I’ve done “moving prayer” with Dr Anne (she IS a physician by the way) and she appears to me, to use some signed English along with ASL.

Think about it, isn’t this a good way of SHOWING hearing folks that ASL and other types of sign language are more than just “deaf sign language” but rather beautiful expressive types of communication with enriching potential for all?

I’ve seen what could be more called “pidgen” used in schools and many other places for expressive art and I think this creates awareness. I would like to see ALL children taught ASL in first grade – this would (1) make them bi-lingual which means they would develop an alternate language center and (2) teach them language STRUCTURE helpful in learning most other languages. But most important of all, it would mean that non hearing kids whose ONLY disability is not hearing the spoken word, be easily mainstreamed without interpreters etc. From my long years of teaching, I know that kids LOVE ASL! It’s so natural…

Awareness of the fact that ASL is wonderful and useful for ALL people and a great way of expression (not withstanding very handy at times), is a good way of perhaps working TOWARD bringing it in as a second language and helping parents of non hearing kids understand that they are NOT doing their kids any favors by restricting them to “lip reading” – this was the opinion of the lady who taught me sign and I feel a worthwhile opinion. I taught our son ASL, we loved using it between ourselves, he can always communicate with non hearing folks, and the knowledge of this second language gave him ease with learning other languages… it’s all good… see…

In any case, it’s amazing to me that I’m still getting “hate mail” about this blog entry three years after the fact. Yes, I could have approached Dr. Borik individually, but I was under no obligation to do so. She published her work to the world, and the world has a right to criticize it. As to Dr. Borik’s willingness to listen and openness to change, I can only say that I still don’t see a Deaf ASL user testimonial on her website, and her videos still aren’t captioned for those who can’t hear them. If Dr. Borik is as open to change as you say she is, perhaps she would be willing to at least caption her videos. Here is a link to a tutorial on YouTube Captions and Subtitles.

It is a good thing to relax and help others to relax. All I am asking is that, if you’re going to adopt ASL and alter it to suit your artistic needs, you do everything you can to include the people whose language you adapted. You can show your appreciation to Deaf and hard-of-hearing people by closed-captioning all of your videos and including Deaf ASL users in your testimonials. Those are the changes I recommended three years ago, and the recommendation still stands.

P.S. I have about 30 closed-captioned videos on YouTube. I use MovCaptioner on my Mac.

I attended a pscyh at my community college and found it very destressfull.

She, like you, is trying to help people. Don’t knock here creativity.try it for a month and she how much calmer you fell. You seem very stress my friend.

Naturally, I had to comment here because basically I’m deaf. I was struggling in the class because I couldn’t understand the teacher verbally (she’s Chinese) and I had to watch everyone intently to see how it was done. But I’m memorizing the moves and it will take time.

Now if you’re not aware, there are some Tai Chi videos out there that are closed captioned. I intend to order one.

You can locate them on Amazon.com, and they will tell you if it’s captioned or not. Read the descriptions carefully, as there are different forms of Tai Chi. The basic, classic one you should get is known as Tai Chi, Yang style, short (or 24 movements.)

Also, there are books on the subject. The one I have is Tai Chi For Dummies, and it gives a good explanation and history of Tai Chi. This would be good for DHH (deaf, hard of hearing) people who have no problems with reading, and want a greater understanding of Tai Chi.

Now, I know ASL, but I’m not a native signer. But it would help me with my Tai Chi practices.

I completely understand Tai Chi is specifically set with specific movements and shouldn’t be changed. This is so you can get the health benefits of it.

There is no reason, though, why we cannot develop a Tai Chi program for DHH people. Put it into a CC video and have a book with it as well. I mean, why not?

I would hope that a Tai Chi master with excellent knowledge of ASL will do this project.

No matter what, I will continue with Tai Chi, despite my hearing loss. It’s a wonderful activity to do.