ASL vs SEE

murderegina

murderegina

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Forgive me if this topic has been brought up before, but what are the reasons many prefer ASL over SEE so strongly. I am hearing so my main mode of communication is through spoken English, but I am curious if this has an effect on the way I possibly understand ASL vs someone who isn't hearing?

Sorry if there is an obvious answering I'm overlooking lol
 
ASL is its own language, while SEE is not; it's like needing to know two languages that are only partially compatible.
 
Glenn said:
ASL is its own language, while SEE is not; it's like needing to know two languages that are only partially compatible.
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree SEE is obviously not a language. But can you explain to me what you mean by "partially compatible"? Would the equivalent of SEE be something like speaking "Spanglish" (a combination of English and Spanish)?
 
Think about taking spoken English and change it to follow ASL syntax while speaking it. Would that be acceptable?

That's what hearing people did with ASL...took a beautiful language and alternated to fit their agenda.
 
murderegina said:
Forgive me if this topic has been brought up before, but what are the reasons many prefer ASL over SEE so strongly. I am hearing so my main mode of communication is through spoken English, but I am curious if this has an effect on the way I possibly understand ASL vs someone who isn't hearing?

Sorry if there is an obvious answering I'm overlooking lol
Click to expand...
The most important thing to understand is that SEE was never intended to be a mode of communication but was created to help deaf children learn English. As a form of communication, it is vastly inferior to actual language for a number of reasons, probably the biggest being that it is slow and cumbersome. It is also not well suited to be received visually because it is based on an auditory language.

Very basically, visual languages convey concepts from general to specific, as if you were drawing a picture, because that is how the human mind visually processes information. So, for instance, the concept of a boy climbing a tree is signed TREE BOY HE CLIMB. First, the scene is established (a tree and a boy) and then the details are presented (the boy climbing the tree). This grammatical structure is intuitive and can convey the information quickly. Now think of how that would be signed in SEE: THE BOY IS CLIMB-ING THE TREE. It's almost twice the number of signs and probably three times the work because of the extra movement needed to sign THE (2x), IS, and -ING. You also can't grasp the concept being conveyed until the entire sentence has been produced and then your mind has to work backwards reconstructing the scene and action whereas the ASL version allows immediate comprehension of the details as they are presented.

Another thing to keep in mind is that SEE is not PSE (Pidgin Signed English) which is conceptually accurate ASL signs in English word order. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking they're the same thing. While PSE is not as elegant as ASL, it is still vastly superior to SEE for the purposes of communication.
 
Visit the thread, SEE is a Language and you will find all the info you need regarding preferences. And it is much more than a preference. It is a matter of ASL fully addressing the needs of the deaf.
 
English does not "translate" directly into ASL. When you change from English into ASL, you are taking specific words and changing them into a visual sign. To complicate the process, ASL is structurally different. By that, I mean that the "parts" of the language are arranged differently. Finally, some ASL concepts, like classifiers, are completely visual.

The method of trying to talk in ASL structure until you can sign helped me. Once I advanced, speaking while signing slowed me down too much. Now, I have to sign then stop and translate into spoken English. YMMV. Good luck and enjoy!
 
For a funny visual reference you might watch Keith Wann's comedy video "Watching Two Worlds Collide". He is acting the part of an interpretor who must translate the song "Ice - Ice Baby". Watch closely as he changes the mode of sign according to what his client wants. Funny stuff as he changes between methods and frustration levels.
 
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