I recently discovered that Binta, a Deaf woman who's been teaching English literacy to GSL teachers who is also on our project steering group, has been using the GSL resources that Gary Quinn and I developed, to support teachers in Deaf schools better understand GSL.  She's been doing this on her own initiative and without fanfare.  I only found out about it by accident.

This is completely brilliant.  We have agreed to support her in this by sending her a laptop and hard drive.

In the photo above Binta is training teachers and senior teachers of St John's school for the deaf about how to use sign grammar, phonology and identify minimal pairs in GSL.

Below are some of the materials she prepared.

Every month Lamin writes a project report.

Through these reports I can really see how Lamin is developing in knowledge and skills and leadership.  

I thought it might be interesting to share some excerpts from the report of what he, and so our project, is achieving.  I think the quotes speak for themselves. ​

This took place November and December 2018.  This post has been transferred here as this website was updated.

Gary Quinn and I were in The Gambia working with Deaf GSL teachers to help them develop their GSL teaching skills and resources.  Gary, who is Deaf and is a Sign Language Tutor in the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies, Heriot-Watt University (HWU), lead this part of our project.

Thanks to HWU for their in-kind contribution through the provision of Gary Quinn's time.

If you want to see Gary at work, click here to see him delivering a TEDx.

The main aim of our work in The Gambia is to create lasting sustainable change. In the first four years of our project we achieved many valuable things, but not sustainability. Deaf people really need, and had asked us to train more interpreters, but there was little point in doing that, if like previous projects, most of the interpreters would stop working once the project ended.
 
So in April 2018 I went to The Gambia to talk with deaf GSL teachers, GADHOH and the interpreters to try to understand why there was so little legacy from previous projects, and what, if anything, they and we could do differently. 
 
Five things emerged.
 

• Film GSL stories and conversations (not just individual signs).  And then be able to share the resources with GSL teachers & learners.
• Organise & run separate GSL classes for beginners and GSL improvers.
• Organise & run English literacy classes for deaf GSL teachers.
• Have meetings of GSL teachers to plan activities and share resources & learning.

 
Organising, delivering and sustaining these activities would both increase and demonstrate deaf GSL teachers’ ability to self-organise with minimum external support, and provide the opportunity for their knowledge & skills development.  (We just pay for the teachers’ transport to the classes, but nothing else).
 
We also identified the need to develop GSL teachers’ understanding of sign language and teaching practice, and most importantly, create useful, useable and robust resources, in both GSL and English, to support GSL teachers in using and building on what they have learned.  Which is the aim of our visit now.
 
The achievements:
 
The filming of stories and conversations, of women and men, from different region in The Gambia, has been sustained, and now contains some useful resources.
 
Our next goals with this are for Dodou:
 

• To improve filming quality.  We’ve brought out a better quality camera and bought a camera light to help with that.
• To develop and use a folder structure and way of file naming that will make the films easier to find and share, and will make more sense to the teachers and students.
• To consistently log the films on a spreadsheet.
• And ensure they are used by GSL teachers and students.  To support this we’ve brought out a laptop for the GSL teachers and students to use in class, as well as for private study (at GADHOH) and high capacity USB sticks for the teachers & students.

 
The GSL classes for beginners have been organised well, with two GSL teachers working together in each class (to support their development).  Students asked for it to increase from fortnightly to weekly, which happened. There are eight regular students.
 
Our next goals for this are:
 

• For the teachers to move away from teaching individual signs from English words, and increasingly teach GSL as a visual language.
• To teach elements of GSL grammar.
• To use a wider range of teaching methods.
• To use a wider range of resources to support teaching and learning.

 
These will be underpinned by the work that we are doing with them now, which is in three parts: teaching some sign language grammar, the GSL teachers in turn teaching what they have learned to hearing students - allowing us to address gaps in understanding, and then developing permanent resources.  This leads to a further goal.
 

