How Many Of You Know Sign Language?...

ASL is difficult for me to understand. The other day a guy came over to install VRS videophone, he signed in ASL. I had no CLUE what the heck he was saying. I couldn't tell him that I didn't know ASL too well because I lied on the VRS application that I knew ASL. After he explained how vp works, he asked me if I understood him. I said yes. "You sure?", he asked. I smiled and nodded my head. lol Served me right because after he left, I messed up the network info & vp was down. Poor guy, he had to come back again to fix it. He looked at me and said, "I don't think you understood me because I told you not to change the network info."

My sign language is a combo of my family's invented sign language and ... PSE (?) or ESL, I'm not sure which one. I haven't been in deaf community in real life for several years. Not many deaf people know who I am in real life. I don't know if that's good or not. :D
 
Frost said:
i'm hearing and i learned a little SL in elementary (joined a group but it didn't get anywhere..i learned to fingerspell and thats bout it) my boyfriend is deaf and uses lipreading has his main source of communication so he reads my lips and i fingerspell if he has a hard time understanding my pronounciation. :)
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u're just like my girlfriend but my GF also sign some simple words, but she's learning. however she learns faster if i'm around deaf friends for a chat with ASL.. she catches some through time.

Anyway With Hearies i tend to Voice.. Rarely sign and voice, depends on which hearie i'm talking to. with deaf friends i use ASL.. never use Voice, but use Voice if Hearing is around me while i'm using ASL to talk to deafies. Same goes with hearies, i use Voice. but if Deafies are around with me i use ASL and Voice. so they can know what i'm talking about cuz its not fair to use voice and left my deaf friends out.

with family.. i use Voice all the time.
 
I first took ASL classes and ofcourse used it there with the Deaf teachers and their friends.

After the classes I found it helpful when I was working retail (Learningsmith, and then CompUSA) but I only ran into Deaf customers once every couple of months.

Then I became close friends with a Deaf teen who lived near me and I used it nearly EVERY weekend when he was up visiting his dad. Unfortunately he died in a drowning accident. :(

Now, even though I work at a school that mainstreams local Deaf kids, I don't get to talk with them much and my ASL skills have definately gotten worse. My ASL is more like PSE. :(

I never use voice when I sign. That's primarily a hold over from my ASL classes where the teachers discouraged talking and tried to do ASL Immersion in the classrooms. I usually followup with voice, though, if there are other hearing people involved.

I also put up a sign at the blacksmithing demonstrations I do that says "ASL Understood Here"

Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky again and meet other Deaf friends.
 
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deafdyke said:
Wow....a PUBLIC school was THAT strict?

I thought St. Rita's was TC? Maybe it was really oral back in the old days, but now it's TC. Unfortunatly there are still lots of oral only programs.....boooo!!!!!!!!
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it prolly was one of the schools that was oral back in the older days -- i MAY also be inaccurate -- if i turned out to be inaccurate, i apologize in advance Deafdyke :D
 
deafdyke said:
Wow....a PUBLIC school was THAT strict?

I thought St. Rita's was TC? Maybe it was really oral back in the old days, but now it's TC. Unfortunatly there are still lots of oral only programs.....boooo!!!!!!!!
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St. Rita's School for the Deaf, is in Cincinnati, Ohio

They used to call deaf people "mute" and "deaf and dumb" and it is a TC school I don't know about back in the old days.

But, I have heard that alot of states had deaf people being beaten by a ruler if they sign in class. I heard one about Washington School for the Deaf and Texas, Correct me if I am mistaken here.
 
Cheri said:
St. Rita's School for the Deaf, is in Cincinnati, Ohio

They used to call deaf people "mute" and "deaf and dumb" and it is a TC school I don't know about back in the old days.

But, I have heard that alot of states had deaf people being beaten by a ruler if they sign in class. I heard one about Washington School for the Deaf and Texas, Correct me if I am mistaken here.
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My best friend works at Washington School for the Deaf as the Principal for K to 12 grades and they have a strict ASL policy so I doubt that incident ever took place.

But yes I grew up being beaten with a stick if I ever dare to move my hands. They also brainwashed me if that I ever start signing, I will automatically go stupid.
 
Cheri said:
St. Rita's School for the Deaf, is in Cincinnati, Ohio

They used to call deaf people "mute" and "deaf and dumb" and it is a TC school I don't know about back in the old days.

