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Why Do Deaf People Should Need Bilingual?

Source: Sign Language Isn't Just For Babies.
Illustration: A mom teaches a sign "more" in ASL to her baby.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/opinion/sign-language-isnt-just-for-babies.html


Deaf people are kind of unique and have many things that hearing people do not have. For example, is by bilingual education, Deaf children have potentially mastered more than two languages and more polyglot than hearing people who only know one language. Deaf newborns get two accessed languages at the same time, except depends on who their parents are, neither hearing nor Deaf. If their parents know sign language, I believe that will give fully accessed to bilingual parenting to Deaf children.

Sign language is a mother tongue for the Deaf people, then written or verbal language is a second language. That means all Deaf children need to be taught two or more languages. Doesn't it benefit? Hearing children just need to be taught one language. It depends on where you get to. If you were like me, I was born in Indonesia so I get Indonesian and BISINDO, then if you were born in the United States so you will get English and ASL, Germany as to German and DGS/ German Sign Language, Brazil as to Portuguese and LIBRAS/ Brazilian Sign Language, and depending on where you get to and raise. And, even, if you are a country that has more than one official language like Canada has two verbal languages-- English and French or LSQ/ Quebec Sign Language-- you also can teach them to learn French or LSQ as a third language if they want to. 

More interestingly, as you get to know, the word-- that you seem to be interested in about the Deaf world, is that CODA (Children of the Deaf Adult). CODA is a definite of a Deaf family consisting of a Deaf husband and Deaf wife who have hearing children and to be taught sign language as a first language. But, wait, how could they learn to speak and hear when they have a Deaf family? No worries! Hearing children still get to learn to hear and speak through listening to television, music, or radio that were accidentally lit on by the Deaf parent. Hearing people are allowed to have fellow hearing friends or neighbors, despite when they are in the house required to sign with a Deaf parent. In a fact, Deaf parents never do the deprivation of culture and language which frequently always to be done by the hearing parents who have Deaf children and do not know sign language. Hearing parents are going to ban Deaf children to sign and have fellow Deaf friends for reasons of being afraid if they can't speak, write, and read "their language" aka verbal/ written language which we called a "hearing language". Does it ironic?

A mixed couple consists of a hearing husband/ wife and a Deaf husband/ wife, which is just the same as to mixed racial or country couple such as the Indonesia-South Korea family. They would have two languages and cultures so it will benefit their children to get the privilege to access two languages at the same time. Just like an Indonesian husband and Korean wife will teach their children to learn Indonesian and Korean languages, as it does to a hearing mom and Deaf dad are going to be able to teach their children to learn sign and verbal languages, regardless of how are their children is Deaf or hearing. 

So, Deaf people need to know written language to access the hearing people who are the majority and benefit in all life aspects. Deaf people know that they should get out of their comfort zone. So, they need to learn and know the written language. 

I hope this article will benefit and answer your curiosity about how to raise Deaf children with bilingual parenting. Don't get me wrong that you should need to learn sign language early so who knows if you have Deaf children in the future or meet a Deaf person in your life. So, you should learn it better than being late, confused, and awkward when meeting or having Deaf children. I wish all regular schools neither public nor private schools are going to teach sign language as a third language or a foreign language instead of they will learn Korean, French, Spanish, or Arabic as a third language since it matters to know before you are confused meeting or having Deaf children. Sign language is for everyone, not just Deaf people.

In a conclusion, I believe love is powerful and faithfulness in husband and wife who are regardless how having what their children are Deaf or hearing still have bilingual parenting and teach two or more languages to their children. It all does have benefits a lot. Sign language is a beautiful God-given gift to Deaf people as long as they are still signed on this earth--- a quote by George Veditz.

Thanks, everyone!

For your information:

If you want to watch some videos about bilingual parenting, here's what I would like to be happy to share!

Instagram
  1. Janet Moreno-- @deafmotherhood, a Deaf mom of two hearing sons (her husband is also Deaf).
  2. Court, Zach, and Madi-- @oursignedworld, a mixed parent consisting of a Deaf husband and a hearing wife of a hearing daughther.
  3. Christina Pax-- @christina_pax_, a hearing mom of a Deaf daughter (her husband is also hearing) who is willing to learn sign language when having a Deaf daughter. She also has Tik-Tok and always has posted all videos and reels on how to raise a Deaf daughter with sign language and English. 
I hope you will love watching and learning from their inspiration to learn sign language and know how beautiful the Deaf world has.

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