Asl should be the international language.

Lysander

Lysander

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So, I was thinking about this last night while I was working on one of my modules. ASL seems so universal that it should be what we use to communicate with other countries. There are things about it that seem a little confusing, like sentence structure (at least from an English as my first language perspective) but for the most part the signs make sense. Like the sign for want gives the sense of wanting. The sign for before, after, or next. They all seem to convey the sense of what they mean. Mother and father seem arbitrary, but when you consider how things are built on them they make perfect sense. Like using male cousing/femal cousin. Or grandmother and grandfather. Or son/daughter. A lot of the signs seem to have a logic that would transcend spoken language.
 
That's like saying English should be an international language.
Are you aware that other countries have their own sign language?
Even in the USA, there are differences in ASL, just like in English (Soda, pop, cola)
 
I'm aware that there are different variations. But are they really all that different? Didn't they all derive from the same system?

Ok...nevermind. I just looked up an international sign language translator. They're nothing similar. Well, some words are identical and some words are completely different. Like hungry in ASL and FSL are the exact same. Thirsty however is completely different. Obviously I'm not as clever as I thought I was.
 
ah- don't feel too bad.. others have had the same thought. There is a... "international language" if you will- called Gestundo.. it was conceived of for the reason you gave but it never really took off. It's still used sometimes as I understand it but with deaf who sign and are from different countries- most manage to do fairly well in communicating (as you said- some signs are similar) and gestures.
 
The only question would be what language would it be in. English has some more words than other languages and different sentence structure.
 
DeafNerdMommy said:
The only question would be what language would it be in. English has some more words than other languages and different sentence structure.
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Yeah. I typed before I thought or did any research. I'm showing my ignorance here, but I didn't realize that sign languages from different countries would be so different. And I didn't take into consideration fingerspelling.

Well, at least I'm pretty. It would be cruel to others if I was smart too.
 
Lysander said:
Well, at least I'm pretty. It would be cruel to others if I was smart too.
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Haha I love this
Anyways I was not trying to ripe apart what you said, and I am sorry if it came across that way. I was merely asking a question to ponder. It would be nice in theory to have one language for the deaf so we could all talk to each other but not possible if we all speak different languages and have different slang.
 
I've always been captivated by the idea of an international sign language, I think it would be one of the greatest gifts we could give to our future generations as this world becomes more connected socially. Deaf and hearing in hundreds of different countries would be able to communicate through the beautiful language of the hands! ah my heart fills at the beauty in this dream...
now as to if that language would be ASL...well heeeellll yah for me, right? haha this is were is gets more complex. I guess a fair thing would to be take parts of existing sign languages and mix them all into one, see how that goes haha. or of course, create a whole new one. but people have done much more difficult and equally impressive things, this task is not impossible, just gigantic.
 
DeafNerdMommy said:
Haha I love this
Anyways I was not trying to ripe apart what you said, and I am sorry if it came across that way. I was merely asking a question to ponder. It would be nice in theory to have one language for the deaf so we could all talk to each other but not possible if we all speak different languages and have different slang.
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Don't worry. I didn't take it that way.

Sometimes I get caught up in my own ideas that I can't see the forest for the trees. My mom had a less nice way of saying it. "Travis, honey, you know I love you, but sometimes I think you're so smart that you loop back around to stupid."
 
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