• For the GSL teachers, and resources, to use the resources (GSL stories and conversations, videos of teaching, printed resources with recorded GSL explanations), to develop their understanding of GSL and improve teaching methods over the next year.

 
GSL classes for improvers have been going well, but the number of regular attendees has dropped to four. They had amalgamated the beginners and improvers classes, but we are suggesting they continue to develop the two groups separately. 
 
We are not sure yet what happens next with this group. Current ideas include continuing with a small separate class and/or running it as a group with deaf GSL teachers and improver students working from videos of GSL, exploring and discussing GSL together.
 
The English literacy classes have been running regularly, even though the two deaf teachers leading the class have to travel a long distance to teach at 3pm three Saturday in four. Whilst the teachers are both deaf, they use SSE, which is a challenge for some of the GSL users in the class.
 
Our next goals are to:
 

• Increase the use of GSL in the class, encouraging the teachers to demonstrate how meaning is achieved in GSL, SSE and written English.
• Provide the teachers with more resources on teaching and learning English.
• Try to bring a more functional approach to the lessons, e.g. by looking at the English used in teaching materials, the draft GSL curriculum, etc.

 
The teachers’ group has met twice since April, focussing on coordination of teaching.
 
Our next goals are to encourage (only encourage, as these are their meetings):
 

• Bi-monthly meetings.
• Them to focus on knowledge and resource sharing, joint skills development and joint problem solving.

 
The challenges:
 
Whilst the work of deaf GSL teachers has in many ways gone well, showing signs that they want to and can sustain work without (much) external support, other parts of the project have not gone so well, leaving us with some difficult choices.  Below are the two main issues.
 
Project management in The Gambia.

The community interpreter and project lead in The Gambia, whose salary we were paying, had been working very well between April and September 18.  
 
However in October he stopped replying to emails, and at the beginning of November, after two weeks of being absent from work, he emailed to ask retrospectively for a secondment to the Gambian government’s Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) for a year, until October 2019.  He’s now working for them as their interpreter and sign language expert.
 
This meant that we were unable to prepare for this visit, unable to organise in advance, and have had to manage meetings and training without an interpreter. It’s been a challenge! (It has also meant that there is no community interpreting available to deaf people). 
 
Whilst he is a good interpreter, and the work he is doing with CRC has value, as a project we cannot rely on someone who is prepared to simply stop working without warning, leaving students, the deaf people, and us in the lurch.  
 
The other three interpreters are all fully employed interpreting elsewhere, so we have to look for other options. 
 
What happens next:
 

• We are no longer paying for this person to run the project.
• We are likely not to pay him for community interpreting, though there are some issues with this to be explored.
• We need to find an alternate way of managing the project in The Gambia.  This is likely to be by two deaf people (one from GADHOH and one not) with the support if a hearing student.

 
Gambian Interpreter's CPD: 
 
If and when we train student interpreters, we will provide them with around six weeks training. This is nowhere near enough, and so it is essential, and a requirement of the project, that there is a requirement for their Continuing Professional Development (CPD), and that the existing four interpreters are able to support this.  This means that the existing interpreters have to do CPD themselves, both to model the appropriate professional expectation, and to become skilled enough in doing such work that they can support developing interpreters in doing it.
 
Whilst one interpreter has worked hard on their CPD, the other three, despite support and requirements have done virtually none between their training in 2015 and now.
 
What happens next:
 

• We will not provide the interpreter training until we are confident that we can manage the interpreter training in The Gambia, and the interpreters have undertaken at least nine months of regular CPD.
• In 2019 we will continue to support the deaf led work, including filming and sharing of GSL resources, teaching GSL beginners and improvers, and developing GSL teachers English literacy.
• In 2019 I will re-evaluate the project to see what is appropriate to happen next.

 
If you have any questions or thoughts, please post in the comments.

A longer version of this blog (with background information about the project) was posted on the Signature blog 24th April 2018:

In 2017 Deaf Gambians asked our project to train more interpreters.

