Grammar among Deaf People

Recently was talking with a friend about how we noticed that a lot of Deaf people have this similiar grammar confusion.

I dont know how to call this but am giving you an example.

He: Hey, I am interesting in you.
Me: You are interesting?
He: Yes, I am interesting.


(Translation: it means he is interested in me, not that he is bragging that he is interesting.)


He: Hey, Im boring.
Me: You are boring? *scratching my head, wondering if he means he is calling himself a boring person and putting himself down or if he meant that he is bored*
He: Yep, Im boring and there is nothing to do around here.


(Translation: it means he is bored and have nothing to do, but not calling himself boring)

Get the gist?

I just gave you two examples of this....does anyone know why a lot of Deaf people have problem with this? I used to get annoyed with this but realized that I cant judge these people harshly but at the same time, I wonder why this happens often as it can really create misunderstandings, etc.

Your 2 cents on this?

Good one, and I DO have good reason here... ALmost all deafies who learn english though english instead of ASL. Thats the MAJOR problem!!! Deafies' natural language happened to be ASL. Problem is that they were never educated about ASL in the first place so that they can better understand english! There was so much opposition in hearing world on ASL from pre school to even in college! hearing thinks its BAD IDEA or WRONG to teach deafies english with ASL... Me frown!

Why do I think this way. about 10 years ago, I learned what ASL really is, I dropped my jaw and realize that it is a LANGUAGE PERIOD. ASL has its own rules, syntacs, structures, etc. Same with English language. Unfortunately Deafies just happen to use these rules naturally and not even know it. If they had knew there is such thing in ASL, they can better compare English and ASL and will always say ohhh got it... It rarely happened.

DHB

I don't know ASL well...
and still my grammar is messed up.

It is just that I didn't hear much of what people said,
and all of my life... I didn't have closed caption tv.
And the schools I went to... they didn't taught me well...
I always made C's and D's.

I can't even write an essay or chat with hearing people in AOL,
cause they made fun of my grammar.

As some of you may aware that I am no good at grammar.... I don't know why but so far, it is my only obstacle in my education 'path' but I got better and better weekly, monthly, yearly... whatever.

But yeah, these grammar is common among deaf people but wait, these sloppy grammar & misspellings is common among hearing people as well. I used to be a IRC geek (for several months but no more), one 20 years old genius IRC scripter said something that made me spilled my milk on the monitor. Here's real example by a hearing college student:

He: anyone here?
Other: Yo
He: want to play a [game name]? I am boring.


I am serious... I used to think that hearies are damn good at grammar but IRC chats repeatedly proved me wrong. I think it is individual thing... I am damn good at researching, writing the essay, math, science, etc etc but I seem unable to write a perfect or 'damn-good' grammar like some people... i.e. you, meg ;P

Dont get me wrong. *waving white flag*

Im not here to criticize grammar.

Im only referring to *suffixes* ...like someone saying to me " I am very interesting (when it should be interested) to go to the party with you."

I do realize that people in general have sloppy grammar online or whatnot but I was curious about why deaf people get ed/ing mixed up. Is it because that has no place in ASL or cannot be translated to ASL but only use facial expressions to imply whether it is verb or adjective or whatnot?

meg i can understand where you are coming from on ur understanding in the ASL vs English, you see they were born Deaf so thier first langague is ASL before english, I also am born Deaf i have moderate ASLvsEnglish verison, back then i was in mainstream school where english was an emphasis for us, as part of the total communication i was taught about the english grammar, but i do know im not perfect in the grammtical syntax, I do understand where i am coming from in this. My partner is also Deaf and has ASL as the first langague, and she graduated with a 5th grade reading level, she still is learning the grammatical syntax as well, it's not easy when she was taught late, however this is another story on her realitve status, but all in all i understood what my partner has said, with thanks to some translations i have learned over the yrs. some parents do not work with the child on the english based signing or the total communication. Whilist some just learn pure ASL and yes it is a langauge, because they are taught each word has a meaning behind the sign, but to put them into a sentence they do not understand how to do that, thus the english communication becomes lost in translation. But i do help my partner with the proper grammar when needed, she apperticates me even more when she relizes her mistakes on a simple word like, Voilence= voilate, so i show her the difference in the meaning, she understands it better, she has a bunch of english books so we are working together on that. Some are late learners whilist some arent and just considers ASL thier true langague, but it can get lost in the perspective. they try to understand the grammatical meanings but that in itself is hard... the word Intresting then not using the real sentence like i am intrested in you the AM and the IN is lost cuz its not shown in the signing perpsective, if you sign them yr self you'll see the difference...

sign this for an example

Where were you born?

now sign this

Where born?? ( make sure u use the question mark as a double emphasis) and your facial expression in a questional expression. then you will see how they can derive the difference. they don't use the verb syntax because the where is the main question.

thats the idea of the broken english so to speak...

