Here’s a little thread about why Deaf people and BSL/English interpreters often get upset when unqualified learner signers teach British Sign Language. This is a widespread thing, so I’m not tagging anyone. I just want to try and explain…
Sometimes this stuff is down to egos, but I think mostly, these people seem to mean well. They think they’re doing something good by teaching and learning our language. That’s very noble, but they’re not doing it properly.
Often, whether they realise the importance of this or not, the “teachers” don’t explain their limitations. (And often, they teach sign language in a way that deaf people cannot access. I don’t need to explain that irony, surely?)
These “teachers” may look awesome to the innocent. They may be charming and talk the talk, but the fact is they cannot sign BSL well enough to teach it. Often, those poor learners are left thinking they’re learning bona fide BSL, when they aren’t.
Terribly sorry, but we often can’t actually understand you because your signing just doesn’t make sense – because you didn’t learn it from a proper teacher. It’s a complex language, you know, way beyond swear words and song lyrics and Trump’s sign name.
Deaf people and interpreters get upset that this has happened AGAIN, and then well-meaning hearing people get upset because they think we’re being rude and ungrateful. But if you learned Italian in a few hours, would you sing it in public?
(Also, there’s the small matter of Deaf BSL users being a linguistic minority. Hearing people do “talk over us” all the time, so when people talk over us while purporting to teach our language, that presses our buttons. But I won’t go there today… too complex for Twitter!)
But guys! Please don’t be put off. We’re mostly nice people, we WANT lots of people to learn BSL. But we want you to learn properly! So, go on a course, and do listen to us. We know what we’re on about, honest. We might be prickly but ultimately, we want to help you, so let us.
