Why did you learn sign language?

babymakerdaddy

babymakerdaddy

New Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2004
Messages
116
Reaction score
0
I understand that most people on this site are deaf, but not all are - like myself. I am wondering what inspired you to learn sign language. The reason I learned it is this - when I was in high school, I worked at the camera counter in Target and 2 deaf teens came in looking to buy a camera. The other guys I worked with refused to help the teens since they didn't know sign language. Well, that made me mad! I went and got a pen and pad of paper and wrote the the teens and helped them (by the way, they bought the camera). After that happened, I started studying sign language. A couple of months later, another deaf person came in to buy a camera, and this time I was prepared. Though I did not know a lot at the time, they guy was pleased that I was making an effort to help him (and he bought a camera, also).

I still like to help deaf people in stores if I see them and they are trying to talk to a worker.

That's my reason for learning sign language - what's your?

Trent
 
In my case, I'm still learning. I'm still very novice.

For the most part my job. Its hard for me to say what part of my job, but that was the main catalyst. Another reason is self betterment. For the past couple of years I've wanted to devote time to studying a new language; I've spent time with Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese, and haven't stuck with any. I guess this is my way of broadening my horizons and redeeming myself from past failures in my studies.
 
needed more freinds

i learned after getting my heart ripped out by yet another girl..so my pal said learn sign,get a deaf girl who know what you are going though,and has the same means of commuication.
all the girls i dated were hearing...and want to talk on the phone....tty realys suck!
so thats it! :cheers: :cheers:
 
:wave: I have been signing since the age of 4. Both my parent's are deaf. It would have been so difficult not to have learned to use sign language, the communication between my parent's and I would have been lost.

I married a man who is deaf, so my signing abilities came in handy!!!
 
not you

cental34 said:
:tears: Sorry.
Click to expand...

it was not your falt! its just that the timedelay and the3 some instead of 2some..makes most hearing people not say what they really want to.....
:hug: :hug: :hug:
 
I learned American Sign Language because I am deaf and the language fantasized me! I understand the concepts of almost everything better in ASL than written words. :thumb:
 
because my daughter is deaf
 
I learned ASL because one of my coworkers is Deaf, and I wanted to ease communication. He can read lips extremely well, but sometimes pieces of the conversation are lost, and I wanted to make sure I got 100% of the point across, so I took some ASL courses and started going to Deaf coffee nights, and teaching myself. :D
 
coffee

deaf coffee night? where? in dc ? md? or somewhere over the rainbow? :D
 
im learning sign languages at 5 years old because im DEAF!

Sara Boyce
 
babymdaddy I think that is a great reason that you learned to sign. I am always flattered by hearing people that want to learn to sign so they can better communicate with me. My own parents never did learn to sign since I learned to lipread so well in grade school, but my mother in law did take classes on my account and that made me feel really good that she did that.
I learned to sign for the obvious reason!!
 
Well I learned to sign because I met a young girl when I was about 10 and she was non verbal and new key word signing. I picked it up right away, and also found my new best friend. She had many special needs and was sick all the time. She passed away about 6 years ago and for a long time after that I avoided all contact with anyone who had special needs but deep down I always kept the signs that I knew hidden away. When I came back to my senses about 3 years ago and I was imerged in anything to do with special education and signing aswell. My passion had come back to me and before I knew it I was in college taking special education which included some basic signs. I graduated, got a job in the School District and work away another year. I then met Duncan, my boyfriend now and he is Deaf and I fell in love with him and his language and he teaches me more and more everyday!!
 
I teached my three kids sign language when they were born to grow up.They are very well and skill. I can chat with them no problem for me because I am deaf but I was born hearing later become deaf around two months old that's awful for me .I am so happy that I am deaf and proud of myself. my three kids are hearing.
 
Hmm, well, I have grown up seeing interpreters at big events and things like that, and I have always been interested. In elementary and middle school I took classes through school and at the YMCA when they were offered, but it was usually only for a few months, and then another class wouldn't come up until a year later, and by then I'd forgotten basically everything. I think only the ABC's stuck with me.
In my sophomore year of hs, a friend told me that high school students could take community college classes for me. I ask my friend what class she was going to take and she said, "sign language." As it turned out, she never took a class, but I did.
Junior year I went to my community college and took a beginning ASL class. I liked it, but the teacher was hearing, and basically talked through the entire class, so I didn't learn a whole lot. Still, getting free college credits and learning ASL enticed me, so I took another semester. This time I had a deaf teacher and I "fell in love" with signing, and I knew it was something I wanted to do the rest of my life.
Now, I am a freshman at CSUN, living in the deaf dorms, learning more and more everyday, and I love it!
 
I'm trying to remember now...I learned to sign in 1996...I learned Spanish, German and Russian, but most people who come here from areas that speak those languages already speak better English than I will ever speak their language, and besides, they are trying to learn English, and want to speak that instead. I love languages, and found that ASL was the one that felt the most comfortable to me, was the most useful, and frankly, I enjoy it most. It's the most expressive language. It feels the most natural for me. I don't hear terribly well - it's hereditary, my mom doesn't either - she's getting hearing aids soon - and it's just easier for me to communicate visually.

I'm an artist, and am very visual anyway, so it seems sort of a natural extension my preferred use of that sense to sign instead of struggle to hear.

I'm not a great signer, but I get better with use.

Say, we have a deaf chat here at Starbucks in Edina, the third Sat of every month, but I've never been, because I always feel a little uncomfortable meeting new people, esp. when I know I'm not a great signer. If anyone wants to meet with me to just go hang out and put up with my slow fingerspelling and wrong signs...:lol I'm really selling it here, aren't I?
 
I learned BSL when I was 12, I did an informal course in BSL for about 6 weeks then another one a year later cos I felt I forgot all the signs. I didnt sign much when I was growing up cos I was in a mainstream school.

Then before I left school I took BSL level one exam, and passed. Went to college but didnt use any sign there, then I chose to do Deaf Studies at uni, which meant I had to learn to sign again. Im now signing almost all the time with all my friends as they are all deaf, and my family have started to learn some signs from me!
 
Bc I really, really want to become an interpreter..also, to expand my education, be able to talk to some really amazing people, and like a lot of ppl here help those people out who are deaf and in a store where there are those ignorant people who wont help because they dont know sign and dont understand. (That just fires me up!)
 
Oh yes, I forgot to mentain Im thinking of being an interpreter, AestasCaelum - are you deaf or hearing?
 
Back
Top