But we now have something of a chicken and egg problem. 

In order for us to train more interpreters, we need Deaf GSL teachers to be able to teach hearing Gambians GSL, quickly.  And that requires them to understand curricula, lesson planning, assessment methods, differentiation and progression, and so on.  But they don’t, yet. 

The three connected reasons for this are: first that most Deaf people in The Gambia have had very poor access to education; second, as a result of that, have no or very limited literacy; and third, for both of these reasons, and due to the shortage of interpreters, Deaf Gambians haven’t been able to do adult teacher qualifications.

This knowledge and deficit gap could be addressed by Deaf or hearing teachers of English fluent in GSL.  But there aren’t any, yet.  Or it could be addressed by using interpreters.  But there aren’t enough, yet.

So, in a nutshell, we need more interpreters for Deaf people to access the training and development they need in order for Deaf people to be able to train the interpreters they need in order to be able to access the training …

We haven’t cracked this yet, but are working with Deaf Gambians, interpreters, and with support from Gary Quinn, Deaf Sign Language lecturer from Heriot-Watt University, we hope to do so.  Three new initiatives we are supporting and experimenting with in order to build Deaf teachers’ skills and confidence include:

1. English literacy development workshops for Deaf GSL teachers, led by two Deaf teachers who teach in Deaf schools. 
2. Deaf led GSL fluency development sessions, using recordings of Deaf people using GSL in conversation and telling stories, to improve the fluency of potential (hearing) interpreting students.
3. Deaf GSL teachers meeting regularly as a group to share resources and knowledge, and develop their skills. 

If you'd like to support us support them, please donate or become a monthly supporter.

A longer version of this blog (with background information about the project) was posted on Limping Chicken 19th April 2018:

Lamin is one of the community interpreters we sponsor, and last Friday he was interpreting with the Gambia Deaf Women’s group for their fourth anniversary celebration, as they had also invited hearing guests to their celebration.
​
We were meeting at Tulyaka Signs, Gambia’s first Deaf / signing restaurant, where all the staff are Deaf and use Gambian Sign Language (GSL). (Tulyaka means “can’t hear” in the local Mandinka language.)

As part of their celebration they had awards, for the longest serving member, most active members, etc. And then, whilst Lamin was interpreting, they announced the award for the “best interpreter”. And luckily I caught it all on film.

Transcript of the video - taken from Lamin's interpretation into English:
​
"Fanta is here to hand over the prizes.  And the most active member of the Women’s Group from 2017 to 2018 is Adabi Punjaba, she’s the most active member.  The best interpreter, Lamin Sonko!  Wow ..."

And in one video are all the reasons why this project is so important.

The Deaf women are motivated, active, they are changing the world for Deaf women in The Gambia. They visit parents who won’t let their daughters go to Deaf centres and events, give Deaf women loans when they need them, and have a lot of fun.
But when they have problems with their family, or they need to go to the hospital, they text Lamin, who always comes to interpret, for free. Because he recognises the need, there’s no one else to do it, and people won’t yet pay for interpreting.

For Deaf Gambians to be empowered with their families, to have training, be able to work, be healthy, informed, they need interpreters. Our project wants to train more interpreters so that Deaf Gambians can do all of these things.

If you’d like to help us achieve this, you can make a donation, or become a monthly supporter, by clicking here.
​
Or if your organisation may be interested in becoming a corporate sponsor, please contact Darren directly ([email protected])

​On Saturday we paid D21,170 (£322) for the two weeks food for people attending workshops and meetings.  
 
In Gambia notes (dalasi) it looks like a lot of money, much more than it did in sterling!

​It’s a big part of the cost of our delivering workshops and training here. And when reviewing our costs and trying to keep budgets down, we considered removing it.
 
