ASL or English signing??

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SB_GB_4ever

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My opinion might not matter much but i belive that all deaf children should learn asl as well as C or engligh signing. Only thing I think Is wrong with ASL is that is makes deaf people look stupid and I know for a fact that deaf people are smarted than that. My girlfriend used to write very well in the past but since she has joined the deaf schools and had to learn asl and not allowed to use english she has started to write in broken english. It is taking alot of work to help her back in to using proper english. So i am just asking do you all have the same opinion as me or do you think Deaf and HH should only use ASL.
 
SB_GB_4ever said:
My opinion might not matter much but i belive that all deaf children should learn asl as well as C or engligh signing. Only thing I think Is wrong with ASL is that is makes deaf people look stupid and I know for a fact that deaf people are smarted than that. My girlfriend used to write very well in the past but since she has joined the deaf schools and had to learn asl and not allowed to use english she has started to write in broken english. It is taking alot of work to help her back in to using proper english. So i am just asking do you all have the same opinion as me or do you think Deaf and HH should only use ASL.
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Don't ever say that ASL makes deaf people look stupid. ASL is a beautiful language when it is signed! :)
I agree with when deaf kids are taught ASL only tend to write in broken English. I feel that deaf kids should be taught English writing and reading skills while they are growing up in schools. It is sad to see a lot of deaf schools are not doing a good job with that.
 
ButterflyGirl said:
Don't ever say that ASL makes deaf people look stupid. ASL is a beautiful language when it is signed! :)
I agree with when deaf kids are taught ASL only tend to write in broken English. I feel that deaf kids should be taught English writing and reading skills while they are growing up in schools. It is sad to see a lot of deaf schools are not doing a good job with that.
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I am not in anyway saying that the language is stupid and yes it is a great language but i am going off what deaf people have told me and what my deaf girlfriend views on it are. She wishs that they would teach in a better way. The deaf school treat deaf kids like they are idiots. They treat them like they are incapable of learning. I hope you understand my views of the topic.
 
SB_GB_4ever said:
I am not in anyway saying that the language is stupid and yes it is a great language but i am going off what deaf people have told me and what my deaf girlfriend views on it are. She wishs that they would teach in a better way. The deaf school treat deaf kids like they are idiots. They treat them like they are incapable of learning. I hope you understand my views of the topic.
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Yes, I get it with what you mean :)
It is sad, isn't it?
 
I agree, schools do not push english enough and allow students to "underachieve". I have good english only because my mom pushed me to read books a lot when I was younger. I did not learn much more about english in school.
 
Batou said:
I agree, schools do not push english enough and allow students to "underachieve". I have good english only because my mom pushed me to read books a lot when I was younger. I did not learn much more about english in school.
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Yes, same with me, I was encouraged to read a lot when I was growing up. It does help a lot :)
 
On the other hand, learning ASL after being English-taught for 30 years, is weird! I told my teacher it almost seemed "cave man"-ish initially (I'm teasin' of course!), and I really hope I can understand the different grammar structure well enough, eventually.

The new guy, Treeckcold57, has a thread link. On the other board, which I assume is an "normal" one, somebody mentioned how his grammar was horrid. Then somebody else defended him that he was deaf and that's why. I'm glad some people have enough sense to not jump right into ignorant prejudice. Prejudism... whatever. See, I don't even know English that well, myself! LOL
 
SB_GB_4ever said:
My girlfriend used to write very well in the past but since she has joined the deaf schools and had to learn asl and not allowed to use english she has started to write in broken english.
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That is not the fault of ASL; that is the fault of a horrible educational program. Every language is "use it or lose it" and they ought to be encouraging your girlfriend to keep up her ASL while teaching her English as a second language (or mainstream English classes if they have them at her school), which would include plenty of writing.

Again: faulty education, not faulty language.
 
Interpretrator said:
That is not the fault of ASL; that is the fault of a horrible educational program. Every language is "use it or lose it" and they ought to be encouraging your girlfriend to keep up her ASL while teaching her English as a second language (or mainstream English classes if they have them at her school), which would include plenty of writing.

Again: faulty education, not faulty language.
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I agree to an extent but the way asl grammer rules are changes the way she talks and writes. She is HH so she has learned to talk but The fact she was forced to learn asl through her school just to be around others like her HH and deaf she has lost alot of writing and talking skills. I once again am not saying it is a bad langauge I am just saying that it rules and the being forced to use it has changed a good thing.
 
imo I believe that dhh could start with PSE at first then learn ASL at later age. it worked for me.
 
SB_GB_4ever said:
I agree to an extent but the way asl grammer rules are changes the way she talks and writes.
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I'm sorry, but I disagree entirely. It is not the fault of a second language that the person learning it has not received a proper education in the first language. It's not ASL's fault that I don't remember a lot of my French vocabulary, it's MY fault for not keeping up with my French.

Now I'm not presuming that it's your girlfriend's fault for not working on her own to keep up her English, because I don't expect students below college age to take responsibility for their education like that. Deaf schools should without a doubt be doing more to teach English as a second language, or mainstream English, or whatever. I agree that it's a shame that she is losing her English skills because bilingualism is a very positive thing, and I'm sure it must be really hard to hang on to those skills when immersed in a second language program -- ANY second language. It is not the fault of ASL, it is the fault of administrators and educators, and perhaps parents to a certain extent.

Please understand I'm not ranting at you. This subject is a particular sore spot with me and I am directing frustration at the system, not at you or your girlfriend.
 
ASL is cool

I think deaf and hh should learn english for reading and speaking purposes if possible. But I think ASL is an integral part of being deaf and just as no one seems to tell spanish people they should use one dialect over the other, no one should even consider ASL stupid. Why? Because I am learning ASL and the more I learn the more I see how intricate ASL is. It is not a simple language to learn, but the simplicity of concepts may make the lay person decide that it's just a oversimplified english. One needs to only begin learning ASL to find out there are idioms, classifiers, and nonmanual markers that make it alot more detailed than english. The concepts make a bunch of english words seem like giberish. What I mean is I can have someone at my place of worship tell me in words that Jesus suffered a very painful death and that he was beaten and so forth. But ASL will show you exactly how Jesus suffered as if you are watching it happen before your very eyes making the concept crystal clear and it actually moves you emotionally where hearing the description is not as powerful. So concepts are easier to impress on the mind exactly what you want the person to understand. Words may be interpreted according to the persons mastery of the english language. That is why you need a lawyer to decipher a person's will or buying a house and so forth. ASL would simplify it to the point misunderstandings are less likely to occur. So ASL really is superior in certain aspects that make it worth learning. But hey my first language is english and I am glad I know that too. But I look forward to being fluent in ASL someday. I have only been learning for six months and my receptive skills are pretty good but my signing ASL vs english needs a lot more work. Trying to get the grammatical structure down is a challenge. Not the basics of course but the intermediate.
 
I disagree... Depends on deaf school, depends on people who work at deaf school. I went to Deaf School, I learned ASL but I do still write the english and know how to sign english. I'm very deaf, dont talk and read the lips that well.. And, Deaf School helped me to be smart, hearing school didn't teach me VERY good, honest. I'm very glad that I went to deaf school so I learned better than I did in Hearing School.
 
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