CHAPTER 24

"In my pamphlets and textbooks, Deaf people are portrayed as being delighted when "the Hearing" learn Signing. But I get the impression from other sources that Deaf people resent hearing people doing that. What's the real situation?"

Just like the previous chapter, the deaf community do not like the fact that hearing people learn sign language to further themselves within the deaf community and get paid while doing it. They feel as if these hearing people learning their language are doing it to benefit themselves with no respect to the owners of the language itself. I agree with the author in this chapter when stated, "it depends on what your motivation is in learning how to sign, your attitude, the context, who's teaching you, who's learning with you, and whom you're mingling with".
Deaf people admire their native language and they want people to respect it in a way that it deserves to be respected. ASL is a beautiful, constantly changing language and for the people who are learning because of interest and a desire to communicate with the deaf community are more respected by deaf people.