A Visual Language?
Did you know that Signed English is not actually a sign language? I would not call it a sign language, because English language comes in three different forms which are speaking, writing, and signing. First off, you speak English when you speak words in stranded English. You write English when you write words in English grammar. You sign English when you sign every single word in a sentence.
In my opinion, I think Signed English (or Sign Exact English) is not a strongly effective communication. The reason for that is while signing, you don't have a time to throw facial expressions to go with signing together. If you ever attempt to put it with that together, it would appear that your conversation is a little tedious, too long, and a little confusing. A listener would probably lose interest in having a conversation with you and move on with another person who is more understandable and has a language that is simpler than Signed English.
If you think Signed English is a sign language then you are completely wrong. Just remember, English comes in many different forms such as speaking, writing, and signing language. But signing in English doesn't make you a bad person. Anyone who signs in English may have a good reason why he or she does that. Perhaps that person is only teaching oneself English.
Signing a different signing language rather than Signed English doesn't make you a less person, like take American Sign Language for a good example. There, you can get the idea.
Note: When I was in a mainstreamed school for fourth grade through eighth grade only, I was brainwashed to use Signed English. No one forced me to use it. I had to do it to communicate better with people who are not deaf or do not sign. While learning English, I was almost starting to forget American Sign Language. After finishing middle school, I took American Sign Language classes in high school to learn ASL again. American Sign Language was my native language because it was introduced and taught to me in elementary school where I went to with a large group of deaf children.
American Sign Language V.S. Deaf Culture
If you believe that you are rejecting Deaf culture because you do not sign in American Sign Language, then you are terribly wrong. If American Sign Language is (the) language of Deaf culture then every Deaf people from all over the world could have communicated in ASL. Open your eyes! (or better yet, be open-minded if you may, please.) And then you would clearly see that American Sign Language is not the primary language of Deaf culture. Do you realize that some countries have their own sign language? Bet that you do. It is never thought that the primary language of Deaf culture would be American Sign Language. Everything in Deaf culture is pretty much associated with sign language. Not signing in American Sign Language doesn't mean you are rejecting Deaf culture. So go figure.
What gives Deafness a cultural identity? I'll give an easy hint. It is established as a culture when a deaf person conquers difficult obstacles in life without letting deafness let him down. Suppose a deaf person feels achieved, after overcoming deafness as a disability, he might say:
"I feel so great, and this somehow gives me a pride…but what is this I am proud of? My conquest over my disability? No, no, it must be more than that. I don't know. I'm not sure."
That is when the deaf person will recognize it as a pride in Deafness and give it a big capital letter "D" for culture. It becomes celebrated as Deaf culture through its own art, theatre, media and creative writing. This took me a long time to learn this while seeking an identity. I was greatly taken by a surprise when I learned this. Anyone who is "deaf" doesn't need to be labeled as culturally Deaf. It is up to them to decide.
If you want to give me corrections on this, please do.
1 comment:
The benefits that I can see in using SEE is when the signer is communicating with both the hearing and the deaf, this way both can understand what he or she is saying. I agree that SEE is not sign language, but rather it is a way to communicate with both the hearing and deaf worlds and it helps the deaf to be able to communicate with the hearing world. ASL is absolutely the sign language of American deaf culture, not SEE. Same as if a Spanish-speaking immigrant comes to America to learn to speak English to communicate in America better. That's what SEE is to me - a means to communicate with the hearing world. If some deaf feel that they need to use SEE with other deafies in order to remember the English grammar better or to be snobby, then so be it. I prefer ASL over SEE when conversing with the deaf every time.
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