Meg said:

Dont get me wrong. *waving white flag*

Im not here to criticize grammar.

Click to expand...

I already know that you aren't

Meg said:

Im only referring to *suffixes* ...like someone saying to me " I am very interesting (when it should be interested) to go to the party with you."

I do realize that people in general have sloppy grammar online or whatnot but I was curious about why deaf people get ed/ing mixed up. Is it because that has no place in ASL or cannot be translated to ASL but only use facial expressions to imply whether it is verb or adjective or whatnot?

Click to expand...

Good question. I think we will have a good debate/discussion about this grammar issue.

diehardbiker65 said:

Good one, and I DO have good reason here... ALmost all deafies who learn english though english instead of ASL. Thats the MAJOR problem!!! Deafies' natural language happened to be ASL. Problem is that they were never educated about ASL in the first place so that they can better understand english! There was so much opposition in hearing world on ASL from pre school to even in college! hearing thinks its BAD IDEA or WRONG to teach deafies english with ASL... Me frown!

Click to expand...

Fa La La La... Wrong!

ASL isn't a natural language; it's a manmade language. There's no such thing as a natural language. English is my native language, not ASL. ASL can't be used to teach English due to the fact that they are two different languages. The best way to learn a language is to use the very language itself. There's no better substitute to it.

How did I learn the language of English? Yup, through English! Only a person can claim to a language as their native language if they had grown up using it. The first language used is often the native language due to the household family using it.

Before you jump the gun, I was taught English through the SEE2 method in a Total Communication program at a public school. When I entered the fourth grade, I was taught on how to use ASL. However, I still prefer the SEE2 method when it come to teaching or learning English.

Though many Deaf militants continue to put down SEE2, but that's due to large amount of misinformation that continues to spread these days. Pity the fools that fall into their own traps.

Meg!

Meg! You've got mail.

ASL is not ONLY thing that cause the problem, IT also has to do with the education and the way they teaching kids. I think they SHOULD teach deaf kids with english/writing/reading early as possible then learn asl later or at same time but it could be conflict with english/writing.

I have notice that lot of young deafies have lack of education that some schools had hold them back in same grade some even more than one year (which they never did that to me, THANK GOD). I just think THEY should teach deafies in writing and READING as well. Look at me, I do love to read the books and it help me improve my education. I do have grammer problems mostly with little words. In fact back at my high school, my class of 94 is the last class with high education for deafies program and most classes after 1994 has low education and most of deafies taking deaf classes instead of mainstream with hearing classes for requirement like math, english, reading). I do have one regret of transferring myself to deaf class in english because of failing grade. I should have stay in hearing class and it may improve my skills in english a bit. I dont really need to take any more of reading or math classes after 11th grade because I finish all before senior year and my reading level is pretty high. EVEN in college, when I took pre reading class the teacher say I dont need to take any reading classes due to that I have reading level of grade 13 (college level).

What I am try to say that the teachers or parents SHOULD encourage deaf kids to read more books and write lot.

Guess you don't see my point of natural language. Tell me why most deaf kids from deaf families have better english? trying to pull my leg?

Natural language means a child first learned language, that is called natural language!

DHB

Banjo said:

Fa La La La... Wrong!

ASL isn't a natural language; it's a manmade language. There's no such thing as a natural language. English is my native language, not ASL. ASL can't be used to teach English due to the fact that they are two different languages. The best way to learn a language is to use the very language itself. There's no better substitute to it.

How did I learn the language of English? Yup, through English! Only a person can claim to a language as their native language if they had grown up using it. The first language used is often the native language due to the household family using it.

Before you jump the gun, I was taught English through the SEE2 method in a Total Communication program at a public school. When I entered the fourth grade, I was taught on how to use ASL. However, I still prefer the SEE2 method when it come to teaching or learning English.

Though many Deaf militants continue to put down SEE2, but that's due to large amount of misinformation that continues to spread these days. Pity the fools that fall into their own traps.

Click to expand...

Banjo said:

Fa La La La... Wrong!

