Totally new to sign language!!

I don't have any deaf friends where I live now since I moved but where I'm from I have a few. I like being in both worlds cause it's more people to get to know. I like meeting new people I can get along with. It's hard in both worlds to meet real honest and genuine people.
 
I think a lot of the problem we have with the hearing person all enthused about "the beautiful graceful ASL language" is that it's like a lot of handicapped people are perceived as saintly and so special just for being different.

Reality is most of us are just normal people with families and diverse interests, like cars, pets, computers, gaming, and we are going to seek out communication with people who have our interests.

ASL isn't an interest for a lot of deaf people. It's just a communication method, pure and simple, not an art form.
 
Bottesini said:
I think a lot of the problem we have with the hearing person all enthused about "the beautiful graceful ASL language" is that it's like a lot of handicapped people are perceived as saintly and so special just for being different.

Reality is most of us are just normal people with families and diverse interests, like cars, pets, computers, gaming, and we are going to seek out communication with people who have our interests.

ASL isn't an interest for a lot of deaf people. It's just a communication method, pure and simple, not an art form.
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AMEN to that bold sentence.
 
Bottesini said:
ASL isn't an interest for a lot of deaf people. It's just a communication method, pure and simple, not an art form.
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Everyone feels that way about their own language it's nothin special but a language that is a different language is interesting cause it's new.
 
New to some, sure. But for the average hearing person, they already have a first language. And learning a new language is new for them. An art form, some would call it. But for some d/Deaf, it's our way of communication. Not an art form.
 
I'm thinking, though, that its not the same comparison - English to Spanish, etc - because....ASL was forbidden, kids were abused because they used it in schools...kids were -and still are - forbidden to learn it by hearing people.
THat implies a whole bunch of different things than just...comparing to spoken languages to each other and saying - the novel one is "beautiful".

The history of oppression of signed languages makes things different.
 
dogmom said:
I'm thinking, though, that its not the same comparison - English to Spanish, etc - because....ASL was forbidden, kids were abused because they used it in schools...kids were -and still are - forbidden to learn it by hearing people.
THat implies a whole bunch of different things than just...comparing to spoken languages to each other and saying - the novel one is "beautiful".

The history of oppression of signed languages makes things different.
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Very different.

But it is more than the way many hearing think they understand it, "in the old days kids got hands hit for signing" etc.

That doesn't encompass any part of the big picture, when it is really almost a total deprivation of language.

We all know people who basically have no functional language because of this practice of denying sign to deaf children.
 
yes, I see this, Botti....
i was thinking as I was typing so my ideas weren't totally thought out, but yes the deprivation of language - including where deaf kids have little or no communication with parents or other family because the family won't sign.
Not same as with users of another language like Spanish, or Hmong and so on, where the kids and the parents have - at least in the beginning when the kids are young and the peer group still has less influence than the immediate family - those kids and parents have a common language and therefore a connection, a common reference point. Language shapes how we see the world.
 
Ok so I see that there are to different conversations about one topic. The point of the topic was it's a new language I want to learn it. It's beautiful cause it's unique to a group of people.

Now it's got turn because of a judgment from a long time ago that down really have an impact today. Talking about how kids have no communication skills cause of lack of being taught how. Is not what the topic is about.

This really just showed how a nice gesture was turn into something nasty cause people can't move on. No one is denying how hard it was back then or making it seem like it was ok cause it was horrible for the people that had to live through it. For the ones that did can never say they no how that struggle feels. Doesn't mean we have never suffered from a struggle so we can say we feel your hurt cause we as a people no what hurt from struggle feels like.

But this was all about a young woman being happy and winning to know a new language that happen to be Asl. And she hasn't been back on here since the complaints started. So if y'all scare every hearing person away from wanting to learn Asl for their own reasons then no there won't be any interpreters and then years from now it will just be a repeat of what happen years ago.
 
Frisky Feline said:
Every of us have different experiences of struggling with being in the hearing world/society.

The bottom line is that I think SOME of us, included me, anytime hearing people opens their mouth..
"ohh ASL is so beautiful." It sort of irks me but. Yes, I agree it is beautiful. thank you but it is not becasue we use it because its beautiful. We use ASL which it is our language, to communciate on a a daily basis. :dunno2:

I admit that i COULD said that if i see other language, and say to italian people, "hey your language is beautiful" I BET they will roll their eyes at me. :lol:
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"Like"

Exactly!
 
Bottesini said:
I think a lot of the problem we have with the hearing person all enthused about "the beautiful graceful ASL language" is that it's like a lot of handicapped people are perceived as saintly and so special just for being different.

Reality is most of us are just normal people with families and diverse interests, like cars, pets, computers, gaming, and we are going to seek out communication with people who have our interests.

ASL isn't an interest for a lot of deaf people. It's just a communication method, pure and simple, not an art form.
Click to expand...

"Like"
 
When I was younger the first time I seen Asl was in church. The interpreter was signing with such emotion even in song that it was just very amazing to watch. That to me was beauty in a language to me.
 
aweet_princess198925 said:
Ok so I see that there are to different conversations about one topic. The point of the topic was it's a new language I want to learn it. It's beautiful cause it's unique to a group of people.

Now it's got turn because of a judgment from a long time ago that down really have an impact today. Talking about how kids have no communication skills cause of lack of being taught how. Is not what the topic is about.

This really just showed how a nice gesture was turn into something nasty cause people can't move on. No one is denying how hard it was back then or making it seem like it was ok cause it was horrible for the people that had to live through it. For the ones that did can never say they no how that struggle feels. Doesn't mean we have never suffered from a struggle so we can say we feel your hurt cause we as a people no what hurt from struggle feels like.

