There was something of an initial mix up where we (
36 and I) sat around waiting for about quarter of an hour because the people at reception had forgoteen about us, but after that everything pretty much went fine. Our tutor is a profoundly deaf guy called Sean (or possibly Shawn. Or some other variant spelling) who doesn't really speak English (and I mean speak, he reads and writes it fine (only using sign grammar, which I actually found fascinating) and can lip-read), and we didn't have any sort of interpretter, so we were somewhat thrown in at the deep end. At first, I could barely understand him at all, although by the end of the session I was able to generally get the gist of what he was saying if I had context. If I got lost then I stayed lost though. The first part of the course is meant to be communication strategies for with deaf people, and deaf awareness and such like, and actually being forced to communicate with a deaf person is the perfect way to do this.The other people on the course all seem nice (as does Sean), although I must say that it is a little bit odd to actually be interacting socially with "normal" people again, as I haven't done that for a while. None of them appear to have taken an instant dislike to me or anything though, which is always a good thing. And one of them reminded me of
switchbit only less so.It should be good. Unless I end up getting a job and have to quit it.
