301@gmail.com
Twitter: @KyleSChak