But this was all about a young woman being happy and winning to know a new language that happen to be Asl. And she hasn't been back on here since the complaints started. So if y'all scare every hearing person away from wanting to learn Asl for their own reasons then no there won't be any interpreters and then years from now it will just be a repeat of what happen years ago.
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You still don't get it. That is the problem with hearing people. Don't forget that CI who were born deaf had to put up with trying to make head and tails in hearing classes, even in the 21st Century. Hearing people thought CI was a miracle for them to hear sounds but also hoping that they can pick the words up without lipreading. That was a crock. It is not true at all. That is why CI still need ASL as their primary language. The thing is that no hearing person should never forbidden or take away his or her primary ASL away from him or her. We depend visually with ASL deeply and make our life easier to understand instead of spoken language including difficult to lipread which we can get lost in it.

You think we should talk and understand with lipreading in the hearing classroom. You are wrong on this. It is without a doubt that we can not hear the sounds which we heard static or environment sounds. The hearing aids and CI does not provide perfect hearing at all. That is why we were pretty upset that hearing teachers including the hearing principals are trying to make us talk and listen without lipreading. They don't understand squat because the hearing people never experienced what we went through with frustration and unhappy.

We, in the Deaf Community, tried to tell them that we need visual ASL. But they turn their deaf ears on us. They don't believe us, ever.

I came from two worlds, as a Native American and Deaf individual. It was a battle between two worlds that people who tried to changed us to be like them as a whole which is not right. We should keep what we have as we are the way we were. We can not change because that is who we are as human beings, not savages or squaws. We have our own customs and different languages (Native languages). Now I have to be forced to be like the hearing people as d/Deaf people can not change, too. They have to accept us as we are the way we are as Deaf people, even Hard Of Hearing people.

That is why it is not right to do that to us. Why put us through doing their things so that they don't have to work with us being different? We only want to come to learn education, but the White people tried to make us change our ways and doing things their ways, even forbade Native languages. That is why we were upset about this whole attitude of Education making us do change other things instead of learning to read and write, even learning how to do arithmetic or mathematics which is okay. But not the material things. Leave us alone the way we were born with. We can go through learning in education with ASL interpreters. Enough is enough. :(
 
Bebonang said:
You still don't get it. That is the problem with hearing people. Don't forget that CI who were born deaf had to put up with trying to make head and tails in hearing classes, even in the 21st Century. Hearing people thought CI was a miracle for them to hear sounds but also hoping that they can pick the words up without lipreading. That was a crock. It is not true at all. That is why CI still need ASL as their primary language. The thing is that no hearing person should never forbidden or take away his or her primary ASL away from him or her. We depend visually with ASL deeply and make our life easier to understand instead of spoken language including difficult to lipread which we can get lost in it.



You think we should talk and understand with lipreading in the hearing classroom. You are wrong on this. It is without a doubt that we can not hear the sounds which we heard static or environment sounds. The hearing aids and CI does not provide perfect hearing at all. That is why we were pretty upset that hearing teachers including the hearing principals are trying to make us talk and listen without lipreading. They don't understand squat because the hearing people never experienced what we went through with frustration and unhappy.



We, in the Deaf Community, tried to tell them that we need visual ASL. But they turn their deaf ears on us. They don't believe us, ever.



I came from two worlds, as a Native American and Deaf individual. It was a battle between two worlds that people who tried to changed us to be like them as a whole which is not right. We should keep what we have as we are the way we were. We can not change because that is who we are as human beings, not savages or squaws. We have our own customs and different languages (Native languages). Now I have to be forced to be like the hearing people as d/Deaf people can not change, too. They have to accept us as we are the way we are as Deaf people, even Hard Of Hearing people.



That is why it is not right to do that to us. Why put us through doing their things so that they don't have to work with us being different? We only want to come to learn education, but the White people tried to make us change our ways and doing things their ways, even forbade Native languages. That is why we were upset about this whole attitude of Education making us do change other things instead of learning to read and write, even learning how to do arithmetic or mathematics which is okay. But not the material things. Leave us alone the way we were born with. We can go through learning in education with ASL interpreters. Enough is enough. :(
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No y'all don't get it. Megan said she wanted to learn Asl and y'all blew up about stuff that had nothing to do with the topic y'all are talking about something that isn't what she is talking about. Y'all brought up all the negative things about Asl. No one said hearing people think a CI is a miracle that makes a deaf person hear perfectly. You bright that up. You brought up white people and this and that. I never said deaf people should learn to lip read I'm HoH and hate lip reading so why would I say that. The girl just wants to learn Asl that is not wrong. And people like you are just feeding the battle between the 2 worlds that's why there is still a battle cause know one wants to understand each other you just let it go on and on with no end it's crazy and pretty stupid.

This was about learning American Sign Language. Nothing more nothing less. Y'all made it negative for no reason.
 
aweet_princess198925 said:
No y'all don't get it. Megan said she wanted to learn Asl and y'all blew up about stuff that had nothing to do with the topic y'all are talking about something that isn't what she is talking about. Y'all brought up all the negative things about Asl. No one said hearing people think a CI is a miracle that makes a deaf person hear perfectly. You bright that up. You brought up white people and this and that. I never said deaf people should learn to lip read I'm HoH and hate lip reading so why would I say that. The girl just wants to learn Asl that is not wrong. And people like you are just feeding the battle between the 2 worlds that's why there is still a battle cause know one wants to understand each other you just let it go on and on with no end it's crazy and pretty stupid.

This was about learning American Sign Language. Nothing more nothing less. Y'all made it negative for no reason.
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I agree. She only expressed her appreciation for ASL and that she's enthusiastic about teaching it to her son.
 
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