Classic case of severe side-track. I started out with Katey's ABC blog, then hunted for a pic to go with it, then found the alphabet shown here, which reminded me of someone, which reminded me of a time long ago.
On Friday, I had a somewhat strange day, but in that day, I found myself on Facebook. Facebook recommended I add someone who had someone else on their list who had... you know how it goes. In all that, I found someone surprising. Not sure why it surprised me, but it did. I found my old SADSL (South African Deaf Sign Language) teacher.
We lived near Fulton School for the deaf and it wasn't a huge stretch to end up with a friend who had a deaf child. It was a struggle for this friend, as she was a very pro-active mom. There weren't many resources for deaf kids and sign language wasn't fashionable then. Few people used sign language. The trend at the deaf schools back then was for kids to learn to 'speak' English and sign language wasn't recognised as a language in its own right. A few of us got together to learn. The idea was to enable the little girl to have a life outside of school. We learned through books at first, doing signed English, literally signing every word, prepositions included. Then we 'progressed' to ASL (American sign language). Some time later, we enrolled to study South African sign language. It was finally recognised and encouraged. It wasn't an easy course, but we had a lot of fun. It helps to do it with friends.
I qualified in the end... to make conversation and to interpret at Level 1, which was for conventions and such. I couldn't interpret at schools or for legal matters, but I was fine with that and totally not up for another couple of years of study.
This photo was taken after our graduation.
This one is a photo montage my friend did of our group signing at a convention in Durban. I'm the one in yellow and red.
That's a cool thing to remember and be in touch with. Fulton used to do the best fetes! We used to look forward to them every year and save our pocket money for them. The high school art teacher knew the fulton art teacher really well and she once asked us to go and do masks with the kids. So we used a boy as an example and covered his face in vasseline and then plaster of paris bandages. Only when it was drying did we realize we had forgotten to tell him how to blow his cheeks up to release it more easily. But luckily he was one of the few kids in the class who knew how to sign and the teacher managed to sign into the palm of his hand what to do! We felt such dummies!!
ReplyDeleteHope you still do my ABCs though ;)
I can't find you in the top photo .. are you in blue shirt, white pants? If so, you have lost a lot of weight, Tint! Good for you! :)
ReplyDeleteI think sign language is so great to know. I often wished I'd learned it.
Oh I can see you a mile away..dazzling us with that gorgeous smile!!
ReplyDeleteWow... VERY cool!
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ReplyDeleteI think they left out a few of the finger gestures...?
Very cool. I've always wanted to learn sign language. I know most of the alphabet. My brother Brad and I taught each other as children so we could sign in front of Brandon and he couldn't figure it out. LOL... I do have a nice book here, and I've looked up videos on the past. However, sign language "how to" videos are expensive! Now, I want to learn sign language even more so I can work with my special needs photo clientele more effectively. Someday.
ReplyDeleteCool blog.
My mom's an interpeter. I taught her ASL because we had a deaf neighbor who taught me! Mom went on to get accredited and worked for the school systems for years. She still signs at me (like when she's annoyed in the hospital or some place she can't blurt something out). Funny.
ReplyDeleteyep..facebook works..sometimes!
ReplyDeleteKatey, fete fun! It amazes me when I think of how many times we probably crossed paths ; ) What year was that with the art teacher? My friend (the one who introduced me to signing) was art teacher at Fulton. That might have been after you had the mask episode though.
ReplyDeleteKippy *cries* Yes, that was me. I was shocked when I saw how huge I was. I almost didn't post that pic because of it. It's never too late to learn to sign, but you have enough other things to learn right now.
Heather, you can see me a mile away because I almost fill the screen! lol
: ) Thanks Jaime.
Bert, I'll just choose to ignore that lol
Sandy, why don't you learn? There are loads of free sites teaching sign language.... like this one:
http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/lessons/lessons.htm Contact a deaf school. They'll tell you how you can learn.
Kat, Tat (my daughter) and I sign a lot. My husband doesn't sign, so we often 'gossip' about him. Mostly it's just simple well-worn, much-loved gestures. A sorry or a thank you in sign somehow has special significance for us.
Amalie, Facebook works often. I have contact with family and friends I wouldn't otherwise have contact with.... not being priviledged to live among them.
It would have been the same lady. Mrs Hamer? Her daughter was Jackie and my year but at Kloof. She was best friends with a friend of mine. It would have been 1994 or 1995.
ReplyDeleteNo, this would have been later. Mrs Smith started there around '97. Alison, the girl in the green dress was our sign teacher. The one between her and and the Goodyear blimp is my friend, Lolette, who eventually taught art at Fulton. She later went on to have her own school, but that was after I left.
ReplyDeleteWho's the lady in the patterned dress on the left? She looks very familiar.
ReplyDeleteThat's Gail. She's living in the US now... remarried. She was the blue-shirt guy's wife back then.
ReplyDeleteI love languages, so learning sign was easy. And fun. Even "funner" is learning colloquialisms, things you'd never learn in "proper" ASL. I have always wondered if there is a French sign? or a German sign...you mentioned South African. I wonder what the differences are. More for me to google!!
ReplyDeleteI should clarify---I don't mean a sign for French, I mean "FSL" which wouldn't be "SL" but whatever it is en francais...
ReplyDeleteThere are distinct differences, but also common ground, Kat. Most is similar enough. I managed to tell two deaf boys to get up off there butts on a train because they were sitting in the seating for the aged and/or disabled. While they were indeed disabled, their legs were just fine and there were old folk standing. That was here, where the sign language is very different from SA or American sign.
ReplyDeleteA favourite example we love to mention is the sign for 'toilet'. Our sign for 'toilet' in SA is the same as the sign for 'home' in the US.
And to answer you... each sign language is based on the spoken language. The lettering and vocabulary matches. As I mentioned with US and 'home'. The 'home' sign is two h's crossing each other. To sign 'South Africa', you use the 's' and draw the shape of Africa ending in the south. Now in Lithuania, 'south' starts with a 'p', so that sign wouldn't work there.
ReplyDeleteI learned the "southern" version of ASL, and some of the signs I learned were different from the official signs...like for America (USA) it was interlaced fingers to signify the wood fences back in pioneer days. So I can see why "home" in another country would be different. Those are exactly the things I wondered.
ReplyDeleteone of my favorites is "bullshit". I think that is probably a universal sign.
ReplyDeleteI like "F*ck knows" ;)
ReplyDeleteMy best friend in highschool and I would talk to each other spelling out the words in sign language. We didn't have resources to learn to talk it properly at the time. It would freak some of the boys out, they were thinking we were talking about them :)
ReplyDeleteThat's a neat experience, the schooling you had, and now connecting up with your teacher!
I enjoy sign language. Autistic kids are taught a bit. Some really take to it, but Julian would just get mad at me if I tried to sign to him. His mind probably went : " I know what you're saying, MOM!!!" lol
ReplyDeleteRick is a good signer, I am a very basic one, I learned more when directing Children of a Lesser God with a mostly deaf cast about 15 years ago. Musch signed English and ASL as well. But it is easy to lose if you don't use it! Like Kathleen mentioned above, eric knows some as well, in fact we taught him the ABC's at the same time that we taught him his regular spoken and written alphabet!
ReplyDeleteAnd I could see that smile of yours!