dereksbicycles

My girlfriend is always excited. She is always telling me what stuffs she learns about Deaf Culture in ASL class. She really wants to be part of Deaf Culture. Be part of my Deaf World with me.

I really love that she is making sacrifices for me.

As for other people, if you're deaf/hoh and don't want to date a hearing person, that is fine. That is your choice.

My girlfriend is welcomed to practice ASL any time and welcomed to ask any questions about Deaf Culture with me. That is what makes our relationship flourish.

Deafness

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Grayma

I'm with Bebonang. I don't think you're really grasping how much more difficult that would be with the sound barrier.

That said, there have to be plenty of d/Deaf interested in other cultures anyway, or there'd be nobody watching Joel Barish's No Barriers. Have you seen it?
No Barriers with Joel Barish

I get about one word in ten, but that's okay. Last month it was one word in twenty.

green427

I've spoken with a couple interpreters about learning foreign languages.

It is easy to learn how to read & write other languages, but in order to speak the languages, you need to learn how to make the sounds, and the best way to learn is to listen to how it is made. Some languages, such as Arabic, require you to "roll" your tongue.

Has anyone tried reading lips in foreign language? It is a lot harder than I thought.

Does that mean deaf people cannot learn how to speak other languages? Of course not. It can be done, but it will be very, very hard.

Amandaholly

I know how to sign i grew up in a deaf household .. My Mother and Step Father
are fully deaf.. they dont use hearin aids.. I grew up signing for my mother and fatherr calling places for them .. I seen them stuggle while my father ( who is Hearing ) is some what WELL OFF ..

I want to help deaf adults and children and teenagers coup with being deaf its not a shame to be deaf its a gift .. Deaf people are amazing , caring , giving ( even if they dont have much to give )

dereksbicycles

I have tried to learn some Spanish. I learned maybe 10 written words. It didn't look that hard to start with, but I bet if I learned the language itself, it would have been really hard.

I was eventually let off from my job so there was no need for me to continue with Spanish to speak with the Spanish speaking client.

Grayma

I think I remember reading somewhere that Mrs. Alexander Graham Bell (who of course you all know was deaf, however obnoxious her husband was about deafness) learned several foreign languages and actually interpreted for her hearing family members when they were abroad.

I remember reading that when I was a child, so maybe it's not true, or maybe I remember wrong. It would be interesting to know, though.

rolling7

I'm in agreement with you but just want to note that it is not always necessary to speak the language. Being able to read and write the language is better than nothing. Also being able to read and write the language still allows one to enter the culture of the people using it.

tigersharkdude

because Im deaf (my mom is also learning)

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Ildri

Because I'm losing my own hearing

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"Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken" -Oscar Wilde

Smithtr

I am experience many times ASL around I am volunteer i am support community i am best duty I am work project ASL prepare revise on my job!! I am help vlog ASL, expression on hearing cultures exciting, Don't afriad I am help people!

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Grayma

Travis, does that mean you'd be willing to skype with somebody who is learning ASL?

KristinaB

I know he does Skype with some people, but for some reason, he won't with others, like me. Don't understand why, but ah well.

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Taking life one day at a time.

bibliotech

I am learning ASL because I was never given the chance to when I was a child. I think all deaf children should be given the opportunity for both signing and speech.

Yankuba

Because my son is deaf.

Smithtr

yes I do help to community ASL around to vlogs to blogs I will skype I adjust to my times I figure out! It is vey difficult i am hard work on ASL not easy! it is very tough!!
Honest, it is my times stress too many students ASL too overwheling to I can't control times pretty work too much students, I have difficult ASL students, I am best research ASL!
I like you
I stress tried limit hours on my ASL hours! I am give you advise i best job! I understand i willing to you, I understand, I co
It is difficult on students ASL , I wonder on ASL students too much on me I do evuatiation back up high ASL!!!
no harm to you!!

I am best work volunteer for all of everyone means students ASL I want to best free times help people treat to!

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Grayma

My skills are not ready for prime time. I mean, I sign so poorly that I wouldn't want to try a video chat. Plus, I hate being on camera.

I have a decent vocabulary, not great, but decent. I just still can't get the grammar. My brain is just too rigidly English, I think.

My deaf friend doesn't have trouble understanding me, but she uses a lot of SEE, I think.

Smithtr

you have situation his/her friends prolem SEE poor difficult on communication understanding, It is very not easy, I know camera adjust on, It is very fix! I think so on adjust to quality camera, I think so issues on video camera, It is very weak on sign language no matter common , It is very love communication to development to mind sign language quality on ASL! that is why reason make sure on clear on development!!!

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MrEDDenver

I have a couple of deaf friends and I want to be able to communicate with them and their friends. I don't want to always have to have someone deaf interperting for me. I want to be able to communicate for myself. I love the language it's so visual and for me I think it's fun. Plus I enjoy learning more about the deaf culture. It's facinating and I'm just so excited that it's finally getting to be accepted by the hearing community.

Smithtr

that is correct, you are visual on the visual on, Many people have deaf have reason visual on skills powerful roles increase experience myself roles more level! how do communication take best! I am experience ASL visual on communicat

Deaf Cultures also Visual both communication! It is very pretty lots of communication skills roles! I know on best!! skills!

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ElaineV

I posted some of my reasons in my introduction thread (I did baby signs with my son and enjoyed it). I like how ASL forces me to be more expressive. But mostly I just enjoy talking with my hands and learning new things.

