launguge barriers

The language barrier...

Most hearing people on planet earth think sign language is universal wheresle most deaf people know its actually unique to each country! Were telling you hearing people that sign language is not universal!

Simon only speaks English (he cannot write very good English, all blogs are done in a word document to help him overcome his errors in grammar and spelling- he blames the XY chromosome he has inherted from his father (which came with a dyslexixa mutation). He also sign’s pretty good BSL, but many deaf peers think outherwise.

At Buguruni all of the lessons are taught in Swahili sign language (theres no mary hare “oral” status to boost about!) and all of the teachers communicate with each other by speaking Swahili, a few speak English- but its work in progress.

For the kids their first language is Swahili sign language, then actual Swahili itself and then their third language is English. I literally find it amazing that im able to have a proper conversation with them at all! But thanks to previous volunteers who have given the kids a bit of background BSL, they seem to have a pretty good idea what im trying to say.

A typical converstion would be in Swahili sign language, if you didn’t get the message they would fingerspell it in Swahili (the American single handed alpherbet), if you still don’t understand then they would fingerspell it in BSL- which is actually just fingerspelling Swahili words- no luck. Then finaly they would perform actions, write/draw on the sandy floor- pretty efficient J

Its weird at first as “how are you?” is the same as thank you in BSL. “im fine” is nothing. Women means oil, and more/hurry up is actually something quite rude!- just so so weird at first but you get used to it. Geuss it will be reverse when i go home.

But i love using the language barrier to my advantage! Some time i end up with two lunches (not bad at all!) the head winfredia doesn’t speak much English, so any conversation between me and her is a one way conversation with winfredia just nodding her head smiling, so i could ask if i could do this and that and get a nod as the go ahead J.

The cultural barrier is also useful, during the week i cooked the nuns toad in the hole as a treat. When it came to bring it out of the oven it looked beautifully crispy and golden on top. However the base was heavily burnt (how do you avoide this? I burn latterly everything including myself when cooking grr) but i told the nuns that this is normal of English cooking, its how we get the taste were after and then explained we scrape off the good bits with a fork and eat it J they loved it!

I have uploaded some photos onto facebook, if your young enough please enjoy. If your of the later generation perhaps its time you think about setting up a fb account!

Simonx