I never learned it, and know only "thank you" in French sign language. I'm always curious about it and always heard it's easy/fast to learn (you could learn it in 2 years), but never had any use to do it.
I profoundly find it stupid that it's not really a "language" by itself but more a transcription of an actual language : French has its own sign language, American has its own sign language, Japanese has its own, etc. every language has a different sign language.
to me it's not really a language you learn and let you communicate with other people in the world using it, it's adapted from another form of language (the oral one) and depends on its culture and word's needs.
it's too bad that it's not an international and unique communication method.
Isn't it hard to learn to read/write when you are deaf? you can't put sounds and pronunciation on words you read.
Are you reading words by visual memory or putting "sound" on them?
I can hardly read without "speaking and hearing" the word in my mind. I can read without doing it, which let me read quicker but I miss some words and can sometime miss the meaning of the sentence.
when I read a book, I have a different voice in my head for each character's talking. narrator has a different voice, etc.
So I'm wondering how full deaf people are reading words they never heard. It's even hard for me to explain it, I miss some word to express what I mean. I hope you'll understand what I want to ask.
are you imagining a sign for each word? are you linking a word to something? an impression, an odor, a gest, a thought, color, etc. reading the word as an all, or decomposing it by syllabus while reading it?
The sign language is best alternative if you are early/born deaf and unable or too difficult to use oral language, but learn to written in English is mandatory. The sign language usually happen in smaller communities. It does consider as sign language but it isn't intended to replace the written in English because more than 95% to 99% of worlds are hearing communities. Most HoH people can learn to use spoken language, but some of them are struggling for various factors. It is depends on individuals.
I had speech therapy for 10 years with no success, so I gave up and all priority goes to improve on my written language, that's most important. In US, most cases, K-12 schools are doing poor job with written language so deaf people left with minimal written language. I noticed that English courses at colleges are much better than in K-12 schools. I know that my English isn't perfect, so never will be. I just want to ensure if anyone could understand about what I'm saying.
No, it isn't hard to learn to read and write if you are deaf because of different tendencies, but it will take much time to make read and write more reasonable to understand. The phonics are often absent in deaf education (sign language + written language only) so that's make difficult for them to be proficient in written language, but it could be improved eventually. Of course, I do reading words by visual memory (no sound), but sometime, I have to define to give more detail.
The literature is one of my most weakest spot, so that why I didn't read any literature books. I'm very good with reading on newspapers, articles, research and could understand most member's statements. There is problem - the literature isn't my thing but I do know that some deaf people are master with literature. I do understand better if sign language + visual language are used in literature.
For last question, yes, exactly, that's what I'm using. For ASL, I don't use - I, am, is, are, the, -ed, -ing, a, an, etc. It is more like slang language to make communication more faster.
English: I'm going to the store to buy Pokemon Moon version.
ASL: me go store buy Pokemon Moon version
For use full English in sign language - it will be SEE and PSE (in US).
SEE = Signed Exact English
PSE = Pidgin Signed English (same as ASL but follow the words in correct order)
I don't know if BSL (British Sign Language) use same structure as ASL, but different linguistic and gestures.
Most sign language have own code to follow, but sometime, regions could make difference, like California and Alabama use ASL, but they do have some different parts.
