Why I Sign
“Communication is so nuanced and so complex, it is something that continually keeps me in awe. Let’s try to understand it — and each other — a little better.”
Each time I read Rachel Kolb’s essay “Seeing at the Speed of Sound,” I always find myself coming back to this quote. Communication and understanding is the foundation of human interaction and as Rachel describes, the ways in which we communicate and strive to understand each other are not as simple as they seem. As a deaf person, Rachel Kolb lives in a hearing world. She speaks of this struggle in the essay and describes how complicated communicating can be when she is forced to lipread. For deaf people, sound is not a part of their experience, yet they are expected to understand oral language the way a hearing person does. Rachel states, “Lipreading, on which I rely for most social interaction, is an inherently tenuous mode of communication. It’s essentially a skill of trying to grasp with one sense the information that was intended for another.
When I watch people’s lips, I am trying to learn something about sound when the eyes were not meant to hear.” Rachel’s preferred method of communicating is visual: American Sign Language (ASL).
The creation of communication through sign has a rich and complex history, much like the language itself. From the communities at Martha’s vineyard to Laurent Clerc and Thomas Gallaudet, this visual language and the advancement of deaf culture and education came at a price. The oppression these communities faced and the seclusion they felt from the hearing world did not stop them. ASL is now considered an actual language, Clerc and Gallaudet’s first American school for the deaf in 1864 has proliferated into countless institutions across the nation.
Many are surprised to learn of ASL’s origins in French Sign Language. It is easy to assume that as an American language, ASL must be derived from some form of English. However, ASL is a language all its own; not “short” or “broken” or a “type” of English, but an individual linguistic entity with its own unique complexities, subtleties, and style brought by each individual user. The #WhyISign movement highlights all of this and more. ASL users are encouraged to post videos of themselves explaining why they sign and why visual communication matters to them. As an advocate of ASL and deaf culture, I decided to join the movement and share my #WhyISign story.
For me, learning about ASL’s history and its importance to deaf culture past and present, through the perspective of those who use it, gives background, context, and depth to a language I find absolutely captivating. ASL is beautiful, enthralling, and expressive. As a dancer, communication and connection without spoken words comes naturally to me and feels much more genuine, raw and personal. It is inherent in a way and somewhat universal; accessible to people of all backgrounds no matter what senses you bring to the situation. Signing and dancing are elevated forms of communication. Like dance, signs stem from a deeper part of us as human beings and can elevate words and heighten their meaning. With each new encounter I have with deaf culture, my curiosity about language and communication intensifies. ASL inspires me to question how I speak and how I listen.
