new subscriber

Wed May 13 21:54:39 UTC 2009

That sounds like a very common thing that happens. All I can say about  
that is that it will keep with it because it will become more uniform.  
Don't try to force it too much. But the one thing I can say is that  
SignWriting will be an excellent way to record what signs they use.

Adam

On May 13, 2009, at 12:38 PM, "Carol Nussbaumer"  
<carol at nussbaumers.net> wrote:

> Dear Stefan,
>
> Thank you for your note.
>
> To try to answer your question:  In 1997, at the request of the  
> staff at school, I began to show them how American Sign “works”  
> and at the same time urged them not to try to just accept ASL or SEE 
>  and use it.  Their culture is so different that many signs just mak 
> e no sense.  The kids (obviously!) had already developed signs among 
>  themselves, but we were beginning to have several signs for the sam 
> e object, depending on the kids!  For example, there were 4 differen 
> t signs for “flashlight” among the 40 students in 4 classrooms.   
> By 1998, the staff was beginning to collect signs from the students, 
>  asking each group (we have students from many different tribal grou 
> ps spread over an area 400 km x 300km) how they would indicate [word 
>  x ]  Then they decided as a group which sign would be used for all  
> of school.  This process is on-going, but our problem is it is not c 
> odified in any way.  I hope SW will give us a stable sign system.  J 
> ust one example:  in ASL, the word “water” is shown with a w hand  
> placed near the mouth.  In Malawi, the sign “water” is actually 2  
> signs.  If one is a girl, or talking about a girl, we place both han 
> ds curved above the head (showing a bucket of water being carried).  
>  Boys, however, do not carry loads that way!  So if one is a boy, or 
>  talking about a boy, “water” is shown with one hand curved at  
> the side and lifting, as if lifting a heavy bucket.
>
> Some of our signs – especially numbers, colors, days of the week, so 
> me nouns and verbs --- are ASL “borrowed” for our language.    
> Since the kids have to learn English, the jump is not very far for m 
> ost things.  And others work just fine --- we call an automobile a g 
> alimoto , but the sign is the same.  America is the ASL sign but we  
> developed our own for Malawi.
>
> This sounds confusing!  Remember that I am very far from proficient  
> in ASL and only use sign while in Malawi – a few weeks a year.
>
> Carol
>
>
>
> From: sw-l-bounces at majordomo.valenciacc.edu [mailto:sw-l-bounces at majordomo.valenciacc.edu 
> ] On Behalf Of Stefan Wöhrmann
> Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 8:20 AM
> To: 'SignWriting List'
> Subject: AW: [sw-l] new subscriber
>
>
>
> Hi Carol,
>
>
>
> welcome to the SW –list. You will find lots of my projects in the pa 
> st around SignWriting or GebaerdenSchrift as we call it in Germany.
>
>
>
> Let me ask a question: You write in your introduction:
>
>
>
> “We began in 1997 to develop a sign language for our students, who u 
> se Chitumbuka as the language of choice (they also must learn Englis 
> h, Chichewa and often a tribal language).”
>
>
>
> What is this ...“ we began to develop a sign language...”  Did  
> you invent  signs for the different terms ( numbers, colours, animal 
> s, plants, abstract concepts ..did you present these signs to your d 
> eaf students? Or did you introduce ASL  or ... ? How did you collect 
>  your signs for your Sign Language so far?  What about Malawian Sign 
> Language
>
>
>
> Great to hear from you. Later you will keep this day in your mind –  
> it was the day your options to teach deaf students and hearing teach 
> er became brilliant. Valerie Sutton invented a wonderful system and  
> lots of brilliant software experts created great programs that allow 
>  us to feed the “SignPuddle” or SignWriter  dictionary.
>
>
>
> Do not hesitate to post your questions to the list. Onthe other and  
> it makes sense to browse through the SW-forum list archives or to  
> look at the many, many documents that are published on the website.
>
>
>
> Have a great day
>
>
>
> Stefan ;-)
>
>
>
> I created another greeting card – saying in ASL  “This is a  
> beautiful day” – Sure it is!
>
> Von: sw-l-bounces at majordomo.valenciacc.edu [mailto:sw-l-bounces at majordomo.valenciacc.edu 
> ] Im Auftrag von Carol Nussbaumer
> Gesendet: Dienstag, 12. Mai 2009 20:55
> An: SW-L at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
> Betreff: [sw-l] new subscriber
>
>
>
> Monire Mose!  (Hello, everyone)
>
> I am new to SW and very excited to find it.  I am a volunteer speech  
> therapist at the Embangweni School for the Hard of Hearing in  
> Malawi, Africa.  We began in 1997 to develop a sign language for our  
> students, who use Chitumbuka as the language of choice (they also  
> must learn English, Chichewa and often a tribal language).  Up till  
> now we have had no way of visually presenting the signs for new  
> students and new teachers.  I am hoping to be able to use SW for our  
> school.
>
> The school presently has 164 students boarding, ranging in age from  
> 6 – 20.  About 60% are post-lingual deaf; the rest born deaf.  We ha 
> ve 12 classrooms, plus the advanced vocational education section wit 
> h an average of 11 students per classroom – much better than the usu 
> al Malawian classroom of 80 to 100 students per teacher!  We are loc 
> ated on a mission station which is a 3 hour drive from the nearest t 
> own of any size.  The school has no piped water, but we are lucky to 
>  have a bore-hole (deep water well) close to the classroom block.  T 
> here is electricity  on station, but it is too expensive for the sch 
> ool to use except for a very occasional evening meeting at the chapel.
>
> If you would like to learn more and see pictures of the school,  
> visit the website www.marionmedical.org
>
> I imagine I will be on here asking for help a lot!
>
>
>
> Tiwonge chomeni!  (Thank you very much)
>
> Carol Nussbaumer   Mama Kalo to the Embangweni kids
>
>
>
>
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