Originally Posted by kipourgos

While I am very much against "oralism," I'd never dispute the need to be able to deal in English. In the US, pretty much every Deaf person I ever interacted with could function fairly effectively in English, if not necessarily eloquently or with perfect grammar.

Here in Turkey it's very different; and overall the deaf here have been very seriously failed by the system. I know there are deaf people here who can read and write and study in university, but I haven't met them. A huge percentage of deaf people here never even go to school, and I haven't yet met anyone with enough Turkish to do more than get basic needs. While many might recognize the word "yazmak" (to write), many are stumped at a construction as basic as "yazabilir" ("s/he can write"). So they are extremely isolated from the hearing world. One person I talked to went to a school but couldn't get it, and dropped out. I'm sure there are many more like him. Wouldn't it have been easier if they could learn with TSL, and then work them into explaining the weird world of Turkish?