Take the Time...It is worth it....

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
December 6, 2003

Stefan Woehrmann wrote:
> My deaf students get almost angry that they are left alone with
> lip-reading
> tasks unless they learned the spelling of the German word before. Once
> they
> got the idea of conjugation and declination, singular and plural, ...
> they
> are much better of -BUT IT TAKES TIME


My dear friends...
I admire Deaf people soooo much! They live through so many
hardships...it must be sooo frustrating to be forced to read and write
a language you have never heard...and to lip read a language they have
never heard...Hearing people can only guess at how hard it must be...I
am totally amazed at how successful Deaf people are...

And if you really think about it, we give hearing children several
years to practice to write their own native language by hand...we don't
ask them to do cursive writing immediately...we give them several years
of slow learning. So why does anyone expect that somehow SignWriting by
hand would not take practice? The majority hearing language is taking
the focus, and the SignWriting is thrown in occasionally...

So of course it takes time...no one expected it wouldn't? smile...What
is your rush?

Hopefully your Deaf students will survive childhood, and there is
plenty of time for all of us to keep learning as adults...If
SignWriting can bring joy to any one of your students as they grow
older, it is worth the time you are taking now...

Val ;-)