Enough is enough.

Personally, I do not feel that it is appropriate to force my hearing friends to learn a decades’ worth of American Sign Language in a matter of minutes so they can understand the nonsense Mr. Carl Schroeder keeps spewing out on his vlogs. As a matter of fact, most of them are uneducated interpretations of what he imagines the world to be. 

Also, he appears to be resistant to accept that this world is filled with non-ASL speakers. He refuses to realize that his demands that people learn American Sign Language in order to understand his “Art” (although that in itself is debatable) is unreasonable.

They label us insane, refusing to be inclusive, and a bit primitive because of people like Carl Schroeder.  

Carl wrote in one of his entries: “Regarding translations: There is a natural tendency on the part of a translator to confuse literalism with accuracy. When consistently followed, this tendency can render any translation of ASL unintelligible. ASL syntax is not English syntax; and, as every translator must admit, the unit of meaning is the sentence, not the sign in ASL. Signs in ASL. . .does not always correspond exactly with the set attached to another term in English, it is impossible to translate from ASL to English simply by subtitling.” 

I take personal offense to this. American Sign Language, unlike in Carl’s case, is my primary language. My first spoken word was in ASL. Like Nabokov, I happen to have a very comfortable level with both languages, English and American Sign Language and I am fluent in both. Fluent. My accuracy might not be impeccable but I do know it’s fucking close. Unlike what Carl said: Translation is possible. Carl just can’t do it.  Pity. And to think in one of Carl’s entries, he compares himself to the famed and venerable figure in history: Socrates. When he wrote that entry, I decided against saying anything. It is common knowledge that Socrates himself never wrote any of his own dialogues—when in fact, it was Plato who did that. Also, for Carl to be able to read the words of Socrates—he would have to read a translated version. (insert gasp here)

YES! A translation! Socrates spoke in Ancient Greek (modern Greek is different) and Plato wrote in that. Did you “hear” Socrates speak, Carl? Isn’t that the original “art” form Socrates presented his philosophy in? Spoken Greek, not written, not a translated copy, no. Spoken Greek! “Deaf Socrates,” you say you are. 

“Ha,” the Holy Saint replies.

During the last few days Jay and I have been sounding off with each other as to how to best compromise the transcript situation so that nobody would be offended. The initial stages of the discussion were quite heated—a lot of expectations were set and major compromises were necessary. For starters, I had wanted all VLOGs to be transcripted into English, Jay and several vloggers disagreed and wanted to leave out the “opt-out” option for the vloggers. Jay and I both agreed that this project is truly for the benefit of everyone.    Carl, in his recent post, decided to write off transcripts as well. All these discussions, these experimentations between vloggers and myself to see if this is the best compromise  for a solution that will enable non-ASL users and ASL users to have free exchange of ideas, information, values, and culture. I’m offering this service for free–I’m not asking vloggers to do anything but keep posting and Carl does not say “thank you but no thanks.” No, he has to be negative and his persistence in trying to reject anything that might increase awareness of ASL (subtitling, transcripts, etc) proves that Jane K. Fernandes was right. Deaf people do not want to be inclusive. 

Well, Carl Schroeder, if you don’t want to compromise and try to be inclusive—including those who do not speak ASL but are part of the ASL community (i.e., hearing parents, siblings, early ASL learners), then you will not be included. 

Progress does not move forward because of ignorance; no, it builds on knowledge, education, and adaptation to the times.

bisous,

Der Sankt 

PS My next entry will be the debut of the VLOG translation website. Ridor has agreed to have all of his VLOGs translated and posted on the website; so that’s in the works. Also, Jay will post a VLOG in ASL explaining the fine details of this Transcript Project.