ASL isn't a natural language; it's a manmade language. There's no such thing as a natural language. English is my native language, not ASL. ASL can't be used to teach English due to the fact that they are two different languages. The best way to learn a language is to use the very language itself. There's no better substitute to it.

How did I learn the language of English? Yup, through English! Only a person can claim to a language as their native language if they had grown up using it. The first language used is often the native language due to the household family using it.

Before you jump the gun, I was taught English through the SEE2 method in a Total Communication program at a public school. When I entered the fourth grade, I was taught on how to use ASL. However, I still prefer the SEE2 method when it come to teaching or learning English.

Though many Deaf militants continue to put down SEE2, but that's due to large amount of misinformation that continues to spread these days. Pity the fools that fall into their own traps.

Click to expand...

ASL is not natural language???????????

Please clarify why you feel that it is ""man made" language. That is news to me. I always thought ASL is natural language and most Deaf people consider that as their " Mother Tongue " as much as English is my mother tongue.

Thanks Meg for better clarification!

DHB

Meg said:

ASL is not natural language???????????

Please clarify why you feel that it is ""man made" language. That is news to me. I always thought ASL is natural language and most Deaf people consider that as their " Mother Tongue " as much as English is my mother tongue.

Click to expand...

diehardbiker65 said:

Guess you don't see my point of natural language. Tell me why most deaf kids from deaf families have better english? trying to pull my leg?

Click to expand...

and can you back that "fact" up? I have a good reason to doubt your claim that deaf children from deaf families is more likely to be more literate than the ones from hearing families.

Mind you, I did attend a school for the deaf. I did get to know quite a good number of deaf children from deaf families and they weren't any better either. In fact, I'll say some were even worse from my experiences as a peer helper.

Natural language means a child first learned language, that is called natural language!

Click to expand...

No, that's what you call a native language. I learned English first, so it's my native language.

Natural language has a different meaning, it's not the same as a native language.

Meg said:

ASL is not natural language???????????

Please clarify why you feel that it is ""man made" language. That is news to me. I always thought ASL is natural language and most Deaf people consider that as their " Mother Tongue " as much as English is my mother tongue.

Click to expand...

Did ASL come from a plant? From an uterus? From the sky?

Instead, it came from people's hands. So it's really a manmade language. But yes, people may feel that ASL come "natural" to them But the reality is, no languages are natural to begin with. I often would use the word as a metaphor though since it would be an expression of a thought.

But the reality is, every language were, are and will be developed by people. Therefore, it is always manmade. Another problem here is, metaphors need to be worded carefully or they'll come out wrong. Many deaf people seem to be unable to get a good grip on understand the concept of a metaphor.

I ain't gonna let grammars stop me from doing what I wanna do.

Magatsu said:

As some of you may aware that I am no good at grammar.... I don't know why but so far, it is my only obstacle in my education 'path' but I got better and better weekly, monthly, yearly... whatever.

But yeah, these grammar is common among deaf people but wait, these sloppy grammar & misspellings is common among hearing people as well. I used to be a IRC geek (for several months but no more), one 20 years old genius IRC scripter said something that made me spilled my milk on the monitor. Here's real example by a hearing college student:

He: anyone here?
Other: Yo
He: want to play a [game name]? I am boring.


I am serious... I used to think that hearies are damn good at grammar but IRC chats repeatedly proved me wrong. I think it is individual thing... I am damn good at researching, writing the essay, math, science, etc etc but I seem unable to write a perfect or 'damn-good' grammar like some people... i.e. you, meg ;P

Click to expand...

I can attest to this Magatsu. I'm a hearie, my stuff is readable. Right?

I feel that I m being misunderstood here. I guess I dont know how to explain it right when it comes to understanding why many deaf people mix up ed/ing. Guess Im not making any sense but thanks guys anyway!

I am interesting..
Which mean...... People find me interest....

I am interesting in you....
Which mean... sex, I wanna get in you.

I am interested in you...
maybe the correct term.

I am boring...
Which mean you are a boring person.

I'm bored.
Which mean.... I got nothing to do.

I think that what Meg is trying to say.

Miss*Pinocchio said:

I am interesting..
Which mean...... People find me interest....

I am interesting in you....
Which mean... sex, I wanna get in you.

I am interested in you...
maybe the correct term.

I am boring...
Which mean you are a boring person.

I'm bored.
Which mean.... I got nothing to do.

I think that what Meg is trying to say.

Click to expand...

No thats not the point I was making here but thanks anyway.