I have been seeing a lot of Deaf people on social media starts to use a mix of American Sign Language and International Sign Language which can be very confusing for a lot of people including myself. What is more bothersome is that some copy the signs from International Sign Language with American Sign Language, telling people that they are American Sign Language when they aren’t even American Sign Language because they are signs from International Sign Language and uses them with American Sign Language can be very confusing for some. There are some people in a group calls “ASL That!” where they would learn some new signs for some words in American Sign Language obviously since the group are all about ASL aka American Sign Language and I have noticed that some Deaf people along with other people who know sign language (interpreters or codas) in the group or even outside the group would use the sign for people from International Sign Language thinking that it is the new sign or modernized sign for American Sign Language when they are not as they are being copied from International Sign Language. To my fear that I am starting to see a lot of people start using mixture of American Sign Language and International Sign Language for the norms which would influence a lot of more Deaf people or even worse the American Sign Language interpreters to think that those signs are the new or modernized signs for American Sign Language while not realizing or to their unknown that some of these word signs are from International Sign Language.
The perfect examples can be seen by Calvin Young from Seek The World, Joel Barish from Deaf Nation/No Barriers, Stacey Valle from Deafinitely Wanderlust, Jason Hoang from Nomadic Deaf or now as ASL Fit for ASL Personal Trainer & Nutritionist and a few more others. You can easily find them by searching the names I mentioned above on social media such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
Good Idea To Mix American Sign Language With Another?
You don’t see people go around speaking both or more than two languages simultaneously, because by doing so they can cause people to be confused and harm to the language itself by using a language with another language. If people need to use more than one language, at the most times they would speak or sign one language only and once that is done then go on to speak or sign in another language or if for a video then separate them with only one language each. One for American Sign Language and one for International Sign Language or other country’s language which is something that a lot of people in media would do. Just the same concept that you would see English in front of a paper and then Spanish on the back of a paper. You never would see a paper that would have mixed English and Spanish on papers, for example, an instruction paper for some products or some explanation for some customers from somewhere.
Because if you keep using the words from International Sign Language with American Sign Language you would harm the language itself because you influence the norms for yourself and others to use some words from International Sign Language mixed with American Sign Language. Now I am not saying that you should stop using International Sign Language because every one of us has the right to speak as many as languages we’d like but do we want to mix them to confuse others or ourselves? No, other thing is that I am only referring to the time when you mix them with both languages because if you are having a conversation with the people from other countries then you can use International Sign Language or speak in their language if you can as just as you would use American Sign Language to communicate with the people who know American Sign Language. Please give each language some respect, by combining both or more languages altogether is in my opinion disrespectful to all of the languages that you mix with. For some of you like Calvin Young of Seek The World, Stacey Valle of Deafinitely Wanderlust or Jason Hoang of ASL personal trainer and nutritionist who make videos I recommend that you try to separate them. When you make a vlog to engage with your audience, make one video in American Sign Language and another one for International Sign Language or another country’s sign language if you would like to cater to the international audience as well so that way the likes of you can please everybody. If engaging in a conversation or having an interview, use the language that you are fluent in whether it be American Sign Language, British Sign Language, Australia Sign Language aka Auslan or others and then have someone else to interpret whatever it is that you say in International Sign Language. If that’s impossible then interview someone who is from another country in their language or International Sign Language and then translate in American Sign Language for those people who use American Sign Language then back to use their language or International Sign Language to continue the interview. My point is, don’t combine more than one language please because not only that you cause confusion but at the same time you disrespect every language that you combine with.
A few of words that I can think of that a lot of Deaf people are starting to use from International Sign Language and call them new or modernized words for American Sign Language: People, Fast, Woman, Men, Interesting, Impossible, School and a few more but these are the ones that I can think of at the moment because these signs are being used so often when signing in American Sign Language with these signs from International Sign Language.
As for the ASL That! Group on Facebook, please be careful because I cringe every time I see some of the words that are from International Sign Language that they ask for in American Sign Language. Don’t give them words in International Sign Language if they were asking for some words in American Sign Language and the group is all about American Sign Language so that should pretty much say it all. Learn how to separate them, words in International Sign Language are International Sign Language words and words in American Sign Language are American Sign Language. Yes, American Sign Language is evolving, so is International Sign Language and many of other languages but copying words from a language with another language isn’t the way to do so.
It doesn’t have to be American Sign Language mixing with International Sign Language, I am using American Sign Language mixing with International Sign Language as an example because that is what I have been seeing a lot lately on social media. Copying a sign from International Sign Language for American Sign Language and call it a new sign or modernized sign of a word for American Sign Language is cringe-worthy in my opinion. This is what got me writing this article, especially that I saw some videos where some would sign in vlogs using American Sign Language with some signs from International Sign Language.
That is all for the day, if you would like to comment and discuss this topic on mixing one language with another language then please feel free to do so! Because I would love to hear your thoughts on this too! If any of you are Deaf educator or professor teaching American Sign Language, I would absolutely to love to hear your opinion on this and if you know one of them be sure to refer this article to them then ask them to leave a comment below for me or leave a comment on social media so that I can get their opinion on this. Greatly appreciated!
Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan.
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