For Hearing People Only CH 1-3

 My great mamaw slowly became deaf the older she got. She died on my sixteenth birthday and by that time she was almost completely deaf. I will probably be referring to her a lot through my blogs. I always admired her because she had a great sense of humor and attitude. If she had no idea what was being said she just sat there and smiled (which I know was frustrating). I have came in contact with a few deaf people in my lifetime and all of them have a great attitude that I admire. 
When I first signed up for the class I would type in "Sign Language" on my class search on Topnet. It took me forever to find it, but when I did it said American Sign Language.I did not know that sign language could be considered American, English, Japanese, and so on and so forth. At first it didn't really make sense to me, but the more I thought about it the more it did start to make sense. We have different language for different cultures, so it would make perfect sense to have various types of sign language. In the book it said that sign language was used way before 1817. In my mind I thought that sign language was some kind of subject, not a language. I realized that like any other language, sign language has been a process. New words are added in other languages, and the same goes for sign language, language is not necessarily set in stone.  I thought it was interesting that James Monroe was the president to actually communicate with a deaf person.
I'm not even going to lie, I felt really stupid when I read chapter three. Braille and ASL have nothing to do with each other. Braille is for a blind person and ASL is for a deaf person, they are obviously not even related. I guess I had never really comprehended that they are different. Both are disabilities, but that does not mean they should be thrown all in the same category and labeled as "disabled." I personally am not even a fan of the word disability. People are born the way they are and they learn to live, have fun, compensate for whatever they may need to. The book said that it can sometimes be difficult to know if someone is deaf. It's kind of easy to realize if a person is blind because they have a can, dark class, or a guide dog. Deaf people have their sight. Unless someone is looked for a hearing aid it can be difficult to realize someone is deaf.