The Benefits of Learning American Sign Language

By Burt Schwartz

American Sign Language (ASL) is the 3rd most used language throughout the United States. Learning sign language can provide numerous benefits. Some of these benefits include being able to converse with a person who is deaf or hard-of-hearing. Have you ever meet a deaf person before? If not, the first time you do meet one, just imagine the expression on his or her face when you sign, Hello. Sign language can be learned for people who scuba dive. Having the ability to communicate underwater is priceless. Imagine you and your friend adventuring into a underwater cave. You spot something really cool. You get your friend?s attention, then with the use of sign language, you are able to covey this ?important? message. I am not sure if you have ever tried writing a note underwater, but I can only imagine what the paper would do.

Not only is it cool to be able to converse underwater and converse with deaf people, but you can also make interpreting into a career. Being able to sign gives you an advantage that most people do not have. How many people really know how to sign? My guess is less than 1% of all people know sign language fluently. If you decide to make sign language interpreting a career for you, you would have to enroll in an Interpreter Training Program to help you achieve your goal. While you are deciding to make interpreting a career choice, you can begin learning sign language fluently online, or at a local college. There are several online programs that will give you an upper-hand while learning sign language. You want a program that will provide all of the essential ingredients of ASL. Some of these components include ASL grammar, facial expressions, fingerspelling, numbers, sentence structure, synonyms and linguistics.

Another benefit of learning American Sign Language is the ability to learn about another culture. In the United States alone, there are a plethora of cultures. Deaf culture is one which very few people are familiar with. Have you ever wondered how a deaf person answers the phone? How do deaf individuals know when there is a knock at the door? How do they wake up in the morning for work? Has it ever occurred to you how a deaf person communicates with those who are hearing? For the most part, learning another language also requires you to learn about the culture as well. Deaf culture has a rich heritage, and it reflects tremendous pride. Deaf people function the same way a hearing person would, except with some accommodations made for their inability to hear. Some of these accommodations might include a specialized door knocker, which triggers a flashing light that alerts the deaf person. The same concept might be used to warn of an incoming telephone call. How does a deaf individual ?talk? on the phone if they can?t hear? Well, technology has provided some much needed accommodations that make the lives of deaf citizens much easier compared to what was available in years past. Before the advent of the TTY, deaf people had to drive to the pizzeria to place the food order, then return to the vehicle and wait until the pizza is ready, and then drive home. Thankfully, those inconveniences are a thing of the past.

Now, the newest technical device is a videophone, so even the TTY/TDD is being used less every day. With the use of a videophone, deaf individuals can place telephone calls to anyone by using this new technology. A deaf person merely has to call the relay center where a hearing person is visible to both parties via a television screen. Instead of typing like the TTY/TDD technology requires, the two will communicate only in sign language. The deaf person will provide the interpreter with a telephone number to call. The interpreter places the call to the hearing party. The conversation is then signed to the deaf individual. The interpreter simply signs over the TV screen to the deaf person, and speaks to the hearing person through a headset. Conversations between deaf and hearing are now being done this way all around the world.

Here, I have only listed a few reasons why learning sign language is important. In life, there are so many more reasons why learning this skill is so important; perhaps you have a deaf parent, child, or sibling. Maybe your co-worker is deaf, or perhaps you work at a job where you encounter many deaf customers. Regardless of why you are interested in sign language, there remains no doubt that you can benefit tremendously from knowing this rich and vast language.

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