Jenna's Essay

For school Jenna had to write a paragraph on any topic.  She chose sign language.  Because she was so enjoying learning about ASL, on her own, she expanded it into an essay.  Because it's FANTASTIC, esp the first paragraph, I thought I'd let you read it, too! 

THE POWER OF



SIGN LANGUAGE


By Jenna Marie Wingert

 Imagine you are deaf. What can you hear? Nothing. You are trapped in a noiseless, silent, boring world. You can watch as people sing along at concerts. You can watch children laughing and clapping along. You can watch the choir sing and the orchestra play their instruments. You can watch the cast members perform their lines in a play. You can watch the action in a movie such as “Lord of the Rings” or “Star Wars”. You can watch anything you want. But there are no sound effects in your world. A concert or play or movie has no meaning to you. If you suddenly lose your sense of hearing overnight, you can go to school and watch people talk on and on and on, but you hear absolutely no words. That is what life is like for deaf people. They can go to Washington DC and hear nothing at all, which seems impossible for a place like that. But silent Washington DC probably is not very exciting. We don’t normally think about this, but a busy and noiseless capital of the country does not seem right at all. A noiseless anything does not seem right.

 This is why ASL (American Sign Language) was invented. ASL changed everything. ASL started being used in the early 1800’s and is now one of the most commonly used languages in the USA. There are different sign languages in different countries, such as BSL (British Sign Language). ASL speaking people will not understand most of their signs, just like we do not clearly understand other languages such as Korean, Japanese, Spanish, French, and so on. There were other sign languages before ASL. There was LSF (Langue des Signes Francaise) and some others. The signs before ASL were mixed together to create ASL. Though ASL partially comes from other sign languages, it cannot be understood by other Sign Language users.


Deaf people cannot just read lips. Not all words can be read from lip movement. Deaf people need something more obvious than lip reading. Since your sense of hearing does not work at all, you pay more attention to your other senses, mostly sight. Deaf people want to make sure they get a good view of the world around them. They must be very observant. Actually, they probably depend on their sight for a lot of things. Their eyes are very important to them. They use them to read, write, and, of course, for Sign Language.


Since you cannot hear people signing, there needs to be some way to let people know what kind of sentences you are using. When speaking a question, we raise our voice toward the end of the sentence. When signing a question, obviously, this cannot be done. ASL users tilt forward, raise their eyebrows, and widen their eyes.


Here in Maryland/West Virginia, we think that people down south have accents. We also think people in England, Australia, and several other places have accents, too. All around the world people say words differently. This is the same way with ASL. All over America people use ASL differently. For instance, the signs can be a little different for the same words. The rhythm can also be different.


In a lot of ways ASL is the same as spoken language. It is almost like another world with a completely different way of speaking anything. In this ASL “world”, there are different languages, just as in the speaking “world”. Sign Language is so interesting to learn about as a normal person, and so important to deaf people. Without Sign Language, deaf people would be trapped in a boring and silent world, and they wouldn’t see any importance in their life. Everyone needs to know that they are special and that God has a special purpose for them.