However Saturdays’ training with the GSL teachers reminded me why this isn’t an option. For many Gambians breakfast is just a soft white bread stick (often with nothing else), and on Saturday a number of GSL teachers hadn’t had any breakfast at all.  

​It’s fair to say that by 12:30 I was starting to lose them, a combination of hunger and heat.  After lunch was provided, they really perked up, and were happy to carry on going past our finish time.
 
The photo below is of them after lunch.  And that’s why they’re still smiling!

I asked one (hearing) person about the change in government from a dictatorship to a democratic government.  He answered with passion and fury.

We are now safe to say whatever we like in the street.
 
No more families talking about family members who had disappeared in the night, not able to find out who had taken them or where they were.
 
The newspapers are not censored, unable to report about the disappeared.

No more fear when someone knocks on your door at night.
 
And then he said, I tried not to feel anger, but when I would see the security forces, I would think, "I paid for you, my taxes that I willingly give for the greater good of The Gambia are paying you to do this to us".  He was still angry now, but also understood that they too may not have wanted to do what they did, and that cousin may have been ordered to arrest cousin.
 
He believed that now there was a democratic government there was the possibility of lasting change.  
 
It is this changed context that brings hope for the future and possibility of change that gives our project reason to believe that training more interpreters (now) can make a lasting and sustainable difference.

The inaugural conference of the African Association of Sign Language interpreters’ (AFSLI) took place from 25th to 27th May, in Abuja, Nigeria.    

Unfortunately, the date wasn’t confirmed until 21st April 2017 giving us just one month to organise a budget, raise the money (not yet achieved) organise flights, accommodation, transport, etc. to get Bakary, Lamin and Yahya to the conference.

Trying to achieve this has been so fraught with difficulties that, up until they were on the plane to Nigeria, I really, REALLY didn’t believe they were going to get there.  In fact Malcolm, one of our project’s advisers who knows The Gambia really well, regularly messaged me to ask whether the constant problems weren’t “sending [me] a message that this really isn’t a good idea.” 

Well, I can be really bloody-minded at times, and I knew how important this was to the interpreters (as it would be to me were I in their shoes), so I wasn’t going to be beaten just because every single thing went wrong. 

The description that follows is just a sample of the frustration of trying to make this happen.  It probably doesn’t adequately convey the hours of staring at the screen wondering ‘why’, or the many, often loud, ‘what the f*@k’ moments.   (And the less said about the distraught phone call to my wife where I allegedly said I “wanted to nuke the world so I didn’t have to deal with this any more”, the better).

Anyway … 

The first three weeks – missing passports, unaffordable flights and accommodation, accommodation, all seems sorted … 

First we spent a couple of weeks looking at costs and devising a budget, to see what we could afford.  It didn’t help that this included costs in; sterling, dollars (to take to Nigeria to change to naira), dalasi (for purchases in the Gambia), naira (for in Nigeria), and eventually also West African CFA francs (for the overland travel), with various exchange rates between them all.  It also didn’t help that we didn’t know if Bakary would be able to come, as he’d had his passport stolen, and with the recent change of President, the Gambian government had stopped issuing new passports.

Also, you’d think I know this, but I hadn’t realised quite how big, really big, Africa is.  Banjul (Gambia) to Abuja (Nigeria) is 1,600 miles. 

I also hadn’t realised that flying those miles in Africa is REALLY not easy.  Most flights were via Europe, which is why they cost almost £4,000 per person!  That’s more for a single flight than we’ve ultimately spent on the whole expedition.

Lastly, hotel prices in Abuja for some reason were almost London prices. Again, not affordable.

However, Bakary was promised a passport in time, we found flights with the Nigerian airline Arik Air for £700 pp (via Dakar, Accra, and Lagos), and I found affordable accommodation through Airbnb. 

Whilst our project didn’t have sufficient funds in hand to send the three interpreters, recognising the significance of this conference to the development of professional interpreting across Africa, and the Gambian interpreters’ place within that network, the support group agreed to send them, and fundraise these costs later.