Latascha

I speak English, I speak German. I sign German, some Austrian Sign Language I know, too. ASL is just the next step. I prefer signing over lipreading and missing a lot. Yet, I really have a lot of work ahead of me until I can say that I know that language. Sometimes it is just kind of strange. I don't fit in with german people, not 100%. Everybody always tells me that I am SO american. I don't know about that, however I have a certain order in my mind how I see myself. First I'm a woman, second I'm Deaf, and THEN I'm part german, part american. I love meeting people from the USA around here. I love my friends over there. But all of them are either hearing, or know German Sign Language. So I really have none interaction with the deaf community over there. I really want to change that, though. So here I am, trying to pick up some ASL. (At least the grammar is easy )

SammiSprinkler

I will say that many of these factors played into my choice to start taking sign language classes in High School. As a graduation requirement, we each have to complete 2 years of a second language and Sign Language was an offered class. I didn't understand anything or much about deaf culture or the language so I went the "safe way" and took a Spanish class. I hated it.

The next summer I had a deaf neighbor move in down the street. I sat next to her on the bus every day and we would write back and forth. Going over to her house a few times I saw her and her parents interacting and became really really interested in the language. It was absolutely beautiful, the movements and expressions. (Her brother was hearing and able to help interpret so I could have conversations with them) but I wanted to be able to talk to them myself, so the next year I enrolled in ASL classes instead of continuing Spanish.

We visited events in the deaf community, went to comedy shows, and video chatted with students from the residential school in my state. I work at a movie theater which offers additional closed captioned films on Sundays (I work from opening to closing on sundays) and I am the only person who knows Sign Language.

** I am still learning sign language, and am not fluent yet. Gloss is especially difficult for me, but I am able to have a conversation (with fingerspelling) and slightly modified sentence structure. **

Im not sure if my random thoughts made lot sense above, but basically I thought the language was beautiful, I wanted to connect with a group of people I couldn't communicate with, and now I am in school for interpreting because I became very interested in deaf communities and tradition.

shygirl1999

I have been HoH since birth and I have always wanted to learn ASL because it's a beautiful language

Mr.Tom

Great post, Amylynne.

I'm learning to be able to use it to communicate quickly and effectively to the deaf community.

Lang3Girl21

At first, it was because it seemed like a cooler language to learn than Spanish or French (I already knew Spanish basically, I'm cuban with spanish speaking grandparents) in High School. But it was also because I never fitted in right at school and was curious to see and learn about the Deaf culture. Senior year of High School I took a trip to a Residential school and felt welcomed immediately. NOW I'm studying to become a Deaf Ed teacher and loving every minute I'm immersed into the culture and language!!

Wiggee

I took Latin in high school, then didn't need any languages when I first went to college. When I went back to college as a transfer student, I found that I needed 2 semesters of a language. I'm not sure why I decided on ASL, but the reason I tell myself is that I want to be a high school teacher, and that I thought ASL could help me connect with some students.

Ages ago, when I was in second grade or so, my mother taught me the alphabet and numbers, so I could try to communicate with more people, and in more situations. When you're that young, learning from a (crappy) book on how to sign isn't terribly endearing.

Now, I want to continue learning ASL because I've fallen in love with it.

amylynne

Thanks Mr.Tom : )

I thought of another reason I'm psyched about studying ASL, and this one I didn't see going in. I think I'm using a part of my brain that hadn't, up until now, gotten much exercise. Besides the feeling of exhilaration as I learn, I'm basing this notion on the fact that after spending several hours intensely trying to sign and understand other signers, I feel like someone hit me over the head with a rock. But, you know, it's a really nice rock.

CMartos

He's not Deaf, but is legally mute. My mom is an SLP who uses Signed English, and she encouraged me to learn ASL and teach it to him. He signs more than he speaks.

After becoming involved in the Deaf community so that my son would have playmates and be able to attend events where he could communicate, I made Deaf friends, who encouraged me onward in my ASL pursuits. Eventually, I applied to and was accepted into, an Interpreting Program.

Kyelena2

When I was in Elementary school, they taught the manual alphabet to my class. I learned about Helen Keller that same year. I became obsessed, there was a passion inside of me for learning how to communicate with someone who couldn't hear me. As a child, I thought it was unfair that anyone would be 'left out' of a conversation and felt I couldn't do that to another person. After that, I didn't know anything more. School systems didn't teach me any more than the manual alphabet. I honestly didn't know that two handed sign language or even ASL existed. I thought the manual alphabet was Sign Language alone. When I became an adult, I was going through a journal I had written about wanting to teach Sign Language. Of course, the same passion was within me when I read my words. I decided to look up Sign Language on the internet. I found a free ASL course, I began throwing myself into learning the language. I realized after the course, ASL was needed in my job as a paramedic. I started researching, writing papers, and showing the need for medical providers to learn to communicate through Sign. I started creating a course to teach basic Sign Language to medical providers and it was approved through my service.
So, in short... I'm not exactly sure why I have this passion in me for Sign Language. It has been there since the first time I saw the manual alphabet, and has never left me. I believe that everyone is equal whether you can hear, see, speak, or none of the above. I also believe it is each individuals responsibility to communicate with the next. I couldn't imagine being in an emergency situation and not being able to communicate my needs or thoughts. It upsets me deeply that anyone would ever have to endure that situation. This may not be the response you were looking for, but this is my personal beginning. The more I learn about Deaf Culture the more passion that overcomes me.

clawsspe

When I was in 9th grade I took a Chinese class, when I moved to another school for my 10th grade year, they didn't offer a Chinese class, that's when I noticed they offered sign language. I needed 2nd language credit for college, so I didn't think anything of it at the time. Then during the summer of 2011 I started watching Switched at Birth and found that sign language was way cooler than I thought it was going to be. I never thought I was going to go far with sign language, but on a Saturday at an anime con there was a deaf person there, I was really nervous at first to use sign so I just wrote on a piece of paper that she had, I left than came back really wanting use sign. Ended up interpreting for her the last 6 hours I was there. I really sign language it is beautiful language, and I will do anything to meet more deaf people, I just love the culture.