Our Claire has been learning a new language…

I have a foster sister who is profoundly deaf and when I was about 12 she began to learn sign language. It intrigued me how she could communicate with just her hands but I also felt it separated us as I could not communicate in the same way. I was reminded of this last year when we began to wear masks, meaning that deaf people could no longer lip read what we were saying. Then, this year, I began to have difficulties with my hearing. After some initial investigations, it’s been discovered that I have profound hearing loss and I am due to have an MRI scan on Sunday to try and establish the cause of this. The combination of all these factors has prompted me to learn sign language (BSL).

For the most part, it’s not been that difficult learning how to sign. However, numbers have been a little trickier. Because I already knew how to count on my fingers, learning the signs for numbers meant putting aside what I already knew and learning new signs for them. Another key difference is that there aren’t signs for all the words in the English language. For instance, I learnt this week that there is no sign for “foster”, which is bitterly ironic considering my foster sister is one of the reasons why I’m learning how to sign. However, there is a fix for these shortcomings – fingerspelling (spelling the missing word out on our fingers). Another key difference is that where in the English language the question comes at the beginning, in BSL it comes at the end. So, for example, “What’s your name?” becomes “Your name what?”

As you might tell from the above, I have found learning BSL utterly fascinating. I’ve also enjoyed being back in the classroom again after 18 months of isolation. It also doesn’t escape me that only 16 years of my 48 have not been spent in education. Clearly, I find learning stuff hugely rewarding. So I thought I’d learn a little more about the benefits of adult learning and found this government report. It states that “there is strong evidence of the positive benefits of learning”, which it has grouped under three areas: health, employment, and social and community.

Among the benefits to our health, the report found that adult learning is linked with smoking cessation, amount of exercise taken, an increase in the probability of using cervical screening, better nutrition, lower risk of coronary heart disease, and a reduction in drug abuse. The report also found that adult learning fosters a sense of identity, an ability to cope, a feeling of purpose in life, a greater level of wellbeing, an increase in life satisfaction, and may also delay the onset of dementia. Not only that, the report states “the education of adults positively influences the educational achievement of their children and their children’s health”.

Among the benefits to our employment, the report found that adult education aids in the seeking, getting and keeping of a job, increasing our earnings, raising our aspirations and job satisfaction.

Some social and community benefits the report found were higher levels of interpersonal and social trust, better social connections, community engagement, greater social cohesion and integration, and that it also fosters civic participation such as volunteering. The report also found that adult education improves individuals’ political understanding, feelings of empowerment and levels of political participation, and fosters a capacity to be assertive as well as reducing reoffending rates.

After reading all that, I’m not sure I want to be anywhere else other than the classroom! But that would be to forget that learning doesn’t happen just in the classroom. For instance, WHISC offers many learning opportunities – both formal and informal. I might learn how to knit in Monday’s Knitting and Crochet class… or how to belly dance in Tuesday’s Belly Dancing class… or even brush up my ukulele skills with Friday’s Ukulele classes. Then there are the Directions workshops and The ‘Do It’ Project that would help me back into employment. There’s just so much going on it really is worth checking it out on the What’s On page!

Do remember to leave some time for relaxation, though, to avoid burn-out. Here too, WHISC has much to offer. I’m getting myself a massage, for instance, and the Soul Spa sounds most intriguing! WHISC also continue to offer their Listening Ear service. So, if something’s on your mind, please give them a call on 0151 707 1826 or leave a message on the WHISC Facebook page with your phone number and they’ll ring you back. Please remember that, whatever you’re going through, WHISC are there for you.