A discussion vlog: Carl Schroeder discusses his reasons why he chooses to open ASL Door. He was born into the Deaf world, and he doesn't know otherwise. ASL is what draws him for information, knowledge and communication.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
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This is called an identity. You have estabished your own identity as an ASLer in much the same way that hearing people have established their own identity as hearing people. You sit on the end of the rope whilst hearing people sit on the other end of the rope. Implantées, oralists, and Cuers (IOC), who desperately try to be like hearing people, would end up sitting on the fence, belonging to neither the end of the rope nor the other rope. Some hearing people would be polite to the IOC as humanly as possible while other hearing people's patience with IOC is shorty-fused. IOC may not have any close, confidential friends; they may experience short, unimportant talks. They may not understand any overlapped conversation that people with normal hearing can pick up without any trouble. So IOC may decide to learn ASL, but, when they try to begin a conversation in ASL, ASLers would respond politely or their patience would become short-fused.
Therefore, all deaf babies should learn ASL as a study conducted by the NIH (1991, 2001) encourage all parents, however hearing or deaf, to learn ASL to commnuniate with them. In this way, babies would readily establish their identity. Their self-esteem is important.
What worries me is an overreliance on ASL as the foundation of one's identity to the exclusion of other languages. Once having learned ASL, we should also be excited about learning other signed languages and other written languages. Instead, people often tell themselves, consciously or unconsciously, that ASL is enough.
The sad truth is that hearing people are pretty much the same way especially in America where most know no other language than English. They use the same excuse - English is best! - but in the end for many it's an excuse not to learn other languages.
Personally I agree with Jean - all American kids should learn both ASL and English and maybe also Spanish, Chinese, and Indian and associated European signed languages... this could be possible soon with the inclusion of independent study and online resources... I can only dream of the day when we stop this one-language BS and encourage our kids to be the geniuses they can be...
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