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ABOUT DEAF PEOPLE
Did you know that there are many sign (gesture) languages as languages in the world?
Yes. Did you think that sign language is international?
Well, that´s not true. Each country has its own sign language, such as the SSL (Spanish Sign Languages), the ASL (American Sign Language) or FSL (French Sign Language).
Naturally, in the same way people who live in the same country share a language and this language is different to that of people who live in the other places, same happens with sign languages. Even in Spain, the SSL and CSL (Catalan Sign Languages) are different. That´s interesting,  isn´t it?
That way we can see this training material about the different signs in this two songs: Imagine (we translate it into SSL) and Can you hear me? (we translate it into ASL).
On the other hand, it´s important that you know how to speak with precision: when you refer to deaf people “…it´s deaf and dumb…” It´s easy to find this expression in different contexts of our lives.
Maybe in the street talking with a neighbour in a bar, at school and most surprisingly, in the media.
The problem is that it´s always been confused with dumb people.
The thing is simple. A deaf person is a person who doesn´t hear, and a dumb person is one who can´t speak. Most deaf people speak, differently yes, because they can´t hear each other and this makes them have a different tone and sound of voice to that of a normal person but they talk or at least they can make sounds.
Some deaf people can´t talk, not because they can´t, because other people hadn´t taught them.
On the other hand, there are also people who can hear but cannot speak and those other people are dumb.
Accordingly, the people who usually are called “deaf and dumb” really are deaf and for communicating they use sign language, which is a gestural and expressive language, or what is the same, which speaks with his hands and facial expression.
For this reason, the deaf community is trying to change the expression “deaf and dumb” to only “deaf”, which is what they really are.

Pablo Almenara
1º de ESO