Describe a skill you would like to learn in the future.

The skill I'd love to pick up is sign language — specifically the one used here rather than the American version, since that's the one I'd actually get to use.

The reason goes back to a colleague I worked alongside for about eight months. She was deaf, and we managed perfectly well with typing and gestures, but there was always this gap. She'd be in a meeting and the interpreter would summarise, and by the time it reached her the joke or the throwaway aside had gone. I remember thinking how much I'd hate that, and how the work of bridging it always seemed to land on her rather than on the rest of us.

In terms of how I'd go about it, I've already had a look and there's a community centre twenty minutes away that runs evening classes twice a week. I'd want to do it properly with a teacher rather than off an app, because from what I gather facial expression and rhythm carry an enormous amount of the meaning, and you simply can't absorb that from a screen. Realistically I'd be looking at a couple of years to get anywhere near fluent.

As for how it would change things — partly it's practical, since it would open up volunteering work I'd genuinely enjoy. But the bigger reason is that it would let me have a real conversation with people I currently can't talk to at all. That strikes me as one of the more worthwhile things you could do with a few evenings a week.