it's my understanding, though granted i have very litte, of chinese and japanese styles of writing do not read word for word, such as...this symbol doesn't equal this word, it symbolizes the idea behind the word...if that makes any sense.
if the only reason you don't see ASL as a real language is because you don't see it in books, than that's the entire point of this thread, to put it in books...if the reason you don't view it as a language because there's no nation of deaf people, i think thats a flawed philospohy. not every country has 1 language, doesn't india have over 200 languages?
i see ASL used every single day where i work, it's mainly deaf/hoh people talking to each other, or to an intepreter, or to some of the hearing people who know it.
who knows, perhaps if there were a written form of ASL, it would becaome more popular, and hearing people would get more interested in the language.
you wouldn't use a written form of ASL to teach english anymore than you would use german to teach english, apples and oranges.
