Before you roll your eyes and spit out nasty words for me, take a deep breath and hear me out for few minutes.
Thanks to reductionists who manage to minimize ASL (American Sign Language) every time they tried to retrieve it. These are the same people that are constantly trying to discredit PSE and English with hope to give ASL the boost it desperately need.
Take a peek at this video done by David, known as deafchipmunk. He's one of the latest example of world class reductionist. In this particular video he struggled with himself, trying his hardest to belittle and degrade PSE with hope to promote ASL.
The irony is he also used PSE in that video. You see, he desperately tried to shoot down PSE as a lowly and filthy sign language that we should be ashamed of and yet in the same breath he used PSE in that video.
Oh, don't be confused as to why he's doing it. Many deaf professors and deaf-related service workers like him are doing the same thing because they seem to think that their career and employment would be jeopardized if ASL does not survive. They seem to feel the urge and need to promote ASL because they believe that without it they would be unemployed. They're doing it solely for economy reasons. This is something we could understand but lying about it isn't cool. It's even worse when they try to deceive others into believing that we all are signing in ASL, strictly ASL, without resorting to some of the values that are offered by PSE and English.
I've reached an important conclusion here. The role and theory of Holism and Reductionism have never been more important. If you claim to use ASL, strictly that then you are a reductionist. If you claim to use PSE, strictly that then you are a reductionist as well. If you claim to use Sign Exact English then you're a reductionist as well. However, if you embrace all of the above and use them freely then you're using what's known as holistic approach. My hat's off to those who embrace all the above, for their lives surely will becomes richer because of it.
My sincere sympathies goes to those reductionists who choose to limit themselves to one form of sign language. They seem to prefer an isolated world, that of closed society. It certainly is within their rights to choose that kind of life but it certainly is not for me and millions of other deaf people on the face of this earth.
Hi Barry,
ReplyDeleteIt is good to remind to those people that it is not necessary to modify their sign language but just to feel freely and say what they want. It is no limitation.
It sounds as if it is a Age of socialism where we will have to be careful what to say otherwise I would get arrest for it.
Many people sign their difference, I still can understand no matter how they performed their language. Same with accents, dialect, etc.
In other words, just be yourself. Quit worry on how you sign.
Good Blog as always.
Willy
Yes Willy. These reductionists need a lot of reminding or so it seem. They can't seem to see very far so we find ourselves reminding them constantly.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about being ourselves and quit worrying about how we sign.
I second Willy and Barry!
ReplyDeleteGood example:
A (so-called) friend who is a "radical" ASL-minded deafhoodie would constantly correct my signing when I was merely trying to get a message across. Whatever my messages were, were not important to her because of her one track mind (reductionism). What a waste.
Good blog.
~ Renée J.
That happen to many of us, Renee. Happened to my children when I used to take them to visit some of the deaf schools. We'd almost always run into big "D" deaf staffs and they were almost always worried about how we sign instead of being focused on the message itself. Very true. Glad you brought that up.
ReplyDelete"You're not signing pure ASL!"
ReplyDelete"Did you understand me?"
"Yes"
"Then what's your point? Signs are simply a convenient means of COMMUNICATION, and if we understand each other, who cares what language we use?"
LOL @ abc. that's exactly the point we're making here. Good one.
ReplyDeleteJust happened today I read the email with the flyer attachment , my local buddy who will give the courses to teach ASL to a beginning level next month. I read the flyer that put ASL . I keep wonder if the beginners learn first alphabet finger-spelling and sign basic words . Is that ASL course?
ReplyDeleteI feel the flyer should say basic sign language course instead ASL, SEE or PSE .
Which word you prefer to put on the flyer for the beginners? I think more appropriate words on the flyer it state basic sign language courses for beginners.
Just curious on your opinion.
Deaf Chipmunk uses PSE, he does! Good point there. I saw his video and thought, okay. That's a sight to see. Dissin' PSE whilst using PSE!
ReplyDeleteWhen will these folks GET IT? There is NOTHING wrong with PSE, nothing wrong with ASL, nothing wrong with SE or any other forms of sign language.
Good question Lavender16. My wife taught sign language for many years in so many different communities wherever we moved and lived. She's never called it ASL. She always call it sign language and left it at that. I personally like her approach. I think it is smarter that way too.
ReplyDeleteI thought so too. That was a sight to see. When will these folks GET IT? At this pace I can safely assume NEVER. LOL. A scary notion, eh?
ReplyDeleteTesting for correctness of my Google password before I say anything, lol.....
ReplyDeleteTousi, publish away!
ReplyDeleteGood one! I agree with CandySweetBlog's comment.. There is nothing wrong. I think "Out of character" are ignorance, it is not meaning to Ignorances by deaf community.
ReplyDeleteJust their language are not the same sign language as ASL, PSE. I have hard time to read some people with SEE. I cannot able to learn and i will always getting someone who skilled with SEE people. They can help out with other deaf person to learn ASL from SEE. I agree they are changed themselves later on. For example,deaf with oralism do change themselves after they learn from Gally or NTID or Deaf community same things. they pick by their language as ASL communication.
WELcome with SEE or PSE. I still see why they do not use ASL words.
I'm happy to see that the deafies use any sign language instead of being pressured to change sign to ASL.
ReplyDeleteIf English, like any other language, can go through language shift influenced by contact with other languages, then why can't ASL? ASL has had contact with English for almost two centuries, and has acquired too many influences from the latter to count - from initialized signs to fingerspellings, both lexicalized and not. It is a grave error to say that not only does ASL have nothing to do with English, but that only the "accepted" "pure" "register" of ASL is the only legitimate one. All languages lie on a continuum, and ASL is no different.
ReplyDeleteAs American d/Deaf society runs through the course of time, its language will eventually shift to a point that it becomes unrecognizable to the eyes of today's era. (Look how far we even came from Shakespeare!) Chances are, the signs of today's BigDee ASL-purists will look "broken" to their eyes. Imagine the irony.
Another ironic thing is that these same people will yammer on about the fact that ASL is a NATURAL language, but at the same time want to impose decidedly unnatural reactions on people's signing rather than allow the signing to come naturally!