Where natural signs are iconic and active, character signs directly represent individual Chinese characters. But Chiu argues that if signers want to communicate, they have to think about how to express their meaning; they can't expect to be understood just because they are using character signs.
相較於自然手語的圖象化與動作化，「文字手語」雖然是以單字直譯，但邱老師指出，在與人溝通時，還是要表達出意思，不能呆板地亂套文字。