I said people here "seem to dislike English" which was my perception. I was villified because I chose to use English (SEE) instead of ASL. Everyone was all up in arms about the fact that I didn't use ASL first and I must be an "Audist" since I place such "high value on English".
The fact is I was in a much better position to provide my son with access to language through SEE because I was already fluent in English. All I had to do was learn the signs to give him complete access to it.
I think we can all agree that the time for acquiring language is in the first 5 years of life, and I didn't want my son to miss out. I also didn't want to haphazardly provide him with "access" to a language I did not know.
I made a point to work hard, and fully commit to learning the signs to support the spoken language surrounding my son.
It had nothing to do with whether or not I "value ASL". It had everything to do with the fact that in the early years I would have been a poor language model for him. Chances are good had I made a different choice, he wouldn't have done as well as he has.
One problem I see here..
And it is not your fault...
You, and you are not alone...
Are trying to comply with an "audist" albeit racist, ethnic, language, attitude in the United States toward all Non-English speakers ...
Somehow in the U.S. it does not matter how literate you are in your native language, or languages, and this includes English...
If you cannot read and write English well you are considered ILLITERATE!
The schools promote it, SAT promotes it, Even though the U.S. does not have an "official" language.
While I love both reading and writing and I can manipulate the English language, both written and spoken, better than most -- I believe this is an UNFAIR attitude.
It places a wrongful burden of proof on the individual whereby they HAVE to PROVE they are intelligent and they are only given one method of doing so -- Skill in the English language, especially written, as defined by the grammarians.
I remember as a child living in a mixed race neighborhood. The Black people were considered illiterate because they were not as well versed in English grammar, and did not have as extensive a vocabulary, as the Whites who judged them...
But in EVERY VERBAL argument...
The Black people won.
My conclusion = Skill in English and knowledge of grammar ... as defined by Grammarians, SAT, etc.
Is NOT an indicator of intelligence and should NOT be used as though it does.