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<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>Hello nice people ;o)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>What can I tell you about Belgium? Better ask me what I
can't tell you about Belgium because it is such a fascinating country ;o) We ARE
the capitol of Europe ;o) And we have some beautiful city's to visit. Like;
Antwerp, Brussels, Brugge, Gent, Liège, Namur, ... </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>It is so that we officialy have 3 languages: Flemish,
French and German. Flemish is the upperside close to Holland where people
understand us pretty good because they speak Dutch. Brussels is situated in
Flanders, but used to be and still mainly is French (Wallon) speaking. The lower
side of Belgium is near to France and this is where the people live that we
call 'Wallon'. This used to be the 'rich' part of Belgium in the early
19th century, but that changed about 70 years ago. Now Flanders is the
economic drive of Belgium. Some people in Flanders want to be seperated from the
Wallon part. I myself dont see me going on a trip and telling people i'm from
the independant 'state of Flanders'. Who ever heared of Belgium, so WHO
will know what Flanders is? :s</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>And then there is a VERY small part of German
speaking people in Belgium, but they are such a smal part that they
are fogotten about frequently. (shame on us!)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>So far the general situation of Belgium. Now for
our other languages that do exist in Belgium but are not recognized are the
signed languages. There is a Flemish Signlanguage in
Belgium wich consist also of many dialects as you can see on the
website of the University of Ghent. (</FONT> <FONT face=Garamond><A
href="http://gebaren.ugent.be/">http://gebaren.ugent.be/</A> )</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>There is also a 'French' Sign Language or better said
'Langue des Signes Wallon'. I'm sorry i dont have any information on the
existence of 'Germang Sign Language' in Belgium. (Deutche
Gebarensprache)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>I know the signlanguage in Wallonië is recognized to
use in the schools, but not as an official language. There are actions at hand
to promote the recognition of Flemish signlanguage. (<A
href="http://www.doofactiefront.be">www.doofactiefront.be</A>) this site is
availible in English as well ;o)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>Now for my school. Being it is situated in Brussels you
will think, Jeezus all those languages?? No, it is true at my school there are
Flemish speaking and signing people aswell as Wallon speaking and signing
people. This used to be all mixed up, but a few years ago the two groups where
seperated. So now the children learn 2 languages: Flemish SignLanguage
(FSL) and Dutch (Flemish) written and/or spoken. This is how we see
Bi-lingual education. The children are brought up in there mothertongue Flemish
signlanguage and learn to read and write (speak) Dutch. I myself teach FSL (VGT
- Vlaamse Gebarentaal) and d/Deafculture together with Sara (my sweet friend and
Deaf coöperator).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>We teach the children the grammar and sytaxis of VGT
and do this by using SignWriting. What is our population? Well all the children
run trough our classroom, no matter there hearingloss. Some student have more
ours VGT a week then others.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>I would love to get some information on other people
using SignWriting in Belgium, the people i know dont really use it or are not
working as educators. My french is not as good as I would want it to be. So i
get more information in English and Flemish then French. It's more difficult for
me to read a book in French then in English. But i will do my best to work with
my Belgian partners ;o)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>More news WILL follow ;o)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>Greetings Kathleen </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>ps: hope i don't make to many mistakes (my spelling
isn't that great)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>pps: i have a disk that has a DOS program for
SignWriting (Kristof De Weerdt gave it to me ;o)</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=sutton@signwriting.org href="mailto:sutton@signwriting.org">Valerie
Sutton</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=sw-l@majordomo.valenciacc.edu
href="mailto:sw-l@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">sw-l@majordomo.valenciacc.edu</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, October 13, 2004 6:47
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [sw-l] BELGIUM: New SW Literacy
Project and new web area...</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>SignWriting List<BR>October 13, 2004<BR><BR>Kathleen Heylen
wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE><?fontfamily><?param Arial><?smaller>My name is Kathleen Heylen
and i'm a motivated teacher from Belgium. I work in a bilingual school
for d/Deaf children in Brussels, our beatiful capitol ;o)<?/smaller><?/fontfamily><BR><?fontfamily><?param Arial><?smaller>I
started to use SignWriting with my pupils last year and it was an amazing
experience for the children and for me too. Suddenly Flemish Signlanguage
became more clear, and a full and worthy language. Just like our majority
'spoken' language, Flemish.<?/smaller><?/fontfamily> <?fontfamily><?param Arial><?smaller>I hope to learn more about SignWriting
and how other teachers in different country's use it.<?/smaller><?/fontfamily> <?fontfamily><?param Arial><?smaller>Not only
that, i really wanted to see something about Flemish signlanguage and
SignWriting on the internet ;o)<?/smaller><?/fontfamily><BR><?fontfamily><?param Arial><?smaller>Greetings,<?/smaller><?/fontfamily>
<?fontfamily><?param Arial><?smaller>Kathleen Heylen<?/smaller><?/fontfamily><BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>--------------<BR><BR>Dear
SW List, and Kathleen!<BR>Thank you for this description of your school in
Brussels. And welcome to the SignWriting Literacy Project!<BR><BR>Because our
List members are from 27 countries, perhaps you could tell us first, a little
bit about Belgium, and the signed languages of your country?<BR><BR>In the
city of Brussels, they generally speak French, is that right? But your school
for the Deaf in Brussels, is bi-lingual....Do you mean two signed languages?
one for the French speaking part of Belgium, and one for the Flemish (Dutch)
speaking part of Belgium? Smile...I know I ask a lot of questions...but I
personally am interested too...I visited Belgium several times while I lived
in Europe years ago, and it is such a beautiful and multi-lingual
country!<BR><BR>As you know, there are already some groups in the Flemish
speaking section of Belgium using SignWriting, so we can also put you in touch
with several groups. Maybe they will want their projects listed on the new
Belgian web area I am creating for your school...<BR><BR>And way back in
time...in the mid 1980's, we were also working briefly with a group in the
French speaking section of Belgium...they used SignWriting and I even created
a version of the SignWriter DOS computer program just for them...so I will
also try to place that history on the Belgian web pages too...<BR><BR>Val
;-)<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>