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