ASL vs Englsih Cultural Clashes

Frisky Feline

Frisky Feline

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Everyone have their primary langauge either ASL or English that leads to a language misunderstanding. In the other way, they agrue about how to approach to each other in a nice way of questioning due to lack of language or something.

Is it about attitude issue or cultural issue?

I am not sure if my question is clear enough to your reading of my question.
 
I think it's more an attitude issue plus people do not want to take to the time to really listen to someone that speech difference. I just came back from grocery shopping and checked my receipt to see if I got over charge . It look I did and went to the customer deck and said" I brought a red pepper that was price as $1.99 per lbs and it looks like I was change $2.29 per lbs. "
There where two women and they said I told them I did not want the pepper and just gave back my money and took the pepper ! HUH ! I know my speech is hard to understand but I did not think it was that bad or the women where plain rude and really did not bother to listen to me. I think it people half ass attitude more than anything. I wanted to get home and put my foods away and did not feel buying the pepper again after that.
 
Frisky Feline said:
Everyone have their primary langauge either ASL or English that leads to a language misunderstanding. In the other way, they agrue about how to approach to each other in a nice way of questioning due to lack of language or something.

Is it about attitude issue or cultural issue?

I am not sure if my question is clear enough to your reading of my question.
Click to expand...

Probably a mixture of the two with some more a matter of attitude and with others more of a cultural thing.

As someone that grew up in the hearing community I was shocked at the lack of knowledge of written English grammar within the deaf community that posts here. I didn't know that they didn't get that instruction from the very beginning of their school years. That is because it seems to me that it is impossible to avoid contact with written English in the USA.

Also, from the name American sign Language I expected the word order to be very similar if not exactly the same as spoken English.

Not a matter of better or worse just the complete surprise if you have not had contact with each other.
 
100% attitude. Look at how successful exchange programs, study abroad, international schools and communities, and other multicultural programs are! All the people want to be there, can't always communicate, and slowly make it work. The problem is in the grocery store etc the interactions need to be quick to keep lines working... Workers don't see it as necessary and their attitude is poor.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
I think it's more an attitude issue plus people do not want to take to the time to really listen to someone that speech difference. I just came back from grocery shopping and checked my receipt to see if I got over charge . It look I did and went to the customer deck and said" I brought a red pepper that was price as $1.99 per lbs and it looks like I was change $2.29 per lbs. "
There where two women and they said I told them I did not want the pepper and just gave back my money and took the pepper ! HUH ! I know my speech is hard to understand but I did not think it was that bad or the women where plain rude and really did not bother to listen to me. I think it people half ass attitude more than anything. I wanted to get home and put my foods away and did not feel buying the pepper again after that.
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I had that experience. It's most likely that they don't want to figure out what they owe you so they rather give you your refund and expect you to go buy it again.
 
Definitely both cultural differences and attitudes are involved. Both ASL and English are learned in their own way, such as in speech, tone of voice tells one the mood of another while ASL relies on facial gestures, etc. How a deaf and hearing person approaches these differences comes down to how much they are willing to understand one another when it's not done in a "perfect" manner, whether a similar but inappropriate sign is used or somewhat slurred speech was misunderstood and so on... I guess once someone experiences a bad situation, then they develop a more negative outlook to communicating with the person who uses another language ( deaf to hearie, hearie to deaf) instead of learning what went wrong and applying changes. A lot of time is necessary to learn either language, pretty much discourages most and don't pursue it (such as hearies learning ASL or deaf learning English grammar structure). Unless we find a way to bridge these differences, the only way to communicate in a respectful manner, like foreign languages, is through a third party interpreter.
 
Jane B. said:
...As someone that grew up in the hearing community I was shocked at the lack of knowledge of written English grammar within the deaf community that posts here. I didn't know that they didn't get that instruction from the very beginning of their school years. That is because it seems to me that it is impossible to avoid contact with written English in the USA....
Click to expand...
To be honest, as a hearing person, I've noticed that in general, American English writings skills and reading comprehension skills are getting worse for hearing people, too. Don't get me started on lack of knowledge in American society for general history, classical literature and art, science, geography, etiquette, and current events.
 
Jane B. said:
...As someone that grew up in the hearing community I was shocked at the lack of knowledge of written English grammar within the deaf community that posts here. I didn't know that they didn't get that instruction from the very beginning of their school years. That is because it seems to me that it is impossible to avoid contact with written English in the USA...
Click to expand...

Recent studies are showing that how we hear plays a signifigant role in dyslexia. It's now reconized that dyslexia and auditory processing disorder often go together. I can imagine it would be the similar for hoh kids. If you think my spelling and grammer are bad now you should have read my writing 10 years ago. I work hard on it all the time.
 
Frisky Feline said:
Everyone have their primary langauge either ASL or English that leads to a language misunderstanding. In the other way, they agrue about how to approach to each other in a nice way of questioning due to lack of language or something.

Is it about attitude issue or cultural issue?

I am not sure if my question is clear enough to your reading of my question.
Click to expand...

It's a clear question, and it's not that hard to understand both.

It think it's all attitude for people who don't try and who complain.


It annoys me! (But then I guess most people know that about me.)
 
I would say (at least from my personal experience) on it's often personal attitude that is brought on by ignorance which I think is created from a larger community ignorance(which one could argue would be "cultural", so I guess it could be a blend of the two).
 
I know many times research it alots of information i face to face to ASL it is tough. I know uneasy.. someone complain misunderstand frustrated attitude. I knew prof ASL is very really language development ASL is clear. ESL is doesn't clear development won't. language doesn't insupport to English odd. It is very improve ASL. It is very alots of language perceptive alots of ASL. it is doesnt work conflict English cause. I know on some cultural.
 
