A hearing teacher told me that...

[pandorlla]

Great video! education makes all the difference, even hearing people end up with low english skill if not given a good education. How young were you when you learned ASL?

[Baachoo143]

I can understand that perfectly well because if a person needs to aquire a second language { esl for the deaf} then they need to have a grasp of an first langauge. if a oral/cochlear implant/hofh is not aquire a strong foundation of a language {english in this instance} then reading and writing it will be hard/

[AelafT]

Actually, a lot of deaf people do not WRITE proper english, simply because they cannot hear it and do not hear the way everyone else says these things. And most deaf can read well, I should know I have lived with 2 deaf siblings my whole life.

[avbria]

@AelafT Research studies show that hearing is not necessarily a factor to be fluent in writing. It makes a big difference for Deaf babies to acquire language early that is accessible to them which is mostly ASL and that they receive proper bilingual instruction.

[shiwadaay07]

@AelafT That's because most deaf intitutional schools do not have good education based on which is why deaf people are (still) believed to have learning disabilities due to deafness or hearing loss. Children are parents' responsibilities to make sure that they have education what their children are taught at schools. Often, the parents leave their own deaf children out, assuming they have no language to learn through their ears to brains which is wrong myth. (cont...)

[shiwadaay07]

@AelafT (cont...) No one can always succeed his native language skills alone without learning a foreign language. From a local to a local, no one has the excat same grammatical structure in one language that can lead to misunderstanding and being confused. So, there is no way of right or wrong how you write English that has nothing to do with hearing or deafness. Even, some hearing people don't pronounce spoken English correctly in the same area or local. Plus, lack of communication.

[MrBoffom]

you should post a video with your kids :) that would be cool.

[avbria]

@MrBoffom There are other videos with my kids in it smiles

[MrBoffom]

@avbria ok, ill go check :)

[ballalas]

I cant hear anything :o

[gratefuldeaf]

We were being "generalized others" in that system. I was blind the whole time when I was in public schools. Not COOL at all. It's all about struggle over control of the lives of Deaf children. How will they be educated in which culture and language by whom the teachers are? I realized that the hearing teachers became defensive for many reasons. The most difficult thing is that both Deaf and hearing people have to deal with the nature of being Deaf is the way of being.

[Catwalksymphony]

As an SEE signer it's hard for me to follow ASL vlogs, but I can usually get the jist of what's being said if I follow along. I will say, for future reference to you that it's difficult to read your signs, not because I'm a hearing person who uses SEE, but because the lighting wherever you're shooting this video is so harsh I can barely see your hands. Just trying to help you reach your audience better.

[OctArt08]

I am Hard of Hearing myself, I use asl a long time ago and usually change sign language since. I am oral school. Now, I mixed with asl/english doesn't matter what sign language I use. Depend how people their feeling what best for them

[ratpoisonbro]

angelstar819, ya totally wrong...WAY OFF of yur mind. I a greed w/Abvria's opinions as I was during lil school kid.

Today kids w/ASL gone farther on educations than my times, have u?

I don't leave comment w/BS like ya do so I seconded Abvria

[angelstar819]

I totally disagree with you. Have you not heard that the average Deaf adult (whose first language is ASL) reads at a 4th grade level?! That's sad. And I have seen plenty of Deaf people who write poorly since the ASL structure is very different from the English structure.

[avbria]

You can't disagree based on what a hearing teacher saw. It is all about having bilingual approach in Deaf education if you know how to make a right map to decode Deaf children whose first language is ASL. My Deaf children are living proof of it as they both skipped a grade and excel in academic, thank you. And are you a certified teacher of the Deaf?

[bek81]

The average deaf adult (whose first language is spoken/lipread language, or SEE, or any other language) reads at that same level you mentioned. Why? because teachers don't know how to teach deaf kids to read/write properly; because parents don't know how to communicate with their kids properly (in speech or sign); because deaf kids often go undiagnosed or have too much medical intervention & miss out on CRITICAL early exposure to a first language.

[bek81]

Clarification - my comment was in response to angelstar819, and I meant "most" teachers and "most" parents.

[Catwalksymphony]

Alot of the issue is with hearing people, the best way to figure out language is by what "sounds" right. It's hard to interpret that to a deaf audience. But I will say that my deaf friends who's first language was SEE have MUCH better grammar than my deaf friend's who's first language was ASL. That's proof as it is.

