Learning Journal, Post 10, 105

[Taylor Rawls]

ASL is not a written language, so I have had no challenges trying to read or write in ASL. However, I have learned that the deaf often have a hard time understanding certain ideas, because they speak ASL, but they read and write English. Sometimes they cannot truly understand something until they both see it written in English and signed in ASL. This tends to be true with more theoretical or religious ideas. This may also stem from the fact that they are many English words that just do not have signs, so they need to be spelled whenever they are used. Probably the reason those words don't have signs is because they are just not used that often, so there is not necessarily a need for a sign. Whatever the reason, it can be difficult for those born deaf, because they are raised bilingually, out of necessity and they can never choose to speak just one language or the other.