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What is ASL? Anyone who uses Yahoo Messenger and goes into Yahoo Chatrooms may think it is Age/Sex/Location. To me it is American Sign Language. I am an Interpreter for the Deaf in training (because i am not yet certified with RID, Registry for Interpreters for the Deaf) and have been for the past 5 years. I was 16 when i began learning and I have learned quite a bit on my own and from Deaf people as well as Interpreters.

American Sign Language is used by thousands of Deaf people all over the United States. There are different variations of Sign such as SEE (Signing Exact English) which is Signing every word in the Sentence. PSE (Pidgin Signed English) which goes between English and Sign Language. It uses some of both languages depending on what is being said. ASL is Signing what is most important. It is unique because it is Signed different than when spoken. In essence, it is somewhat like Spanish. It is said differently than English and grammar is backwards. For instance, Today car small blue me drive. When translated into English or another language: I am driving a small blue car today.

Each country has its own Sign Language. ISL for Ireland, BSL for UK, FSL for France and so on. Many have thought that Sign Language is the same for everyone around the world that is Deaf when in fact it is not. It is quite different in that not all sign Languages are the same. Furthermore, through the years many have treated Deaf people like they are stupid. That is one of the many misconceptions about Deaf people that is wrong. They are the same as everyone else with the only difference being that they were born Deaf or lost their hearing at a young age due to illness or freak accident. When we are born, there are microscopic hairs in our ears that gets sound in and out of our ears. Babies that are born Deaf are born without these hairs. When people lose their hearing at a young age due to an illness, it was due to either the illness itself or a medication that was taken that lead to these hairs falling out. "Hearing Impaired" is insulting to Deaf people. There is nothing about them that is impaired. They were born without hearing or lost it at an early age that is all.

Like everything else in the world when it comes to movements, Deaf people are coming to be treated with equality and respect. Like the Black Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and the current Gay moment many are seeing that Deaf people are just that.....PEOPLE and nothing less. In time, there will hopefully be less close minded ignorant stupid people that are unwilling to learn in the world and more people that are open minded and willing to learn.