Sign Language

Few weeks ago, a dinner brought me to meet the RC Deaf Missions Malaysia group at Amcorp Mall. At first I was attracted to the cards that they're selling. A few are in Batiks and very beautiful. All painted by talented Deaf artist. When further chit-chatting with them, found out that they conduct sign language classes as well. I was immediate interested and further find out more about the sign language class. Below is an email replied by one of the Directors of the group:

"The Deaf Tutors will be teaching BIM - which in English means Malaysian Sign Language. A fair bit of Malaysian Sign Language was adapted from American Sign Language. You can never really do away with the historical roots. 60% of ASL has its origins in French Sign Language. Alphabets are the same manual alphabets in most countries except for some differences in for example Japan or India (India uses British Sign Language). I only quoted two countries here but does not mean it is only two countries.

When Malaysian Deaf people meet Japanese Deaf people for example, they too will undergo some language challenges. They get around it by using more visual gestures.

There is one form of international sign language but it is only and usually found when there is an international conference. International sign language or gestuno incorporates some of the signs from each country. But it is not a commonly used language across the world. Yet, Deaf people who come to such large conferences would prefer still their own interpreter because it does not mean that if there is an international sign language, that all Deaf are able to follow.

Language and community and culture go together. There has been an evolution of signs over the past 20 years when Deaf people in Malaysia felt they needed to have their own identity. Singapore uses Signed Exact English. You can get by with BIM in Singapore, and possibly Philippines and of course throughout Malaysia. One point to note is that in the way we speak our national language in KL, the people of Kelantan speak the national language with different phonetics. So, within the countries itself, there will also be differences."

Needless to say, I've signed up for the 10 weeks course. Just like the excitement I have when exploring the underwater world, I'm looking forward to explore the Deaf world.

Check out the website if you're interested to explore in sign language area too. :)