Lawrence.Brick@f210.n273.z1.fidonet.org (Lawrence Brick) (11/20/90)
Index Number: 11898
[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]
I was in Japan last February and visited a school for the deaf in Tokyo.
I also met a couple of deaf people at the school as well as on the
subway. The JSL is different than ASL different signs for the same words
but we had little difficulty understanding each other because we used
common sense to figure each other out. I've also been to Italy, Denmark,
other European Countries and also was a participant in two world games
for the deaf. The Italians have different signs, but again my wife and I
had little difficulty communicating with them - for example in ASL we
use the sign for "drink" or bring "W" to the lips to indicate "water"
whereas the Italians imitate turning on tap water to indicate water.
ASL for 'president" is signing horns coming from the head whereas the
Italians raise their thumb to indicate leader. There is an
international sign language called Gestento (spelling?) which is used
when deaf people from different countries meet. I suspect that deaf
people from different parts of the world have an easier time
communicating with each other than hearing people. Education in Japan is
still oral and learning English as a second language is required. The
two professional deaf people I met in Tokyo quietly said that the
Japanese deaf community wishes that JSL was used in schools, but there
are very few, if any, professionals in Japan. In fact the administrator
of the school doubted that I was an administrator of a school for the
deaf and my wife a teacher of pre-school deaf children until I showed him
my business card. The two deaf "professionals" were vocational teachers
- sound familiar???? I hope this answers some of your questions. I like
Wolmarks answers and explanations.
--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!273!210!Lawrence.Brick
Internet: Lawrence.Brick@f210.n273.z1.fidonet.org