SW as a bridge between hearing and deaf students

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
May 20, 2004

Stefan Woehrmann in Germany wrote:
> So in the end - SW again could be used as a wonderful bridge to reach
> out to
> the unknown of the other respected culture!! I bet that the parents of
> the
> hearing children will get the information that there is a written form
> for
> SL - It is simply a fact and nobody wonders - smile!


Dear SW List and Stefan!
Thank you for the great message, Stefan. (the whole message is pasted
below)...It is an important story, and it really speaks for itself... a
documentation that the writing system works for signers and
non-signers...Thank you for sharing this with us!

Thirty years ago, when SignWriting first began, no one would have
believed it...I was continually told that it would be impossible
......But thanks to members of the Deaf Community, researchers and
teachers, like yourself, Stefan, and other members of this List...we
now have a true writing system....

So Sign languages are now written languages too, and you are right, for
people to accept that as a fact, signers need to believe it themselves!

Val ;-)

PS. SignWriting is 30 years old in 2004. Imagine in another 30 years?
Can any of you tell me, what you think will happen with SignWriting in
the next 30 years?...I hope you will write to the List with your hopes
and ideas, and maybe even some plans for the future....


-------------------------


Stefan Woehrmann in Germany wrote:

> Hi friends, -
> just would like to share a nice experience-
>
> Last Friday a group of hearing pupils 3rd grade visited our class. They
> showed interest in how DEAF children communicate, learn, behave...
> They stayed for 90 minutes !
>
> While asking them for their names and age -  we learned that a written
> form
> of a language is very important if you cannot communicate otherwise.;-)
> The hearing children enjoyed watching us communicating in SL.
>
> Then we involved (!) them into a small fun-oriented math-competition
> 1x1 -
> just write only the results as fast as possible -
> (Wow - you should know that my Deaf students can write these numbers
> with an
> incredible speed) -
> so no chance for the astonished hearing children - and they understood
> -
> Deaf students are not stupid (smile)
>
> Afterwards - within a 45 min sequence - we showed eight
> GebaerdenSchrift-sentences to them - kind of repeated questions - (
> Where is
> the bike? Where is ...?) so that they only had to learn about 13
> different
> signs. Nevertheless - they did a brilliant job. After 45 minutes all
> of  the
> hearing children who never ever before had had any contact with deaf
> children or Sign language were able to read, sign and translate the
> printed
> GebaerdenSchrift Document. My deaf students assisted as special
> instructors
> and the hearing children shared their experience in German grammar -
> all
> students wrote the translation of the GebaerdenSchrift- document in
> German
>
> So in the end - SW again could be used as a wonderful bridge to reach
> out to
> the unknown of the other respected culture!! I bet that the parents of
> the
> hearing children will get the information that there is a written form
> for
> SL - It is simply a fact and nobody wonders - smile!
>
> Stefan;-))
>