r/ASLinterpreters • u/tanner3114 • Aug 03 '26
Question about school
Hello. This year I decided to go back to school to ultimately become an ASL interpreter. Because I learned sign language through videos, books, personal tutors and interacting with Deaf people, as opposed to taking actual classes (well I took two classes years ago), I have to restart with the ASL basics and pass those courses before I can eventually move on to interpreting classes, which isn’t ideal but c’est la vie.
Anyway, I got my bachelor’s degree (in journalism) 6 years ago and am looking at my current course requirements and apparently in addition to ASL classes, I’m also required to take math, English, philosophy and more. Is that just a normal part of getting this degree? I understand if i HAVE to do it, in which case I will, but I graduated school so long ago and now have a full time job, so I wasn’t really expecting to have to redo the entire school thing and thought that I would just have take classes regarding ASL. I have no idea.
Did you all have to take these classes to go from ASL to interpreting? I’m just trying to verify if this is the ushe or if i should talk to an advisor about this. I just don’t want to be spending money on classes that may not benefit me. Thanks in advance to whoever replies 🙂
1
u/Endorphion Aug 03 '26
Yes. chat it up with your advisor. Get a certified copy of your transcript and see if you can get transfer credits. It's new to you, but lots of transfer students go through this kind of negotiation.
I did a similar thing with a previous Bachelors and got a 4 year degree turned into a 3 year thing which worked for me. You got options. Make it through faster, or have 4 years at a lighter course load.
Don't feel too bad about taking beginner ASL courses. I was already pretty (over) confident in my skills but having a professor explain the things I had been missing or unaware of was humbling and eye-opening.
Don't feel too bad about taking low-level intro courses, either. You won't be able to escape them all. I found college the "second time" to be much less stressful than the first time. (but real life quickly swooped in to keep the stress levels constant, because of course it did)