Text

[sunnyspot]

I'm Kouhei Sugihara, and I'm a tutor and student at Recollé U. I mostly offer tutoring for basic subjects, but lately, a few of my friends have been asking me to teach them sign language. I don't use it much in my daily life, but since I've had hearing problems since I was young, I'm fluent in Japanese sign language and pretty comfortable with American sign language. I don't mind teaching it, since it's something I know a lot about, and everyone keeps telling me that other people might be interested too. So...

Just in case, if I offered sign language tutoring, would anyone be interested? I don't really have a way to get the word out aside from Retrospec, and I'd feel more comfortable offering it to a smaller number of people first. I've been thinking of going for my ASL teaching certification anyway, so... If you want to learn anything, whether it's fingerspelling (letters) or basic signs or something else, I can help you.

Sorry if this isn't the right place for this or something. Thanks.

Comments

[sunnyspot]

[Oh, cute.... How can he help but smile to that? Just like Lily, he makes an L with his right hand.]

See, you've got the hang of it already. Next is I, and you just raise your pinky finger and keep your other fingers down.

[Which he demonstrates, showing his hand to the camera.]

Easy, right? And after that is another L.

[littlestbaskerville]

[She was trying her best and at least she was cute with it.]

Mn! [Moving her hands like him she does 'I' and then 'L' again.]

Like this, right?

[sunnyspot]

That's perfect. And then the last letter is Y, which is like this. You stick out your thumb and pinky finger so it looks a little like the top part of the letter Y.

[And then he spells it all out in order for her!]

L - I - L - Y. What do you think?

[littlestbaskerville]

Lily!

[Sticking her tongue out she moves her fingers and forms the Y then goes to spelling too.]

L-I-L-Y! I did it~! How do you spell yours?

[sunnyspot]

That's perfect. See? You learned really quickly. My name is a little more complicated, but not too hard. I'll show you slowly.

[Six letters, but at least O is really easy for anyone, and I is the same as he taught Lily.]

K-O-U-H-E-I. Kouhei.

[littlestbaskerville]

Mn! Please!

[Now she is really excited to learn this.]

...Kouhei. [Lily starts to try to sign it though there are some mistakes but not many.]

Right?

Why do you know how to do this?

[sunnyspot]

That was really good. You're getting the hang of it.

[He goes a little quiet before speaking up once more.]

My ears aren't very good. I have trouble hearing most of the time, and I don't know if I'll always be able to hear. So it's good to know how to do this.

[littlestbaskerville]

Yay!

[Oh...Lily feels bad now.]

I'm sorry...

[sunnyspot]

It's okay. Don't make that face. [Look, he'll smile for her.] I still have some of my hearing, and I have a lot of things to be thankful for. So don't feel bad for me.

[littlestbaskerville]

Oh, okay! Still you know something neat like this too!

[sunnyspot]

I'm glad you think it's interesting. Thanks for trying it out.

[littlestbaskerville]

I do! I wanna learn more!

[sunnyspot]

Really? If you're sure, then.... I wouldn't mind teaching you sometime.

[littlestbaskerville]

I'm sure! It's really fun! Plus then if you need to talk to someone I can know more, right?

[sunnyspot]

[Oh, how sweet.... How is he supposed to help smiling to that? As he speaks, Kouhei supplements his words with the accompanying signs.]

Thank you, Lily.

[littlestbaskerville]

[Lily watches really closely as he motions. Then she copies the 'thank you'.]

Is that thank you?

[sunnyspot]

Yeah, it is. It's another easy one. You already have a good foundation, so if you remember it, you're off to a good start.