Discrimination against HH/Deaf oralists?

BecLak said:
I have a question: If Spanish, French, German, Indonesian, and Japanese and Chinese languages all find a way to become a second language taught in schools, why not sign language such as ASL, Auslan etc? How would we go about getting sign language taught as a second language in schools??
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They are. In some states, ASL can be taken for class credit. Not all states, but some. In the US, I don't know of any schools that you can take Auslan, BSL, etc. at, but they do have ASL.

We could encourage schools by showing the benefits of ASL and visual communication and showing how many people use ASL. Most of my friends who took it in high school really just took the classes because they thought it was cool. Most hearing people are already fascinated with signing anyway, and would love to take ASL classes.

Oooh, another point I forgot: One big, really important factor too is that not all colleges accept ASL as a foreign language. I wanted to take ASL so badly for my foreign language requirement, but I couldn't because my university would not have accepted it as a "real" foreign language and wouldn't have given me credit. If more colleges accepted ASL, more students would take it.
 
How would we go about getting sign language taught as a second language in mainstream schools across the board??
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Not only that, but I really think that dhh post elementary programs need to somehow collaborate with elementary oral programs or oral solotaires to see if they might benifit from ASL as a second language.
 
In small town Minnesota we have an ASL class and it is actually the most popular 2nd language class of them all (with Spanish and German as it's competition). It is by far my favorite class aswell as other peoples! I do think that we need to get it into mainstream high schools as it is fun and a very enjoyable class.

I'm not sure if it is ASL in general or the teacher, but the class is AMAZING.
 
natty_4ever said:
They are. In some states, ASL can be taken for class credit. Not all states, but some. In the US, I don't know of any schools that you can take Auslan, BSL, etc. at, but they do have ASL.

We could encourage schools by showing the benefits of ASL and visual communication and showing how many people use ASL. Most of my friends who took it in high school really just took the classes because they thought it was cool. Most hearing people are already fascinated with signing anyway, and would love to take ASL classes.

Oooh, another point I forgot: One big, really important factor too is that not all colleges accept ASL as a foreign language. I wanted to take ASL so badly for my foreign language requirement, but I couldn't because my university would not have accepted it as a "real" foreign language and wouldn't have given me credit. If more colleges accepted ASL, more students would take it.
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Yeah...

Because some people believe ASL and another sign languages are not a true language if it is not a spoken language and have no support for grammar something (not sure what it is -- I forget what rules). Additionally, Deaf Culture do not have a religion, a country, popular food, popular clothes, and some others that. That is why some people consider Deaf Culture as a sub-culture one, unimportant one... they won't consider it as a foreign language. Maybe you guys, AD'ers, still remember the post about so-called "safety and communication", those people STILL think 'having a hear sense' is more important in the world so "Disability Culture" would consider as outrageous and/or ridiculous.

Really, it's sad to not respect ASL or any sign language... I do think sign languages are part of human rights...

So, blah. =/
 
Sign language looks fun, spectacular, interesting compared to others, I'd bet... :)

Good posts here, really. :)
 
I don't care if they talk orally or use sign language. Being profoundly deaf myself, I know that I cannot talk orally. I don't mind hearing people speaking orally. I would often wonder when I see deaf people talk orally, I wonder, "Why not me"? Deaf or not, I often feel left out.
 
dereksbicycles said:
I don't care if they talk orally or use sign language. Being profoundly deaf myself, I know that I cannot talk orally. I don't mind hearing people speaking orally. I would often wonder when I see deaf people talk orally, I wonder, "Why not me"? Deaf or not, I often feel left out.
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Some hearing people think it's pretty cool when we sign, because they can't understand us. I don't think you should feel left out because someone can talk and you might not be able to. I can understand feeling left out in a huge group of people who are talking and no one is willing to interpret or write anything down for you, but don't be jealous of someone else's oral skill, that's just silly! I can't draw anything to save my life, but if I see someone else who can, I think it's pretty cool. I don't feel left out though, because I understand that I have a different skill set. The same goes for speech--maybe you can sign better than them or you can do something else.

Speech can't bring you far in life, but your confidence and motivation can. That's just how I feel though.
 
natty_4ever said:
Some hearing people think it's pretty cool when we sign, because they can't understand us. I don't think you should feel left out because someone can talk and you might not be able to. I can understand feeling left out in a huge group of people who are talking and no one is willing to interpret or write anything down for you, but don't be jealous of someone else's oral skill, that's just silly! I can't draw anything to save my life, but if I see someone else who can, I think it's pretty cool. I don't feel left out though, because I understand that I have a different skill set. The same goes for speech--maybe you can sign better than them or you can do something else.

Speech can't bring you far in life, but your confidence and motivation can. That's just how I feel though.
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I'm not sure if he was necessarily implying that he was jealous. Maybe he was just using that as a motivation.
 
Hohtopics said:
I'm not sure if he was necessarily implying that he was jealous. Maybe he was just using that as a motivation.
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Maybe so, I could be wrong! It just sounded like the "why not me" part was from wishing he could do it too.
 
natty_4ever said:
Maybe so, I could be wrong! It just sounded like the "why not me" part was from wishing he could do it too.
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Yes. Cause there were times that when I felt "why not me", it sparked a desire or motivation. I guess it sometime depends on the individual or situation.
 
Hohtopics said:
Yes. Cause there were times that when I felt "why not me", it sparked a desire or motivation. I guess it sometime depends on the individual or situation.
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Thank for thinking of me. It is more of like--they are deaf. If they can talk orally, why not me? I should be able to do it. Yeah, that would be more of a motivation issue, not a jealousy issue. I have a great respect for those that can talk orally despite profound hearing loss.
 
dereksbicycles said:
Thank for thinking of me. It is more of like--they are deaf. If they can talk orally, why not me? I should be able to do it. Yeah, that would be more of a motivation issue, not a jealousy issue. I have a great respect for those that can talk orally despite profound hearing loss.
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Thanks, it was nice of you to say it. Yes, even I had similar feelings at times. That there were times that even though I'm already oral, I did come across some that may have had better communication skills and thought "why not me" and also used that as a motivation.
 
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