ASL 1010

Bobbie Dietz was without a doubt the worst professor I have ever had. Although she is nice, she was sometimes very unapproachable. She was easy enough in class, but when it came to quizzes, tests, and the final, she was an entirely different person. Her tests were nearly impossible for everyone in my class, not to mention that about 50 percent of us received below a b on almost every assignment. Although the course was interesting, Bobbie refused to ever write on the board and repeat herself, and was, therefore, extremely hard to communicate with.

I love ASL! It has been one of my most eye-opening experience I have ever taken. I came in with no previous experience of ASL ( I didn't even know how to sign the alphabet) and I still managed to get an A- in the class. Bobbie is such a sweet lady and she bakes us sweets and food on test days. I thought she was very approachable and super patient with novice signers. I love attending signing lunches because they are so much of a community here! It's not just the language that I learn about, I also learn a lot more about the culture of Deaf people. We are required to go to a guest speaker lecture and write a short discussion on it, but it was honestly really enjoyable. She assigned us readings out of a book twice, almost 50 pages at a time, which can be hard to read for one night. We also work out of a workbook outside of class. Once she stopped checking them, I sorta stopped working on them, except just to do the biography readings. I recommend to use the workbook as a beginner though, because you need the constant practice to keep up with sign language.

THE TESTS ARE HARD. She signs much faster than she does in class. The way the tests are formatted is that the teacher will stand at the front of the room and signs. The students have to write down what she assigns. But sometimes she signs so fast. And the fingerspelling is so difficult to read. It's almost like we could barely study for the first couple tests. But by the final, we are used to the pace, so most of us all did well.

Overall, I recommend taking the class. It's not a blow-off language class because there are somtimes chapters to read and videos to make and super hard tests to study for. But I love the class nevertheless.