us rat lab by hearing people

Frisky Feline

Frisky Feline

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I can understand that they are curious about Deaf community. One thing is that I do not understand why they took ASL class in the first place and treat us like we are the rat lab. If they want to learn ASL then they could have mingling, socializing or hanging with us to learn from us instead of testing, poking, or testing the sound on us.

I may not familiar with what ASL teachers are expecting from the ASL students to do some project for their grades.

lastly, why do the hearing people always pick for their grade project for class, ASL song.
 
I wonder often about the song part also and think a lot of them must have hearing asl teachers.
 
And I often wonder why the hearies wonder why we can't speak...when they can't learn ASL?....I don't see them "slapping themselves in the mouth" whenever they mispronounce a word...hence, whenever they try to sign ASL...they slap their hands whenever they are making a mistake....it's a merry-go-round...over and over.
 
I was actually wondering the same thing the other day ..almost every new user is hearing and learning ASL ...
 
Please don't treat us like lab rats. If we were rats, we may be eaten by ferrets and cats. By then, you'll have no one to ask "deaf" related questions to.
 
Well, I do treat hearing people as my rat lab, too. I test them with many different ways to see how they react or respond.
 
i english for my sins ..ferrets used to kill rabbits here,we use poisen kill rats
 
Frisky Feline said:
I can understand that they are curious about Deaf community. One thing is that I do not understand why they took ASL class in the first place and treat us like we are the rat lab. If they want to learn ASL then they could have mingling, socializing or hanging with us to learn from us instead of testing, poking, or testing the sound on us.

I may not familiar with what ASL teachers are expecting from the ASL students to do some project for their grades.

lastly, why do the hearing people always pick for their grade project for class, ASL song.
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I can answer this since I did at one time attempt to learn....

They take the course because they want to learn a foreign language and they're attracted to it in the same way non-Italians want to learn Italian and non-Argentines want to learn Spanish. They're told to mingle, socialize and ask questions and if they're seen as overbearing, it's usually the fault of the teacher sending them off on assignments. I've no idea why they would want to sing in ASL - my teachers never brought that up and I've always thought it a stupid idea myself.

I'm sure if the students knew in advance how the deaf community would treat them with disdain for trying to complete an assignment, they would have opted for French instead. Unlike ASL, other foreign language communities welcome those irritating questions and are grateful that anyone would show in interest in their language.

Laura
 
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Lau2046 said:
I can answer this since I did at one time attempt to learn....

They take the course because they want to learn a foreign language and they're attracted to it in the same way non-Italians want to learn Italian and non-Argentines want to learn Spanish. They're told to mingle, socialize and ask questions and if they're seen as overbearing, it's usually the fault of the teacher sending them off on assignments. I've no idea why they would want to sing in ASL - my teachers never brought that up and I've always thought it a stupid idea myself.

I'm sure if the students knew in advance how the deaf community would treat them for trying to complete an assignment, they would have opted for French instead. Unlike ASL, other foreign language communities welcome those irritating questions and are grateful that anyone would show in interest in their language.

Laura
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You have phrased this better than what I said in another similar thread.

http://www.alldeaf.com/our-world-our-culture/107341-speech-deaf-community.html#post2111851
 
Frisky Feline said:
I can understand that they are curious about Deaf community. One thing is that I do not understand why they took ASL class in the first place and treat us like we are the rat lab. If they want to learn ASL then they could have mingling, socializing or hanging with us to learn from us instead of testing, poking, or testing the sound on us.

I may not familiar with what ASL teachers are expecting from the ASL students to do some project for their grades.

lastly, why do the hearing people always pick for their grade project for class, ASL song.
Click to expand...

I get the impression from the way you phrase things that you use ASL a lot so you may not realize that in some locations doing what I have added the bold to can be difficult. I am in a small community that has a community college (Kaskaskia College if you care to find out more) that has offered ASL (by a hearing instructor) for many years. I took a beginning course two different years back in the 1980's and made NO contacts to practice with and get to actually use it. Also, it has been many years since I have seen ANYONE use ASL just in daily life — such as spotting them across the room in a store.
 
Jane B. said:
I get the impression from the way you phrase things that you use ASL a lot so you may not realize that in some locations doing what I have added the bold to can be difficult. I am in a small community that has a community college (Kaskaskia College if you care to find out more) that has offered ASL (by a hearing instructor) for many years. I took a beginning course two different years back in the 1980's and made NO contacts to practice with and get to actually use it. Also, it has been many years since I have seen ANYONE use ASL just in daily life — such as spotting them across the room in a store.
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Then it was kind of pointless for you or any of the hearing students to take it if you had no place to use it. Also very pointless for you to continually criticize something you don't participate in, and apparently have no interest to seek out.
 
Bottesini said:
Then it was kind of pointless for you or any of the hearing students to take it if you had no place to use it. Also very pointless for you to continually criticize something you don't participate in, and apparently have no interest to seek out.
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I have no way to prove it but get the impression that many are using it to meet their foreign language requirement. Also, at the time I took it I did not know that I would not make the kind of contacts necessary to get good enough to really use it.

Where do you come up with the bit about criticism I am stating the conditions I encountered.
 
Jane B. said:
I have no way to prove it but get the impression that many are using it to meet their foreign language requirement. Also, at the time I took it I did not know that I would not make the kind of contacts necessary to get good enough to really use it.

Where do you come up with the bit about criticism I am stating the conditions I encountered.
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I am truly baffled that you don't see your post as critical, but maybe you don't mean it that way and I just react to your way of phrasing things.
 
I sort of hope that hearing asl students would able to reply to this thread to share this with us. :aw:
 
Frisky Feline said:
I sort of hope that hearing asl students would able to reply to this thread to share this with us. :aw:
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I don't know what to tell you.* :(

I will have only been on my course a month as of Thursday.

*apart from that all my ASL teachers are Deaf or HoH.
 
metalangel said:
I don't know what to tell you.* :(

I will have only been on my course a month as of Thursday.

*apart from that all my ASL teachers are Deaf or HoH.
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Oh thank you for sharing. Take your time to reply to this thread eventually as you can bump this thread in the near future. :D
 
I've said on here before why I'm studying ASL... it's not as an easy language credit while doing college, it was as part of a total career change. When I first considered this big change at the start of the year, I came here to see what I was (for lack of a better term) potentially getting myself into. I enjoy talking with and just listening to what you (Deaf community) are talking about, it has given me a lot of insight and has also prepared me fairly well... as a small example, when one of our teachers was talking about good and bad terms to use for Deaf folks (bad, for example, being deaf-mute), she mentioned 'deafies'. The rest of the class was horrified/incredulous but honey.toronto, Nanelle and I just laughed and nodded in agreement. The teacher had to explain to the rest of them that it's a term of endearment, and that we're hearies. :giggle:

I'm not sure what else you want to know, I could tell you more about the course if you were interested. So far it's been thoughtfully structured and as it's run by Deaf teachers the cultural side isn't forgotten. I can't explain the other hearing students who come here looking to sing in ASL, there's nothing like that in our course outline!
 
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