Question: Can deaf people sign the national anthem or will that be

[MSgt213]

against the law too? I think its a good question if the most important thing in the immigration debate is going to be what language you use when saying the pledge and stuff.

[rpannier]

1. As long as they do it in English it should be okay.

But, none of that Spanish sign language stuff. (sarcasm <I have no sarcasm icon. so I just write it out>)

[MSgt213]

6. Well how will I know? Should I just report all of them to some office in

government? You know how sneaky those deaf people are. Do you know the number of the office I should call? I have feeling this will happen a lot and I'm really worried.

[rpannier]

8. To be safe

Call DHS and have them shipped to Gitmo. I mean, better safe than sorry right.

If DHS won't do anything about it, you should just build a special dungeon in the basement of your home and lock them away there until you know for sure.

[MSgt213]

9. Okay. Thank you so much. Now I will be able to sleep tonight. NT.

[ComerPerro]

10. Is ASL specific to english, or is it universal?

[MSgt213]

11. Man, I don't know. I'm just as dumb as the dumb asses making any of this

any issue. And the ones buying into the BS about what language someone uses to communicate a thought. But I do think other countries would use sign because they have deaf people too.

[Book Lover]

12. American Sign Language is American English only

Even those countries that share English have their own SLs. SL is not universal (well, OK, I'm sure every human can interpret any kind of "eff you" sign :-) .)

[ComerPerro]

13. I'm kind of suprised there isn't one, actually

[Book Lover]

14. Well, it's a language like any other

Different customs, different hand guestures with predetermined meanings, blah, blah. Though maybe someday an SL Esperanto movement could take root :-)

[ComerPerro]

15. Yeah, true. Same as spoken language, I suppose

I'm actually amazed that a basic spoken language hasn't been more widely accepted.


But I am certain that a lot of it has to do with Americans being too damn stubborn to even bother to learn one other language.

[eridani]

18. ASL is most closely related to French sign language

The British version is pretty different from both.

Fun factoid--every grammatical feature of every sign language has a counterpar.

More fun factoids. The left hemisphere does sign language as well as spoken language. The optimum learning ages for both are the same. Hearing children of deaf parents have native fluency in sign language; people who learn it as adults after becoming deaf always sign with an "accent."

[htuttle]

2. No, they should just mouth the lyrics like the rest of us

[eppur_se_muova]

17. Best post yet on this whole stupid issue!!1

:rofl:

[Canuckistanian]

3. Those deaf people should just talk American

They can talk good, just like you and me. :sarcasm:
/freeper off

[Autonomy]

4. It takes eight fingers on each hand to sign the national anthem

Octave ranges and all that.

[Inland]

7. Hah! nt

[JeffR]

5. I'd like to hear it in Urdu

Might make it a little, you know, musical-sounding. And I say that as someone who still gets an involuntary rush whenever I hear it as is.

[greekspeak]

16. Maybe we could spend a few billion on programs to train Americans

to identify non-ASL signs being used to sing the National Anthem. Then a team of hatemongering wingnuts can go down and put the hurt on these Murka haters. :eyes:

[LynneSin]

19. I WILL NOT LIVE IN A COUNTRY WHERE OUR ANTHEM IS SIGNED

THEY BETTER LEARN HOW TO SING IT IN ENGLISH OR THE DEAF CAN JUST BE SHIPPED BACK TO MEXICO LIKE EVERYONE ELSE

:sarcasm:

[laheina]

21. ..

:spray:

[Minnesota Libra]

20. That is comparing apples and oranges.....................

....because a recognized disability (hearing or sight being only two) has nothing to do with singing the USA National Anthem in English only. Those who insist that it's one and the same issue are of course comparing apples and oranges - don't work.

I just wonder what would happen if some of these illegal aliens (from any country around the world) tried some of the stuff in their country of origin that they try and demand here. At the very least they'd be told they were in the country illegally and therefore had no rights at all. If they weren't quite so lucky they might never live to demonstrate about anything else.

Notice I have NOT picked out any one country or any one language to focus on. I don't care if their country of origin is north of the US, south of the US, east of the US, or west or the US, the issues of being an illegal alien still apply.

[laheina]

22. The OP said nothing about immigration, illegal or otherwise.

It is relating to the issue of whether or not the national anthem should be sung in languages other than english, and as a language completely independent of english, ASL is an apt comparison to make.

Having two close friends who are sign interpreters professionally, I can tell you that one need not be "disabled" as you put it, in order to use it. It is a language of its own accord, unrelated to english in many ways--own system of grammar, etc.--and the community that uses it has a culture that is very divergent from mainstream American culture. In fact, many of its members would consider it to have a culture all its own.

The parallel seems logically consistent.