Why I Want To Be A Deaf Teacher

The first question many teenagers are asked at any social gathering or family party is, ‘what do you want to do when you graduate?’ For most adolescents, that question is the most dreaded part of any day. However, that stereotype doesn’t apply to me, as I had decided in the 10th grade exactly what I wanted to do in life. My future career goal is to be an English teacher for deaf students. My plan is based off of my interest in the deaf community and culture, my passion for English and love for helping people. Obviously my career is a very specific one, and it sparks many questions. My interest in American Sign Language started when I was in the second grade. My teenage brother, at the time, had unsuccessfully been taking an American Sign Language class which led me to stumbling upon an American Sign Language dictionary. Unable to understand many of its words, but to interest to stop trying, my mother went out and bought me my own dictionary for younger learners. From there my interest grew into a passion, however with no one to learn and practice with and no formal instruction, I often put the book down to pursue other …show more content…
English is the hardest subject for a deaf student to learn, typically because it is their second language behind American Sign Language. On the contrary to many beliefs, American Sign Language is not just English with signs. It has its own sentence structure and grammar which excludes tenses and many other grammatical parts that English has. American Sign Language is more similar to Chinese with their sentence structure and grammar then it is English. I personally understand the difficulty of English, and often struggle with it today as I learn more, but I was lucky enough to have brilliant teachers who helped my understand and unlock the most important part of me. I wish to be able to do that one day for a student who has a tougher time with English than I