Paddy

Hi, AK. Looks like we're in the same boat. For speaking practice, I will start by 'interpreting' something on the radio, which I can pause, sign a bit, then continue. For receptive, it's more difficult to get practice material. I'll stick with the iplayer for now. Where do you live? Which stage are you at in your BSL journey?

What is the best method to practice independently, and consolidate what I learned in the classroom? Is it: - watching signed videos, like the signed section on the iplayer - memorising vocabulary lists - interpreting from spoken/written English to BSL? The best method is other people (hearing or deaf). Unfortunately, I simply don't have access to enough people to consolidate what I learn. I have a natural gift for sign languages. I learn several times faster than the rest of my Level 1 class; so I find the rate of learning frustratingly slow. After two lessons, the mother of a deaf adult asked if I was deaf such was my fluency. There is nothing more challenging locally. My exams finish this month (June 2019). Level 2 does not begin until September 2019. Intensive courses are not available here in Northern Ireland; and I cannot afford the travel & accommodation of doing one in England. How do I progress this? I mix with the deaf community locally. However, I feel that it would be unreasonable to ask people to give up their time every week or more for the sake of random conversation to help me practice. (I am recently off work, so I have a lot of time.) After years of training, I want to be an interpreter. I enjoy sign, there is big demand for it, and what I really love? Deaf people are direct. I have Aspergers; I find it ridiculously confusing to understand the social rules of hearing people. Deaf Culture has social rules too, I have found it much easier to navigate.