And, ASL is interesting and fun. The challenge of learning to speak another language and understand another culture also appeals. In addition to the classroom sessions, students spend hours in the Language Media Center , studying ASL videos and CD-ROMs on various aspects of deaf culture. Pronunciation in ASL is not verbal but physical. Students find it difficult to adapt to expressing themselves with the facial and body gestures that are an integral part of the language.
Students hate learning the facial grammar.
Sitting in the lounge in the basement of Phillips Hall, four students chat after class. Automatically and subconsciously, their hands glide and twist in a balletic accompaniment to their spoken words. And it has its own unique rewards. When you are conversing in ASL, you have to focus intently on the other person to process every snippet of information and pick up every nuance of meaning. Now, even when she has a spoken conversation, Lovaglia is much more aware of and receptive to the facial expressions that may give lie to the other person's words.