Questions for anyone in the Deaf community?

3 ANSWERS

1. 
   

   I'm hearing and I'm an ASL interpreter.  ASL is already offered as a foreign language credit in many colleges, so that's one point to use.  More than that, ASL has been proven by linguists to meet all the criteria for being a full and complete language with its own grammar, syntax, etc, apart from any other language.  therefore it has all the merits that can be gained by studying other foreign languages.  It can also be more practical for American people to study, as they are more likely to encounter Deaf people in their day to day lives in the US than they are to encounter French or German speaking people.  So, unless you're interested in international business, ASL would probably be more useful to many students.  Look up the work of William Stokoe who was the first linguist to take up the cause of researching the linguistics of ASL.  the grammar of ASL is very different from any spoken language.  There are still terms being coined for different linguistic features of ASL.  There's a linguist - himself Deaf - named Byron Bridges who is big in the field of ASL linguistics these days.  I went to a workshop by him and it was pretty fascinating.  

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2. 
   

   what? WHAT?! SPEAK UP PLZ!

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3. 
   

   ASL is not a foreign language, but it should be allowed as an alternative to English language. The idea is that people expand their horizons when they speak/sign more than one language - and ASL certainly qualifies in that regard.
   
   Many universities do allow ASL to be used to fullfill a second language requirement.  

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