Teaching deaf people...

This morning, I went to a new fitness class run by Fitness Instructor & Personal Trainer Naomi, for deaf people. It's 6 weeks classes for deaf people. To educate deaf people about fitness and healthy food. I went along to meet Naomi as we have been emailing each other for a bit about fitness. I'm interested in fitness and was hoping to work in fitness industry if possible, in the future.

I'm involved with a charity for the deaf to help me to find work and go on training courses etc. They told me about Naomi and got her to contact me. I was grateful for her help and advice. So I knew I had to go to her classes and went along to first class this morning.

For me, it was basic as we were getting to know each other and I had more knowledge than others, of course as I've a passion in fitness! But it was interesting to see what others knew about fitness and healthy food. During the class, I had to explain some things to deaf people and realised something!

I am deaf and sign language user but use SSE - Sign Supported English - and talk to my family. I rely on lip reading a lots and understand English very well, mostly! For a while, I haven't been involved in deaf community so I don't always understand BSL - British Sign Language. I've always mixed with hearing people so I've forgotten a bit about BSL.

Within Britain the most common form of Sign Language is called British Sign Language (BSL). BSL has it’s own grammatical structure and syntax, as a language it is not dependant nor is it strongly related to spoken English. 
Another form of sign language used in Britain is known as Sign Supported English (SSE). SSE is not a language in itself. SSE uses the same signs as BSL but they are used in the same order as spoken English. SSE is used to support spoken English, especially within schools where children with hearing impairments are learning English grammar along side their signing, or by people who mix mainly with hearing people.

What I have realised is that I found it hard to explain to deaf people because I had no idea how to translate from English to BSL. That made me think on the bus journey from the fitness class to my gym for another workout - hardcore weights session! I was thinking about how to make it more easier for deaf people to learn and how to teach them using their own language if I ever teach fitness in the future! I found it easier to teach and encourage hearing people, so something have to change in the future if I teach fitness so I can teach fitness to both hearing and deaf people. I found that interesting!

Off now to have a lovely bath after my double workouts this morning then

relax in front of the telly tonight! Bye for now!