I’m deaf. I’ve had people tell me that learning ASL is way tougher than any other languages in the world.
I think this is untrue. I think learning Asian language is tough because of their phonetics. I’ve tried mastering it and couldn’t do so because their language is so rough on my vocal cords. ASL does not require the use of phonetics or sounding out a word. It is mostly visual and body language to communicate.
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i fell that asian language is tougher because its a whole culture that goes with it
Sign Language is probably easier becuase there are no tones or phonetics to worry about.
How about learning sign language in one of the Asian languages?! Each has their usefulness and disadvantages, but no one’s perfect. Both are as difficult to learn if you’ve never been exposed to either.
ASL is easier because you are using your own language as a base for it. You don’t have to learn any new grammatical rules, simply a new set of vocabulary in the form of hand and body movements. If you learn a different language, you must learn everything new as well as the sounds, which must be so difficult if you are deaf. I admire you!
Snow Globe doesn’t know that ASL has a completely different grammar than English…well, I don’t know about the Asian languages, but I learned ASL as an adult, and it took me about 8 years to become really fluent. It was easy to pick up the basics, but very hard to become fluent. I think it might be difficult to become very fluent in other spoken languages as well. One thing is that in spoken languages, there is also a written form that must be mastered. Since ASL doesn’t have a written form, then at least you don’t have to learn to write it as well.
I agree…I think learning a second spoken language, Spanish, etc, if harder…I’ve tried Spanish. I’m fluent in ASL, but I still have a very hard time even remembering the Spanish term for an English concept.
ASL, although not easy by any means, is easier…especially after one figures out the concept-based grammatical structure of ASL. Thin it’s all about drawing a picture. I would think learning English would be harder than learning ASL with all the English idioms and strange structure it presents. Try to explain to someone just learning English that we “drive on parkways, but park on driveways…” after you have just taught them the definition of “park” and “drive”. Hmmm.