Jane B. said:
As someone that grew up in the hearing community I was shocked at the lack of knowledge of written English grammar within the deaf community that posts here. I didn't know that they didn't get that instruction from the very beginning of their school years. That is because it seems to me that it is impossible to avoid contact with written English in the USA.

Also, from the name American sign Language I expected the word order to be very similar if not exactly the same as spoken English.

.
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Actually Jane that is b/c they approach it as a second language....you look at speakers of other languages,and they make the exact same errrors. It looks odd yes, but again they're approaching it as a second language.....
 
Jane B. said:
...Also, from the name American sign Language I expected the word order to be very similar if not exactly the same as spoken English....
Click to expand...
Except ASL doesn't use words, so there is no word order.

It's like comparing a song to a painting. They might convey the same message but the medium of each is independent of the other.
 
Okay I am late to the party but here it goes.

Jess said:
Definitely both cultural differences and attitudes are involved. Both ASL and English are learned in their own way, such as in speech, tone of voice tells one the mood of another while ASL relies on facial gestures, etc. How a deaf and hearing person approaches these differences comes down to how much they are willing to understand one another when it's not done in a "perfect" manner, whether a similar but inappropriate sign is used or somewhat slurred speech was misunderstood and so).
Click to expand...

I agreed it is both cultural and attitude and sometime it didn't even get clear up through use of the interpreter. There are ASL signs and gestures means something different for hearie.

For instance...the wave down sign/gesture. When deaf uses that sign/gesture it can means "oh, you know what!" but to hearie, they thinks deaf person are dissing them. It still even happening with the interpreter present. With the interpreter hearie dont necessarily associates what they hear from interpreter with that particular sign/gesture, and may think interpreter left it out to "protect" deaf person from looking "bad". (Yes, seriously).

Likewise the use of gestures, and facial expressions, deaf person may come across as "hysterical" resulting in misunderstanding. There are other examples. i.e. talking loud, typing too fast or "hard" in face to face conservation.

_Sn0w_ said:
I would say (at least from my personal experience) on it's often personal attitude that is brought on by ignorance which I think is created from a larger community ignorance(which one could argue would be "cultural", so I guess it could be a blend of the two).
Click to expand...

Yep, it is the same with me. Sometime despite my best effort to educate them the differences they may not believe. So it comes down to personal attitude and open mindedness of the person.

I'll be honest here I am sure some of us, including myself, may not be fully familiar with English/hearie culture to catch ourselves doing something that may gave them the wrong impression until it is too late to prevent the misunderstanding.
 
Jane B. said:
Probably a mixture of the two with some more a matter of attitude and with others more of a cultural thing.

As someone that grew up in the hearing community I was shocked at the lack of knowledge of written English grammar within the deaf community that posts here. I didn't know that they didn't get that instruction from the very beginning of their school years. That is because it seems to me that it is impossible to avoid contact with written English in the USA.

Also, from the name American sign Language I expected the word order to be very similar if not exactly the same as spoken English.

Not a matter of better or worse just the complete surprise if you have not had contact with each other.
Click to expand...

The difference is that ASL is different from Signed English. Signed English actually has signs for most or all of the words used in spoken English. ASL deals more with ideas and concepts. Things are more implied and it is a different language from Signed English. Word order in Signed English is the same as it is in spoken or written English...not so in ASL.

ASL is a beautiful language. It can convey thoughts and ideas that not even written or spoken English can. Personally I wish that it was offered as a language elective in schools along with French and Spanish.
 
Hearing people and Deaf people definitely have different cultures, for example it'd be okay and polite for a deaf person to ask what a hearing person might consider a personal question appon meeting them. I had to get used to that as a hearing person. I like it a lot now though, I find getting to know people easier, more upfront and "real" in a way. I also ignorantly thought ASL would be a direct interpretation word for word of spoken English when I first started learning. I just ask a question politely if I don't understand something now and rarely now have problems understanding and communicating with Deaf friends.
 
It's a matter of patience among individuals.

Some people are so ignorant, deaf or hearing, that they have no patience for what goes on around them.

Scenario: Bob is hard-of-hearing and signs SEE. Bill is deaf and signs ASL. Bob approaches Bill and asks if he understands the assignment. Bill immediately responds thinking that Bob's approach was to insult Bill's deafness and intelligence... and walks away. Now, Bob doesn't understand the assignment and has to look for someone else to help him.

I've been in situations where my hard-of-hearing was involved when it came to so-called questionable actions in a meeting. I was parliamentarian in a student club meeting. A couple ASL students wrote proposals that were poorly worded. My job was to ensure that these proposals were clear. When I attempted to work with them, they immediately accused me of not being at their level and that I shouldn't be in the meeting. I was almost tossed out because of this. Unfortunately, those proposals returned to bite them in the butt... a few months later.
 
I used to work at KFC and we had a deaf man as a regular. Not sure about the other employees, but me and another woman always took the time to get him what he wanted. Even if we had to turn the screen around for him to push the buttons. I have been HOH for a long time now. I wanted him to leave happy but hope I did not offend him.
Just wish others took the time.
 
I think its a lack of caring in society itself.
example: I went to Chile for a month and only knew very little Spanish. I noticed that VERY few people took the time to understand me. Most people just "didn't have time for me". It was extremely frustrating so in a small way I can empathize with being misunderstood because a person doesn't want to try. I realize for me it was only for a month. Now I try very hard to give any Spanish speaking people who are new to English more focus and sign language helps a lot too. :)
I am VERY thankful to my deaf friends who took the time and patience to help me learn ASL and deaf culture as much as a hearing gringo can:)
 
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