<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Tahoma;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;}
span.EmailStyle18
{mso-style-type:personal;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:navy;}
span.EmailStyle19
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Dear Stefan,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Thank you for your note.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Carol<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'>
<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>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<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=DE style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:navy'>Hi Carol, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=DE style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>“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><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:navy'>Have a great day <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:navy'>Stefan ;-) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div>
<div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span lang=DE
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>
<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center>
</span></div>
<p class=MsoNormal><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"'> sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu
[mailto:sw-l-bounces@majordomo.valenciacc.edu] </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> SW-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu<br>
<b>Betreff:</b> [sw-l] new subscriber</span><span lang=DE style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=DE><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Monire Mose! (Hello, everyone)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>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>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>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>I imagine I will be on here asking for help a lot!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Tiwonge chomeni! (Thank you very much)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Carol Nussbaumer <i>Mama Kalo</i> to the
Embangweni kids<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>