I have chosen to explore American sign language for my inquiry project. I have always loved learning about different languages. I love the immersive experience of learning about a culture through their own language. I tried to teach myself ASL when I was 6 years old, however, having a 6-year-olds attention span cut that pretty short. 

More than 70 million deaf people worldwide use sign language to communicate, but only half a million non-deaf people use sign language. By learning ASL and opening myself up to the deaf community I anticipate to learn more from the community than just the language, which I am very excited and curious about. At the end of the semester when I am able to look back at my learning process throughout this journey, I think it will teach me more about my learning style as well. 

 Having the ability to speak ASL could benefit a future classroom of mine in several ways. The first and most apparent benefit being the case that I get to work with a student whose first language is ASL. Secondly, I would have the opportunity to pass this skill on to my students. It would be a unique class experience as well as a helpful lifelong skill that I could teach my students. 

I am eager and enthusiastic