Week four – flaky airlines, everything going wrong, and just how last minute can it get …

I had planned to book the Arik Air flights in the UK (better exchange rate, no money transfer costs).  However, over several days the website variously: threw up error messages, asked me to input my pin number (I really don’t think so), and then finally told me that it doesn’t accept payments from abroad - for an international flight !?!  This was confirmed by their man in the UK, who said he’d sort it out, and then never phoned back.  So instead I planned to transfer the money to The Gambia, and pay from there.

Whilst I was trying to organise this, Malcolm (from GDCSP) contacted me with a press release saying that 68.5% of all Arik Air flights were routinely cancelled, and bankruptcy looked likely.  Happy to be told (and avert potential calamity), but deeply cheesed off to have to start again with looking for flights.

So with just three days left before they were due to set off, we needed to make alternate plans.  Nigerian and UK travel agents were no help, but Lamin suggested that instead they go overland to Dakar (Senegal), and fly from their with Air Cote D'Ivoire. This meant them leaving The Gambia on Sunday 21st, as the only fight to get them there in time left Dakar on 22nd.  This was also both cheaper and more reliable.

I tried to book the flight, and couldn’t from the UK (of course).  So I needed to get the money to The Gambia so that they could pay a local travel agent.  On Wednesday I sent the money to the account we usually use in The Gambia, but then couldn’t get hold of the account holder to ask him to pass on the money to the interpreters.  By Thursday evening I gave up and decided to send the same amount again, but this time by Western Union.  However it turns out there’s an £800 transfer limit unless you have your ID checked, which takes 3 days (of course).  I didn’t have three days …

So Friday, me, my wife, and a random friend all signed up to WU and each sent £800 to Lamin.  We tell Lamin that the money won’t arrive until Saturday morning.  He tells me that travel agents are usually closed on Saturdays (of course).  After a few hours he messages me that the shop will open especially for him at midday on Saturday. 
On Saturday morning we’re told that the transfers have been flagged as potentially fraudulent and stopped (of course).

We get that cleared up, Lamin receives the money and heads off to the travel agent.  When he gets there, he finds out that the ticket price has increased overnight, and he no longer has enough money to get them (of course). This is starting to feel quixotic.

After tense negotiation (at least that’s how I imagine it), the travel agent sells Lamin the tickets on the promise that I transfer them the extra money by Monday. 

On Sunday evening Lamin messaged to say, all good, and they are on their way.

Then on Monday evening, Bakary messages me to say that they won’t let him into Abuja, as he hasn’t got a vaccination card. (His vaccination card was taken with his passport, and he’d forgotten to replace it.) 

After some pleading with passport control, they issue him with a new card, for a $50 fee.  Luckily however, I’d already sent $50 emergency money, though I hadn’t expected it to be need quite that quickly.

There are three things I want leave you with from this experience.

1)  When booking travel insurance, I needed their home addresses.  I discovered that they don’t have addresses in The Gambia.  Sometimes I forget just how different and difficult life can be over there, and then something like this reminds me. 

2)  Whilst it often really felt like I was trying to organise things 2,700 miles away Africa – as I was - the internet at times made it feel as though I was organising something just round the corner.  Whether having real-time conversations through the Airbnb app with hosts, WhatsApp-ing with Natasha (one of the conference organisers), watching Twitter live streams of the conference itself, or Facebook messenger discussions with the interpreters.  This was a real example of how technology can be a force for good, and can shrink the world in positive ways.

Again, it was also a reminder of the challenges faced by the interpreters in The Gambia where infrastructure such as telecommunications cabling for internet access is both uncommon and unreliable. Developing a web access infrastructure sometimes seems like an add-on, or a luxury, until you realise how it’s absence is such a fundamental barrier to development.

3)  And lastly, Lamin sent me a comment about his learning that made all of the effort seem worthwhile. 

