World+Sign+Language

World Sign Language:

 Once upon a time there was a sign language fairy. The sign language fairy flew from country to country spreading sign language goodness throughout the world. In each country she dropped some fairy dust that specialized each sign language to that type of fairy dust. She didn't want sign language to be universal since spoken languages around the world aren't so she brewed different kinds of fairy dust in her secret laboratory for each country.



She began her journey in France, As she flew above the Eiffle Tower she saw that some people couldn't communicate in the same way as others. It was the year 1774 and nobody had really given the deaf community much thought so far. T here were people who weren't able hear others while they talked, well she thought to herself that this wouldn't do and so she sprinkled her fairy dust and vah-la! French Sign Language was born. In France there is an estimated 50,000-100,000 native signers. The most commonly used sign language is FSL, it's the national sign language in France and has influenced many other sign languages around the world. Now the sign language fairy made a few errors when sprinkling her magic dust, and when she was dashing the dust around a few ounces of powder escaped her cloak making sign language in France have different dialects and grammar depending on the region. Although Ms. Fairy likes to take full credit for the creation of FSL she is not fully responsible, it was said that FSL was started by accident, by a man named [|Charles Michel de l’Épée]:    The story goes that this man stumbled upon twin sisters who were deaf, and he was so intrigued by their ways of communication he studied it. This is known as “Old French Sign Language”, from there he went on to establish a free school for the deaf where they learned to read and write. This system was accepted and practiced until the late 19th century when there became a drift between the hearing and non hearing community. However in the 1970 s people in the deaf community began to fight for their recognition and they finally gained it in 1991. Meanwhile the fairy was so impressed with French Sign Language she took it upon herself to bless other parts of the world's sign language in France. When she continued on her journey she spread the influence of her FSL dust on the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, U.S.A, Canada, Russia and most eccentric The Country of the Flanders.

Next on her list was Israel. She arrived while the French were sorting out their business in the late 1800's where she lost control of her fairy dust so there were more than one versions of sign language practiced in Israel. ISL (Israeli Sign Language) is the primary sign language that most deaf people in the community use, however Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language is another version of sign language and much less popular. Marcus Reich opened the first school for deaf jewish children in 1873. The sign language taught here was influenced by German Sign Language and eventually developed into its own language altogether which is still being practiced today is ISL. There is also something called Hebrew manually coded language that is taught in Israel.   From Israel she went to Australia where she dubbed this sign language as "Auslan". While the French had been gaining their deaf community right's, the fairy had been exploring Australia. It was 1980 when she officially gave the name Aulsan for Australian Sign Language. She saw that in France it was hard to get a basis for all sign language in one country, so in Australia she invented the "Auslan Signbank" where anyone can access basic signs online. She wanted it make it easier for people to communicate with the deaf population, which in comparison to France was miniscule. In research done it was found that only about 6,500 people use Auslan, even though it is the national language for deaf people. The fairy didn't want Auslan to die out completely that she entered Auslan to the Endangered Languages Archive which is dedicated to saving languages that aren’t getting the right about of publicity and are dying out slowly. Since not many signers exist in Australia this corporation started producing movies in Auslan as well as more studies to enhance the knowledge we know about Auslan. There is a “medical signbak” part of the site that has a bunch of medical terms that auslan users can use in case of emergency. She looked over her work and thought it was well taken care of, so she moved on to many other parts of the world. She gave Auslan their own personal alphabet separate from ASL and FLS. It looks like:



 <span style="display: block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.85em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">A commonly mistaken fact that I've hopefully corrected for you by now is that sign language is universal. Sign language is hugely different from country to country, and even the dialect varies a bit when you travel to different regions within a country. Don't be fooled by my limited recognitions of sign language in this wikipage, there are thousands of different sign languages that would take many many years to research. I simply chose the ones that seemed most interesting to me and that had some major impact on the rest of the sign language world. Sign languages, just like spoken language take a very long time to master if they aren't your primary language. There are sign language classes all around Brookline as well as the rest of the country that are offered if you have any interest and time to study them. Now, if you are looking for more information on these sign languages mentioned or any others you can look a my page "Juliannagoldring.wordpress.com" and you'll find much more information not only on world sign language but on sign language in general. It's a really fascinating topic that I wish I had more time to research.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> For my interview, I got in contact with a friend of Ms. Allegrezza's, a woman who studied sign language in college and pursued a career working with students who are hard of hearing. Our interview consists of emails that I've included here:

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">My first email: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Hi Ms. Norris! <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">I'm Julianna Goldring, I'm a sophomore at BHS and am doing a research project on sign language. My teacher Mr. Fischer told me that you were a sign language interpreter! <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">I'm wondering where did you learn sign language and was it harder than you expected? Also, what inspired you to learn sign language?

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Thanks so much for your time

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Her response: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Hi Julianna,

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> I'm actually not an interpreter, but I studied Sign Language when I was in college. The reason I got interested in Sign is that I felt that it was almost a "calling" of mine as I'm very expressive when I speak and naturally gesticulate as I talk anyway. It's funny because when I first learned how to actually sign certain words, I felt as though I innately knew already. Weird. Anyway, another reason I studied Sign is that I was a Communications Disorders major in college studying to become a speech-langauge pathologist and I thought I'd likely interact with hearing impaired individuals so it just sort of made sense. As it turned out, it is the fact that I knew Sign that got me hired to my first job working with a student who was not deaf but had learned sign as a way of assisting the development of his oral communication skills.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> I've been thinking about sign lately because I was remembering a course I took at the Beverly School for the Deaf (I live in Beverly). At that time, to what may have been the shock of the local deaf community, the school had decided to go with SEE which is the Signing Exact English method. I'm not sure what you've learned about sign so far, but, ASL Am Sign Lang is the real "language of the deaf" and it has its own grammar, syntax, structure that is different from spoken English. SEE is a method of signing English word for word with ways to represent word endings and tense, etc that are different from ASL. The deaf culture is very, very strong. Some deaf people feel that they do not want to interact with the hearing community so much, that they have a separate place, so to speak. Therefore, going over to the "hearing side" by signing English is an affront to some deaf people.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Interpreter training programs teach ASL, of course. If you need a connection to an actual interpreter, I may be able to connect you with someone. I know that the Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill, MA has a well-respected interpreter training program. I know American Sign Language is an accepted world language and I think that Newton North High School teaches it as a course. (They have or used to have a great program for deaf high school students - not sure if it's still there or not.)

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> If I can be of any other assistance, let me know. (I think it's Ms. Allegrezza who connected us.)

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Best of luck with your research. You picked a great topic!

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">My second email: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Wow! Thank you so much you seem to know a lot about the topic, I've learned so many new things just in that one email it'll really help my project. I never knew that there was a whole other language for the deaf community besides ASL. Are you still fluent in sign language even though you studied it in college? I I'm glad it came kind of naturally for you, have you ever had any interest in studying sign languages in other countries? <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">-Julianna

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Her last response: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Hey Julianna,

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Just want to clarify that ASL is really the only language that the deaf community recognizes. SEE is a way of signing that is intended as a way of helping deaf students to develop better English language skills.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">I wouldn't describe myself as fluent in ASL, no. It's like any other language - if you don't use it regularly, your skills kind of decline. And, no, I've never looked into learning sign languages from other countries. It's too bad there isn't an international sign language, huh? You'd think that since it's visual, it would be possible for it not to be attached to any spoken language, but, alas, there is not an international visual language. Oh well.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Hope the project is coming along well for you.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Janet

Resources: http://school.eb.com/eb/article-9067713?query=sign%20language&ct=

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