I assume there must be a reason why sign language is superior but I genuinely don’t know why.
American sign language is not a gesture based form of English. It is an entire language in its own right, with its own distinct grammar and vocabulary.
To someone deaf from birth, sign language is their native language. And it is much more comfortable to quickly read your native language than a second language.
This raises more questions than it answers, like how do the deaf from birth function in society at all if they struggle with other languages besides sign language. How do they get a job, go to school, learn new skills, read the news, text people? What do they do in their leisure if not watching subtitles movies or reading books? Many non-english speakers end up learning English anyway because of just how pervasive it is.
Would you rather watch content in your native language, or subtitled? If you read translated content, it’s fine. But it’s not the same as hearing something performed for you. Might be hard to grasp if your language is largely auditory and written, rather than visual and emotive.
Just because sign language is a visual language, does not mean reading is an equivalent. There is a ton of nuance and feelitghst goes into communicating through sign language that is not possible through text alone.
Beyond the communication piece, there is respect of an individual who natively speaks a language, and the importance of keeping the language alive.
I mean, there wasn’t enough information to be certain… but live broadcasts of things would have a signer because the live audience would have to bring in screens to add subtitles to the event…
Would you rather watch content in your native language, or subtitled?
Subtitled, 100 times out of 10. In fact, that’s what I already do, alongside a significant portion of the non-anglophone world.
But it’s not the same as hearing something performed for you.
Considering the fact that nearly all TV media is made to only be fully enjoyed if you can hear it, that’s a given. Deaf people are missing out either way, though.
There is a ton of nuance and feeling that goes into communicating through sign language that is not possible through text alone.
Just like there’s a ton of nuance that can’t be communicated by text alone when compared to spoken words, you mean?
the importance of keeping the language alive.
This is the only factor you’ve presented I can agree with. Programmes are presented with sign language because it’s important to maintain awareness that it exists. Deaf people are a very small minority, so keeping their languages alive is essential.
feelitghst
There’s that nuance.
Minored in ASL, this is spot on 👍
A lot of these comments are American so I thought I would provide a different point of view. In the UK it is a legal requirement for some broadcasters to have a certain percentage of signed programmes.
To add to this, repeats with added sign language were (are?) often broadcast late at night because you were meant to set your video to record them to use as teaching materials. wasn’t just sign language, a lot of the videos shown in school was stuff that had been taped from 3am
Well sign language aren’t superior. Having subtitles and sign language is better. I prefer subtitle because it is closer to the speech and i’m not fond of sign video. Often the sign interpreter is small and sign very quickly.
In general, i prefer text, it help me focusing on the content instead of the person and use less bandwidth…
Sign language still lack lot vocabulary, i had to create lot technical signs with sign language interpreter during my agricutural course. They don’t have sign writting yet, so they aren
In france, lot deaf people aren’t fluent with french writting due to the lack of bilingue school (French writting ans French sign language) and interpreter.
So having sign language improves a lot the accessibility for deaf people. But, for me, i prefer both. Both are good :)
Thanks for sharing!
And thank for your interesting question ! :)
Mind it only reflect my opinion and i do think other deaf people will have a different stance with mine about sign language. :)
In addition to the fact that it’s not just English via hand gestures, I believe it’s done because sign language is like speech. There are extra channels of communication present in sign language beyond just the words. There’s equivalents of tone and inflection, and (I beleive) even accents. Like, this video of this lady performing “Fuck You” in ASL is what made it click for me when I first saw it many years ago. She’s just so fucking expressive, in a way that subtitles could never be.
Sign language is speech, it’s just non-verbal speech.
Thanks for pointing this out, I’ve updated my comment to get rid of the unnecessary distinction.
Because it’s some people’s native language and for those people English (or whatever is the spoken/written language of the land) is their second language. Sign languages aren’t using hands to communicate in their original language, those do exist like ESL (English as a Signed Language) but the Deaf in America and England don’t use ESL, we use ASL (American Sign Language) and BSL (British Sign Language) respectively. These are very different languages from each other and ESL. They don’t even share fingerspelling alphabets.
Captions are amazing for the hard of hearing and late deafened, especially since many children such as myself who grew up hard of hearing were denied sign. But it’s my language by right and I was denied it as a native language. It’s natural for face to face communication in a way writing isn’t and it’s also a cultural language. A Deaf five year old can understand the news broadcast in sign language just as well as a hearing one can understand the spoken one.
For one thing there are probably people who know sign language but can not read.
i am not Deaf, but i imagine it is easier having stuff presented in your native language.
If sign language is your first language, any written language is like a foreign language that you might’ve learned but aren’t a native speaker in.
ASL (or whichever sign language) is NOT a direct visual translation of English or French or Mandarin or whatever. It’s a totally different language and the written language is a second language. People might be highly proficient at reading and writing English in an English speaking country but it’s a different language.
And incredibly regional as well.
Any isolated language with a small local population is going to differentiate quickly, and while the Internet is bringing everyone together and making written language more consistent, it’s not like deaf people send each other videos online, they just use written English because it’s insanely easier and faster for everyone.
A decent amount of deaf people don’t speak English so wouldn’t be using written English. Schools that teach both are actually called dual language schools
And they’d have no idea what ASL was…
So what’s your point?
Not even every English speaking country uses ASL, and it’s different in different regions even in America.
You’ve got confused. A lot of deaf people speak ASL, BSL, AUSLAN etc exclusively. They don’t speak English. Speaking both is bilingual.
Who’s talking about speaking?
We’re talking about reading/writing/typing…
I would be insanely surprised if someone used American/British/Australian sign language yet didn’t know a single written language. Especially not the one used in their geographical location
This explains why a fair amount of deaf people don’t use written language.
Deaf people that can’t hear at all, still read and write, please stop speaking for a lifestyle you don’t know anything about.
😂 I’m deaf you numpty. There’s entire deaf communities that don’t read or write english. It’s actually a hotly debated topic as some think kids shouldn’t be forced to learn both.
Only in 'murica (and the anglosphere) could people think that learning more languages could possibly be a bad thing…
I’m not American but it’s suggested that learning a sign language and a ‘spoken’ language at the same time can slow the acquisition of both.
We see it in kids with two ‘spoken’ languages too but I believe to a lesser extent.
If I had a deaf kid I would teach them both but I understand the choices of parents that don’t do that.
