Educate a newbie?

[Donald Vincent]

Hello, community! This question is being presented to you for the sake of both interest and education of myself. I know the question will seem cliché, but please bear with me. My only knowledge of signing, in general, is almost exclusively of what I've learned from online research.

The question is.. What is the most widely understood form of SL? Now, note, I do not need to know what the 'most common form USED' is, as I'm sure that question has been beaten to death and still with much debate. I ask this because I serve the community (generic, I know), and I would truly like to be able to better cater to the hearing impaired. Now, the issue is that, although I live in the U.S., I'm not necessarily looking for the standard one-size-fits-all answer of 'ASL is the most widely used there' answer. While, to my understanding, ASL is very widely used and used as a secondary language fairly frequently, I'm not necessarily looking for something that works just here. I do some travelling and plan to do much, MUCH more overseas, including some secondary teaching. While I don't need to be able to hold an in-depth conversation in sign, I would very much so like to be able to use rudimentary responses that the hearing impaired will likely be able to understand.

From what I have gathered, ISL would theoretically be the best fit for me, but it also seems as though many are confused by it unless it is employed in a formal manner. So, please, educate me!

 

[Anij]

There isn't one any more than "what is the most commonly used spoken language". It depends on the area you live in. There's no point in learning Mandarin even if it is one of the most spoken language if there's no one in your area you'd actually USE it with.

If you live in Canada or the USA, the Sign Language you'd learn (first at least) would be ASL.


ISL as a primary "language" is about as useful as Esperanto. (as in, it isn't)

 

[Donald Vincent]

There isn't one any more than "what is the most commonly used spoken language". It depends on the area you live in. There's no point in learning Mandarin even if it is one of the most spoken language if there's no one in your area you'd actually USE it with.

If you live in Canada or the USA, the Sign Language you'd learn (first at least) would be ASL.


ISL as a primary "language" is about as useful as Esperanto. (as in, it isn't)

Thanks for the reply, Anij!
May I ask why ISL is so useless? From my (very limited) understanding, ISL is mostly limited by its very basic terms and expressions

 

[Mieke]

Because it's only used in like international meetings between Deaf organisations if I have it right and it's not actually anyone's language. If my info is right at least.

 

[Anij]

Thanks for the reply, Anij!
May I ask why ISL is so useless? From my (very limited) understanding, ISL is mostly limited by its very basic terms and expressions

Because it's artificially created as a bridge, but used by no one in everyday life.

Esperanto is the universal spoken language ... do you speak or write it ? Do you know lots of people who do? Are there any TV shows, movies, songs, etc released in it ? Nope. (ISL is exactly the same)