[smileyterp]

To Catwalksymphony: Having one friend who's language is better than another's is not "proof". If I said to you that I have a male friend who did not sing as well as a female friend, would that be "proof" that all women are better singers than men? Of course not. I have Deaf friends-strong in ASL-who have just as strong an understanding of English as myself. I also have hearing friends who don't know that it's not "alot" but "a lot". *ahem*

[Bfolks84]

@bek81 I agree 100%!!! 

[shiwadaay07]

@bek81 True... That's why I use some foreign languages to support my English language skills. I like German and Icelandic better because they're very logical languages ever I have learned. Icelandic is the oldest Germanic that descended from Old Norse which changed a very little bit. Deaf people should study the foreign languages at schools. Ég held að íslenska sé best fyrir heyrnarlausana um að læra að skrifa vel. Það má vera satt að nokkur heyrnarlaus maður geti lært erlent tungumál.

[seth1987]

@angelstar819 Actually, that's an old statistic which averaged the reading level of deaf high school students. Keep in mind the history of deaf ed as well. Deaf schools were oral until the late 70s. TC was common after that.

A solid language base leads literacy. For Deaf children who's first language is ASL, if they have that solid language base in ASL plus good teachers and parents and bilingual instruction they can go far above the "4th grade reading level stereotype"

[seth1987]

whoops. That should read "leads to literacy".

[AliciaFD86]

@angelstar819 that is a statistic from the early 90s that measured the average of deaf high schoolers. Keep in mind that would mean that those high schoolers attended school during the oral days or the early days of total communication (TC) where teachers often did not sign well and students were often diagnosed late and learned sign late and many students who have been transfer students from other oral programs.

ASL does not cause the lowered ability to read and write (cont...)

[AliciaFD86]

@angelstar819 (cont...) lack of early accessible access to language and lack of effective teaching strategies do.

[shiwadaay07]

@angelstar819 Do you know why??? We deaf people are often ignored by hearing people in general in daily life, assuming that we have no language at all for being deaf. If the ASL is our first or native language, then English is not our native language either. In addition, most deaf institutional schools do not provide enough education to children and teenagers. Also, not enough communication in families or a society how we are often left out by the hearing people. It's not our fault.

[Diixii3]

What is your saying? I am curious and I only speak BSL not ASL! Theyr very different x

[greeneyedboy1980]

well,by my seeing thought other deaf students I'm deaf myself and I am strong asl. I had some deaf friends who had oral education all their life, and they noticed that I have more learning than them. So, they told me that they plan to a deaf school and learn basic education that they missed all those education they were not happy with that.

[blazinburst47]

it about a deaf people and hearing people's interest of learning the education if not its upto them. ohh btw not just education they can learn in other way

[blazinburst47]

this is a deaf guy who is about to said something....

i kinda disagree with u and your teacher or whatever. deaf people can learn how to read and write by study hard and show their motivate then they wouldnt behind. however if they dont want to study hard and just begin lazy then yeah they will be dumb for sure. same with hearing people, how? if a hearing person never go to school at all and doesnt read and write at all then a hearing person is dumb.

(continue)

[gdspam]

Its the difference of having a strong language base and not having one. If you spend all your time in school trying to learn how to make sounds you can't hear instead of learning english then... yes you will be far behind.

Leave Deaf kids alone! If they can hear let them speak, if they can't let them sign. Or they will end up without any education.

[JoulseyCupid]

Now I feel disabled, and rightly so. I can't even understand a word. If you would be so kind enough to provide me who can't understand sign language some subtitles? That would be great, thanks.

[zocja]

See how we feel about hearing people's videos on youtube. There is no subtitle or anything on those videos on youtube for us deaf people. And you feel disabled becuz you don't understand sign language! We don't understand a word from hearing videos on Youtube!!! Sorry if I offended anyone.

[rabbit0877]

I'm a hearing person and you didn't offend me. I can understand why you feel this way. I've been learning asl for about a year now.

[bluedude4256]

Subtitled ASL vlogs do not help deaf people. They only help hearing people. Even then, the extent of that help is limited to these who can SEE the words. And EVEN with those people (whether deaf or hearing) who can see the words, the value of the ASL is VERY diluted. If they do not understand the english subtitles, they cannot access the video log.

This is the exact reason why I support transcripts instead of subtitles for ASL vlogs.

[CirceanVesper]

i think its the same if english teacher tried teaching spanish-speaking children english while only speaking IN english..the children have to learn the second language THROUGH their mother tongue...i dont even know if that made sense what i said haha..but oh well!!

[avbria]

Yes you perfectly make a lot of sense as we are talking about bilingual instruction :-)

For deaf children, it is a matter of builidng a strong language foundation that is easily accessible which makes learning a second language more effective.