Chapter 5 :)

For Hearing People Only  Ch. 5                                                            

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America and Brittan share a spoken language (English), so I assumed that both ASL and BSL were nearly the same signed language. I was wrong! After reading chapter five and I learned that they are actually very different, BSL uses a two- handed alphabet opposed to ASL which primarily utilizes only the signers dominate hand. 
In chapter 5 BSL is described using adjectives like "beautiful,expressive, and vivid." British Sign Language sounds like a fascinating language to learn, but the right opportunities would have to arise for me to want to learn it. I am having a hard enough time learning ASL, I think trying to learn BSL would be more confusing that helpful to me at this point. 

In chapter 5 it was noted that in Britain the term "Deaf and Dumb" is still used by society, while as we know here in America the phrase has been black listed. The book mentions that after the Congress of Milan in 1880 " the quality of British deaf education went downhill, and BSL went underground." After this there were hardly any deaf teachers, this began a sad time for BSL. In my opinion BSL never recovered from this tragedy, and BSL users have been stereotyped as being less than hearing citizens. This is why I think the term "Deaf and Dumb" is still openly used in Britain. 

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There is one particularly influential person who I believe with more time could have turned around Britain's outlook on the deaf community; this person is the exceptional late Princess Diana. I have always admired Princess Diana for her awareness of public affairs and devotion to charity, on thing I did not know about princess Diana was that she knew BSL! I think it is remarkable, especially in Britain that a public figure such as Diana took the time to learn BSL. I think more public officials should take the initiative to at least know some Sign Language. I know that I would not want to be addressed by a public official in a language I could not understand.