“Empowered by learning BSL”- Blog winner- Amy Elmore:
I have always been fascinated by sign language. It started at Primary School. One of my friends had a deaf Mother, I remember her vividly.
She stood out to me, shone brighter than the other parents, her communication seemed so powerful to me. She was amazing! She gave you her undivided attention. She was always actively engaged, paying close attention to facial expressions, my body language and reading my lips so attentively. She reacted to my stories with amazement, unlike other parent, I felt she better understood my descriptions of things, places, people. When it was my time to pay attention to her, despite her not being able to verbally communicate with me, it never stopped us having a conversation with one another. I found her mesmerising. Her stories larger than life, emotions clear to understand, urgency of tasks such as homework and dinner time made so clear. The muddle of insignificant words was removed, and the importance of the message remained.
That interest in BSL never went way and despite some online training courses over the years, I never properly started my accredited BSL learning journey until a few years ago. January this year I completed my 3rd exam for Level 2 and now await my results. I hope to start Level 3 in March.
I am so proud of my BSL journey to date, how much I have learnt and the potential to learn so much more. But as I reflect on my journey, I realise my learnings stretch much further than beginning to understand the language.
The biggest takeaway for me has been the increase in my social confidence. A socially anxious person, I often find it difficult to be around people. Communicating in BSL, during my classes as well as the exam requirements have shown me that historically I have dealt with this anxiety by deflecting – constantly asking other people questions, leaving them to tell their story and fill the space. It took the attention off me. BSL classes don’t always allow me to do this. A requirement of the courses is to talk about the self, tell a story – talk about what you’ve been doing on the weekend, perhaps your favourite holiday. Something I found particularly challenging at first.
But as I settled into it, I found BSL gave me the tools to confidently talk about myself and find a way to open to others a little bit more. The qualities of the language and my learning journey have allowed me to choose my narrative and passionately describe and communicate about it. It reminds me of my experience with my friends Mum all that time ago – BSL conversations feel more intimate, focused, attentive. This experience settles that anxiety bug and replaces it with a feeling of active engagement, both from me and whom I am communicating with. It has been a huge confidence boost.
In finding a new way to express myself, I have also found a new community. Learning BSL has connected me to the Deaf Community, and I am enjoying learning about deaf culture and history. I have met people on all stages of the deaf journey, and they have and continue to, teach me so much about myself and others. Understanding some basics of the language has provided me with the ability to communicate with people I otherwise would have struggled to and I have formed genuine connections and made new friends along this journey which I am so grateful for.
These relationships and shared experiences have encouraged me to consider inclusivity in both my career and community more than I ever have. I feel a strong alliance and responsibility to the deaf community as an ally to advocate for deaf awareness and challenge misconceptions and discriminations. My learnings have afforded me the confidence and understanding to be able to have these conversations and because of this my company recently invested in a course to introduce employees to the basics of BSL. I hope to do more this year, volunteering with Deaf Friendly to visit schools within South Wales to introduce BSL to children.
I cannot wait to share with the children the uniqueness of BSL and its use of body language and facial features – something I remember vividly at their age. Learning these have taught me that emotion is a shared language all of its own. Along with everything that comes with learning a new language I have improved my memory skills and sharpened my multi-tasking abilities! The investment in a personal interest has positively impacted my career as I feel more switched on and invested in the day-to-day.
I hope that one day, in communicating with me through sign, someone sees and experiences what I did with my friends Mum all that time ago. I feel a responsibility now to the language and the community to speak wherever I can about the benefits of BSL and impact it has had on my life to date – my family, friends and career all of which I hope I have given some insight into through this blog.
Thank you to BSL and most of all to the Deaf Community. Wish me luck for level 3!