Fwd: Fake sign-language interpreter at Mandela funeral

[Mark Mandel]

>From Language Log:

    Fake sign-language interpreter at Mandela
funeral<http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=8960>
>
>     Kim Sengupta, "Nelson Mandela memorial: ‘Bogus’ interpreter made
> mockery of Barack Obama’s tribute<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/nelson-mandela-memorial-bogus-interpreter-made-mockery-of-barack-obamas-tribute-8997486.html>",
> The Telegraph 12/11/2013:
>
>     The key address in the memorial service for Nelson Mandela was given
>> by Barack Obama, whose words were brought to life for deaf spectators and
>> TV viewers by a “sign language interpreter”, who could be seen gesturing
>> energetically behind the sombre US President.
>>
>>     Yet the man, not only seen by the tens of thousands in Johannesburg’s
>> FNB stadium where the memorial took place on Tuesday, but also by millions
>> across the world on television, was a “fake”, according to Bruno Druchen,
>> the national director of the Deaf Federation of  South Africa.
>>
>>     Mr Duchen told the Associated Press “there was no meaning in what he
>> used his hands for”. He and other language experts pointed out that the man
>> was not signing in South African or American sign languages and could not
>> have been signing in any other known sign language because there was no
>> structure to his arm and hand movements. South African sign language covers
>> all of the country’s 11 official languages.
>>
>
>
    Apparently, the fake interpreter was not a creative gate-crasher, but
> rather was a fraud who makes money by getting himself hired to provide
> sign-language interpretation — "Interpreter For Deaf At Mandela Event
> Called Fake<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=250137906>",
> NPR 12/11/2013:
>

(Much more in the post.)


Mark Mandel (no final "a")
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