| gen. |
говорить на языке жестов (Have you ever been fascinated when people say, “Do you speak sign language?” Sign language isn’t a spoken language, so it does not really make sense to say “speak” as oppose to “know”. American Sign Language is a developed language that is made of hand movements, body language, gestures, and facial expressions. Many foreign languages are spoken and would make sense to say, “Do you speak French?” or “Do you speak Italian?” On the other hand, people can ask, “Do you know French?” or “Do you know Italian?” For spoken languages, these questions can go either way. Although, when people ask questions using “speak” or “know” for foreign languages, the term “speak” do not really make sense for ASL. Someone brought a good point of equality. If in the hearing world, people ask, “Do you speak Spanish?” then to be fair for Deaf people to not feel different than hearing people is to ask, “Do you speak ASL?” Although, this is true, it still would not make much sense because ASL is not a verbal language and would be more appropriate to say, “Do you know sign?” or “Do you know ASL?”  startasl.com Taras) |
