Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!300!3!Pat.Goltz
From: Pat.Goltz@f3.n300.z1.fidonet.org (Pat Goltz)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: deaf folks speak
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Date: 27 Feb 90 05:29:20 GMT
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Index Number: 6973

I'll give you a longer answer later, but I wanted to comment on the ease 
of learning sign language. I see sign language as harder for most hearing 
folks to learn simply because it is very different from learning another 
spoken language. Uses a different part of the brain, too, and totally 
different skills. I am able to master signs fairly easily because I can 
cross-link to the part of my brain that learns spoken and written 
languages, but lots of people can't do that, and lots of people don't 
have the experience with languages I do. I operate at a disadvantage 
because there are virtually no books "written" in sign, and the primary 
way I study a foreign language is to read with a dictionary. All other 
methods require a lot more money, or contact with a warm body who knows 
the language. Both are much harder for me to come by than books. 
Consequently, my knowledge of sign is still very limited.
  Pat

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