[bksvol-discuss] Re: OT Sign Language
- From: Monica Willyard <rhyami@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 21:31:52 -0400
Sue and Laura, I took a class in sign language about 15 years
ago. There is even a Braille book to teach blind people how to sign
correctly. I was in a training center with both deaf and blind
adult students, and I wanted to bridge the gap between our
cultures. From what I understand, ASL sign language is like reading
grade 2 or even grade 3 Braille. ASL uses letters, gestures, and
symbols to represent entire words or phrases. The deaf people I
worked with gave me a sign for my name. It's the letter m that
drops from my chin to where my heart is. They said it was a symbol
that shows that I try to talk with them and kept my heart open to them.
ASL has a looser flow of hand movements. It also does not use
standard English grammar as the English sign Language does. For
example, in ESL you would say "John is going to the store to buy a
book." In ASL, John has a symbol or gesture that his friends have
given him, sort of like a nickname. They would make the sign for
John, and the grammar would be something like, "John goes store
book." I think ASL is faster to do, and that is a major
advantage. I would guess that its disadvantage is that its grammar
structure leaves some room for misunderstanding about the tense of verbs.
Until I met the people at the training center, I had no idea of how
being deaf can isolate people, making basic communication
difficult. I begged the training center's director to let us put a
computer with Jaws in the lounge so we could at least type back and
forth to get to know each other. He refused, and it is still one of
my deepest regrets that I could not get to know my neighbors beyond
the surface. I know for sure that two of them were wonderful people
and that we could have had a deep, rich friendship if we'd been able
to really communicate.
"Don't let yesterday use up too much of today!" Will Rogers
Monica Willyard, rhyami@xxxxxxxxx
Add rhyami to your Skype if you'd like to chat.
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