But, I have heard that alot of states had deaf people being beaten by a ruler if they sign in class. I heard one about Washington School for the Deaf and Texas, Correct me if I am mistaken here.
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Governor Baxter School for the Deaf in Maine did that if i am accurate -- former students who attended Baxter filed charges against the school for sexual assaults and other cruelty charges -- i know of Clarke School (MA) but i dont know if they did use rulers or other cruel methods of keeping ASL signing to a minimum -- how abt Beverly School in MA qq

i dont recall TSD ever doing that :confused: i leave it to the TSD alums who might know the history abt this one

if anyone finds my post to be inaccurate -- feel free to correct me! :thumb:
 
Meg said:
My best friend works at Washington School for the Deaf as the Principal for K to 12 grades and they have a strict ASL policy so I doubt that incident ever took place.
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You're correct my mistake, It was more sexual assaults report against that school. I remember now. :)
 
CID does oral and not allow use the signs then would hit by ruler. :dunno: me wrong?
 
I do mostly fingerspelling and probably 50 or so word signs, my GF is the only person that I regularly see that knows sign. Except for her, writing is my chief way of commmunicating (I suck at lip reading too). And I speak, so I talk and they write.

My employment is as a telecommuter, so all my communication there is IM or email and I don't tend to go out much. So what signs I may learn, I usually soon forget.
 
I sign PSE and pidgin English.

Not.."tweet-tweet" pidgin but a mixture of American sign language and English.

I am understood by most of my Deaf friends and I lived with a fingerspelling Deaf-Blind woman,.who constantly fingerspelled in ABSOLUTELY PERFECT ENGLISH like a book!! She "bugged' me to the point that I think my English is quite comprehensible!!

My husband doesn't sign at all!
 
MizzDeaf said:
CID does oral and not allow use the signs then would hit by ruler. :dunno: me wrong?
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MizzDeaf, you're correct. I went to CID (Central Institute for the Deaf) from 1965 to 1971 and it was a STRICT private school for oral deaf students...and every time I tried to use home signs, I got hit with a ruler on my palms. I still have a scar on my right palm from the metal edge. I still can't stand Miss Woodward (shudders)...

I finally learned PSE in 1988 - out of self-defense. Too many deafies outta there in the cold, cruel world...heh heh. However, I wouldn't trade my friends for anything else!!

I do speak when I'm signing - out of habit. When I'm with hearing family members, I will speak without signing. When I'm in mixed groups (both hearing and deaf) I will use TC. There are times when I can sign without speaking, but I have to think first...because I have to translate in my mind from English to PSE.

Now I must eek and run for my mouse hole...
 
I do signs often with DF cuz he is full of ASL
I do signs and/or voice with children just depend on my mood to speak.
I do "home" signs with my mom.
I do use PSE often. I dont use ASL that much but just very alittle.

Mommyof3
 
Not know ASL

I don't sign language well.

Hearies won't let me do ASL, because
they know that I can talk.

But my grammars are messed up, though.
And people don't understand my speech sometimes.

So anyway, I am in someway alittle "dumb illiterate mute".
 
And people don't understand my speech sometimes.
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Well I think this is the number one reason for learning ASL. Lots of people don't understand MY speech sometimes either.....I mean TTT and I are both HOH (I'm guessing since TCS involves conductive losses which respond well to hearing aids) and we HOH kids fall through the cracks TOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRRRR....stupid hearies think that we have more in common with hearies then with deafies!!!! I would love to become an expert and change that!
As for the oral schools....I think a lot of that has changed since many of the older Deafies were educated. Back in the old old days everything was oral, even at res schools...it wasn't til recently that Signing even became a legitmate educational option! There are still oral schools....(bleah) but most programs in the US are TC! (YAY!)
 
I dont know sign either

but lots of my friends that are deaf here can read lips or sign doesnt bother them either way so, so iam ok wiht it .
 
i grew up orally and SEE then i went into WSD and learned ASL hard way and now it depends on who im talking to.. if im talking to my bf i do sign and talk wiht voice same time so he would learn signs while he listens to me... if i met a hearing i perfer to write on a notebook cuz i cant read lips at all. I use voices if i have to. same for my family i use voice and signs same time. but when i was with deaf people i dont use voice at all unless they need me to.
 
I was born HOH (a mild loss). I know a little bit of ASL, which I prefer over voicing.
 
I don't use my voice at all and I do sign. I was raised in a deaf family so I don't use my voice at all. So, I communicate thru signing and writing in hearing world. Oh, also I can lip-read .. that is the most important thing, I think. Being able to read lip-reading. My deaf grandmother have always emphasize me that it is important to lip-read so I took her advice and it really does help lot. If I don't catch or understand what they are saying then I will ask them to write to get the correct information.
 
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I don't sign BSL with my family, I was brought up oral, then I learnt to sign when I was about 12.

Now I sign all the time with my (hearing) friends as my course requires me to sign all the time, but somehow I can't sign with my family, my mum always tells me to sign to her as she wants to learn!
 
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