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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Thanks, Adam<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>I am getting excited about the possibilities!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Carol<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>
sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu
[mailto:sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Adam Frost<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, May 13, 2009 3:55 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> SignWriting List<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [sw-l] new subscriber<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>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. <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Adam<br>
<br>
On May 13, 2009, at 12:38 PM, "Carol Nussbaumer" <<a
href="mailto:carol@nussbaumers.net">carol@nussbaumers.net</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='color:#1F497D'>Dear Stefan,</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='color:#1F497D'>Thank you for your note.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='color:#1F497D'>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 <u>not</u> to try to just accept ASL or SEE and
use it. Their culture is so different that many signs just make no
sense. The kids (obviously!) had already developed signs among
themselves, but we were beginning to have several signs for the same object,
depending on the kids! For example, there were 4 different 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 groups spread over an area 400 km x 300km)
how they would indicate [word <i>x</i><u> </u>] 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 codified in any way. I hope SW
will give us a stable sign system. Just one example: in ASL, the
word “water” is shown with a <i>w</i> 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 hands 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.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='color:#1F497D'>Some of our signs – especially numbers, colors, days of
the week, some nouns and verbs --- are ASL “borrowed” for our
language. Since the kids have to learn English, the jump is not
very far for most things. And others work just fine --- we call an
automobile a <i>galimoto </i>, but the sign is the same. <i>America</i>
is the ASL sign but we developed our own for <i>Malawi</i>.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='color:#1F497D'>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.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='color:#1F497D'>Carol</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> <a
href="mailto:sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu</a>
[<a href="mailto:sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">mailto:sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu</a>]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Stefan Wöhrmann<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, May 13, 2009 8:20 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> 'SignWriting List'<br>
<b>Subject:</b> AW: [sw-l] new subscriber</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=DE style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'>Hi
Carol, </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=DE style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'>welcome
to the SW –list. You will find lots of my projects in the past around
SignWriting or GebaerdenSchrift as we call it in Germany. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'>Let
me ask a question: You write in your introduction: </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>“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).” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=EN-GB>What is this ...“ we began to develop a sign language...”
Did you invent </span><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'> signs for the different terms ( numbers,
colours, animals, plants, abstract concepts ..did you present these signs to
your deaf students? Or did you introduce ASL or ... ? How did you collect
your signs for your Sign Language so far? What about Malawian SignLanguage
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'>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 teacher 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. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'>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. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'>Have
a great day </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'>Stefan
;-) </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy'>I
created another greeting card – saying in ASL “This is a beautiful day” –
Sure it is!</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<div>
<div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span lang=DE>
<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center>
</span></div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Von:</span></b><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> <a
href="mailto:sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu</a>
[<a href="mailto:sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">mailto:sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu</a>]
</span><b><span lang=DE style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Im
Auftrag von </span></b><span lang=DE style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Carol
Nussbaumer<br>
<b>Gesendet:</b> Dienstag, 12. Mai 2009 20:55<br>
<b>An:</b> <a href="mailto:SW-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">SW-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu</a><br>
<b>Betreff:</b> [sw-l] new subscriber</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
lang=DE> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>Monire
Mose! (Hello, everyone)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>The
school presently has 164 students boarding, ranging in age from 6 – 20.
About 60% are post-lingual deaf; the rest born deaf. We have 12
classrooms, plus the advanced vocational education section with an average of
11 students per classroom – much better than the usual Malawian classroom of 80
to 100 students per teacher! We are located on a mission station which is
a 3 hour drive from the nearest town 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. There is electricity on station, but it is too
expensive for the school to use except for a very occasional evening meeting at
the chapel. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>If
you would like to learn more and see pictures of the school, visit the website <a
href="http://www.marionmedical.org">www.marionmedical.org</a> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>I
imagine I will be on here asking for help a lot!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>Tiwonge
chomeni! (Thank you very much)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>Carol
Nussbaumer <i>Mama Kalo</i> to the Embangweni kids<o:p></o:p></p>
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