My CPD (PDP) next time is going to be on developing my vocabulary. How am I going to achieve this? Is by going to Libraries to collect Novels, read them and if I came across a word which I don't know, I will immediately refer to my dictionary. Why do I need to this? Because as a SLI, you must not say I don't know this so I cannot sign it. If you do that as an interpreter, the Deaf person will be lost without knowing. So that's not an excuse in any way. That is why I want build my vocabulary more and more hence am not yet a professional SLI but a LEARNER in the making.

Thanks for all your feedback on these blogs.  I've never blogged before, and have really enjoyed the way that writing these has helped me make connections and gain new insights.

Currently our project pays the salaries & travel for two interpreters in The Gambia (as no government support available), and provided three weeks  interpreter development training 2015, and providing support with service development strategy.

We would like to provide training and development on an annual basis (if we can increase the number of regular donors and/or raise sufficient additional funds) until formal accredited training is available locally, 

If you've been inspired, and would like to support the project, then use the contact me form, or just email me at [email protected], and I can send you more information about the project and how it works.

All the resources I've developed for the Gambian Interpreting students are copyright free, and can be shared.  

You can access them by clicking here which will take you to the Dropbox folder.

If you use them with other people, or develop them, please credit me, and include a link to this page about the Gambia Project.

Below you'll find the student's personal messages of thanks to the supporters who made the training possible, donated money for the video cameras, and donated lap tops.  In order - Lamin, Amadou, Mansata, Yahya and Bakary.

Elvire Roberts (project supporter and organiser of the Flip cameras) asked for a blog on the students "I'd never thought of that" light bulb moments, including linguistics, processing and ethics.  (Does this count as my first invited blog?)

1)  Men, status, power, and giving it up.  (Ethics)

On the first day the students had to teach me on aspects of Gambian culture (as teaching must be culturally relevant, and I hadn't a bloody clue about Gambian culture in general, or as relates to Deaf people and interpreters).

Mansata, the only woman in the group, presented on Gender in The Gambia.  Whilst there were no surprises for the men, it appeared to be unusual to think about and discuss this, with a woman, especially exploring the experience of this from a woman's perspective.  For example, what it felt like to be excluded from decision making, or to inherit less that your brothers.

This is turn led to conversation about status and power, and the difficulty of giving up power, even when you think maybe you should.

Which led to an initial exploration of power as relates to hearing and Deaf people.

Throughout the course we returned to these themes of power, relative status, and the need for interpreters to explicitly recognises the power structures they work within, and the nature of their own power.  For example, when discussing censorship in interpreting, interpreting register / formality style, thinking about the communication goals of participants, and especially when getting feedback from Deaf people about what they like and don't like about interpreting.

Team meeting.  (Preparation)

Some lightbulbs were very specific, and completely unintended (on my part).  Early on in the course I met with GADHOH staff and trustees, to discuss the project overall, training, and future.  Although this wasn't part of the course, I'd asked the four interpreters to interpret on rotation, so that they could be filmed.  

I prepared and agreed an agenda, and briefed the interpreters as usual.

The unexpected lightbulb was this in itself, the usefulness of having an agenda and of being briefed, as neither usually happens for meetings.

Watching GSL on video.  (Linguistics)

As part of the project I took with me four Flip video cameras, and three laptops, so they could record, edit, and watch videos of GSL, and their own work.  We knew this would be important for their professional development, but I had no idea just how transformative this would be.  

Because until we had filmed Deaf people, the interpreters were unable to step back from the fleeting moment that language occurs, and look again, carefully, at what is actually happening.  Their focus prior to this was on the hands and signs.

This clip of Ndey we watched over and over and over again, and kept coming back to.  The students asked to describe what they see, and then what they thought the meaning of what they saw was.

Each time they watched it they saw another layer of morphology (meaning).  As one example, after signing DEAF Ndey nods.  At first the students couldn't see the nod.  Then they couldn't see the meaning of the nod.  Then we discussed topic marking, affirmation, topic-comment, etc.  

