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Why do some TV broadcasts show a person translating it to sign language instead of using subtitles? (lemm.ee)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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I assume there must be a reason why sign language is superior but I genuinely don't know why.

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[โ€“] 23 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Most of my girlfriend's family is deaf. They read fairly slowly and end up usually not really following subtitles very easily. Sign language is fastest for them to understand.

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I've heard that because written English is phonetic - meaning it shows how the sounds are (approximately) - then for people who have always been deaf that doesn't make the same sense, and reading words is a bit like reading a bunch of telephone numbers and remembering what they mean.

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    I.e. the same as a programming language, which can be easily learned to be read at astounding speed... Also, written English is one of the least phonetic languages you could possibly find.

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 2 years ago

    Not really. You can still sound out the phonemes in a programming language. Perhaps if the whole thing were perl memes. And while I agree English orthography is a mess, for "not phonetic" it holds no candle to Chinese.

    Maybe Chinese is a better comparison, I hadn't thought of that.

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