But what they got most from this was that it was there.  I wasn't just some mad obsessed bloke from England going on about 'visual GSL', I was describing to them something rich and beautiful, that Gambian Deaf people do, and that conveys complex and subtle meaning, if only they look.  

And by implication, they should also aspire to be able to do this.

This wasn't 'taking some equipment to The Gambia' this was bringing refrigeration to the kitchen.  Not 'addition', but offering, if they use it, transformation.

Socratic method.  (Professional development skills)

One of my (many) favourite moments was when we were discussing and practicing observation and feedback skills.  They found it really, really hard not to judge (that was good) or tell (what you should have done is ...), and were clearly unpersuaded that asking questions was anything but a waste of time.

So we discussed Socrates, and the Socratic method, that Socrates would teach by asking questions.  They were still unconvinced, until I did a demo, feeding back to one of them just by asking questions.  Which (phew) worked.  And they got it.

Next morning one of the student's Learning Points was 'the Socratic Method'.  Hah!  Socrates, in The Gambia.  :)  

Equivalency / interpreting as a loss process.   (Processing +)

I suggested to the interpreters that interpreting was a loss process, that every time you interpret you lose something.  They were unpersuaded.  (You might be?)  

We then explored what equivalence interpreters were trying to achieve, which for the students was equivalence of information.

Over the course we spent a lot of time exploring this, until we had the five equivalencies:

• Communication objective / goal.
• Information meaning.
• Cultural relevance.
• Prosody.
• Surface structure.

The students were still unpersuaded that they couldn't interpret everything, until I asked them, can you interpret, communication objective?  Yes they said.  AND information meaning (at the same time)?  Yes.  AND cultural relevance.  Yes (although some were wavering).  AND prosody?  Maybe.  And surface structure.  Buckaroo / lightbulb moment, no, not all of that, at the same time.  

So every time you interpret you lose something?  Yes.
So every time you interpret you have to prioritise and choose what you focus on?  Yes.

And then we discussed what being a professional means, taking responsibility and being able to explain the choices we make, and recognising the other choices that could have been made, etc.

Productive lexicon / morphology.  (Linguistics)

On the last but one day the students sat their end of course test.  It didn't go well.  The best results was just under half.  I was not happy.  Three weeks teaching, and some really important stuff wasn't yet understood.  (Look at the preceding post for the test questions).  And as the teacher, that was my failure, not theirs.  Morgan texted from England reminding me that students in the UK study this stuff for years, and that perhaps my expectations were a little high for fifteen days.  Which helped.  

But actually, the answer was that I had forgotten the point of the test.  To test learning.  To test the ability to apply learning.  To tell me, and them, what we need to look at again.

One of those questions was - GSL is a visual language.  What does this mean?  Not answering that question, on the last day led to another discussion about English and GSL.  

How English often changes meaning by changing or adding words.  It's raining.  It's pouring.  It's a light rain.  It's raining heavily.  I hate being in the torrential rain.  Etc. etc.

And GSL changes meaning by drawing on its' rich grammar and incredible range of morphemes, to incorporate meaning into the sign.  So I signed this.  Morphemes to show: how it is raining, where it is raining, on who it is raining, what I'm doing whilst it's raining, what I think about how it is raining.

We had discussed this many times before.  Even looking at this same example

But this time the sun came up (see below).

Dew drops on a spiders web  

Writing this I realised the lightbulb metaphor isn't quite right for me, a metaphor that implies a single event linked to a single outcome.  

Rather I see the course as a tangled and multiply connected spiders web, and the opportunities for learning - teaching, thinking, reading, testing, arguing, experimenting, seeing - as dewdrops on the web.  There's a moment where the sun comes up, and the sunlight refracts through one of the dewdrops, which shines for a moment like pure gold.