SignWriting in Denmark - politics again!

Thu Apr 13 21:34:18 UTC 2006

SignWriting List
April 13, 2006

Shane and Everyone -

See this photo pasted below...

Those are Danish Deaf children learning SignWriting at Randersgade  
Deaf School in Copenhagen, in 1984 I believe...that is 22 years ago.  
That is me, visiting as a guest...yes...I had hair at that  
time....And Bente Sparrevohn, their teacher, is to my right in the  
photo...Bente is one of the most skilled signwriters in Denmark and  
transcribed volumes of Deaf storytelling in DSL in a wonderful  
published book...the Deaf children had notebooks which they kept all  
their SignWriting in, and they were showing me their SignWriting  
notebooks...

Bente tells me that the schools in Denmark have changed dramatically  
since the 1990's and they are not as focused on sign language as  
much...maybe SignWriting could bring in a comeback to the good old  
days! 22 years ago is a long time and of course time marches on...but  
we can march into the future in a better way...smile...

Meanwhile people in Norway started writing with SignWriting around  
that time too..Ingvild can tell us more about that history...so  
SignWriting was in schools in Norway too, in the late 1980's...

  Val ;-)

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On Apr 13, 2006, at 2:01 PM, Valerie Sutton wrote:

> SignWriting List
> April 13, 2006
>
> Everyone, and Shane -
> Did you know that Asger Bergman's Deaf wife, Ritva, was one of the  
> best SignWriting teachers of Deaf children in Denmark in the  
> 1980's? You have no idea how fabulous it was to see Ritva teach  
> SignWriting to 6 and 7 year old Deaf children at the Aalborg School  
> for the Deaf in Aalborg, Denmark. I know! I was there to see it.  
> And one of Asger and Ritva's darling Deaf children...their Deaf  
> son...was there in the classroom when I was an invited guest  
> there...and they had signs written in SignWriting across the walls  
> in the halls of the school, and Ritva wanted, at that time, to give  
> them good language in BOTH Danish spoken language and good DSL  
> grammar sentences too...so they had the SignWriting in DSL grammar  
> in a sentence on the wall, and the good spoken Danish written  
> translation underneath. I was treated like a royal guest, when I  
> visited the school...one of the memories one never forgets...they  
> used SignWriting in the schools until 1988, when the funding ran  
> out and other politics perhaps and then they continue to use  
> SignWriting, but in a different way than we do, and only for  
> interpreters and research and parents of Deaf children, but  
> SignWriting was in the Danish schools from 1982- 1988 for the  
> younger Deaf children...but I was blessed to know both Ritva and  
> Asger a little bit at that time and I really treasure the memory of  
> being in their home and seeing, at that time, their darling Deaf  
> children...very young and their tiny little hands signing at native  
> speeds - totally wonderful! And Asger met Stefan Woehrmann last  
> summer in Maastricht - smile!
>
> It is no one's fault that things changed in Denmark...but they  
> still use an old version of the system and I think, if they learn  
> the way we write around the world now, they might find that Deaf  
> children will learn SignWriting in Denmark again...but they need to  
> be informed about the way we are all writing now...they haven't  
> been in touch with me since around 1990....
>
> As far as when the system was invented...it started in Denmark in  
> Copenhagen while I was working at the University of Copenhagen...at  
> that time I was not in touch with Deaf people but was asked to  
> write a video of Deaf and hearing people signing...I was teaching  
> DanceWriting (my invention) at the Royal Danish Ballet at the  
> time...that was 1974...and it was a researcher (hearing) named Lars  
> von der LIeth who asked me to transcribe the video, but he was  
> against the idea of writing the language...that was my idea when I  
> looked at my transcription and realized that if I worked with Deaf  
> people we might have a written form for the language...I had just  
> been learning to speak my second language, Danish, and I love  
> languages and saw this as a possible collaboration with the Deaf  
> Community...so I went to Lars to suggest this, and Lars, who is a  
> lovely man, but was not on the same wave length with me, said he  
> didn't think anyone would want to write sign language..he just  
> wanted it for his research...so I returned home to the USA and  
> worked with Deaf people and then in 1982, when we were publishing a  
> newspaper written in ASL with 10 Deaf native signers in ASL here in  
> the USA... I sent a copy of the SignWriter Newspaper written in ASL  
> to Britta Hansen in Denmark and then she invited me to come back to  
> Denmark to teach the teachers at the Deaf Center for Total  
> Communication in Denmark in 1982...that is how it entered the  
> Danish School System...Asger may not realize that Denmark was the  
> first country in history to teach SignWriting to Deaf children, and  
> Ritva Bergmann was one of the first teachers, along with Bente  
> Sparrevohn, Annegrethe Pedersen (Deaf) and several others...See the  
> names on this research project:
>
> Danish School System uses SignWriting
> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/research/rese002.html
>
> Val ;-)
>
> ----------
>
>
>
> On Apr 13, 2006, at 1:29 PM, Shane Gilchrist O hEorpa wrote:
>
>> everyone,
>>
>> im on the BSL Tutors training course at Heriot Watt University
>> (Edinburgh) where we are being trained to become trainers of BSL
>> tutors in Scotland (in my case, Ireland!)
>>
>> this week we have a lovely lecturer called Asger Bergman who is the
>> president of Danish Deaf Association and he used to work at the
>> Communication Centre at Copenhagen where they train interpreters and
>> do sign language trainings etc.
>>
>> To my surprise they still use the older form of signwriting when he
>> showed us their handouts etc - they still use the arms etc - and he
>> tried to dismiss it as "oh thats American" i had to disagree with him
>> straight away saying that it was invented in Denmark, yes by an
>> American woman but with the guidance of deaf people etc - it was the
>> deaf community in Denmark who have asked Val Sutton to get  
>> involved. I
>> think people were just obsessed with the fact that Val Sutton is a
>> hearie - its not even important - even so if it is important, Val did
>> have a team of really intelligent pro-ASL deaf people working  
>> together
>> - why else did she move to La Jolla - she didnt move there just for
>> the view!!! (she moved there to be close to the Salk Institute where
>> they were doing a big ASL research project)
>>
>> It was the petty politics rearing its ugly head once more - i said
>> that the Sutton System is very useful, let it be academic or not -  
>> and
>> its always evolving etc - it will evolve into a better system if more
>> and more people use it to a point it can be considered "normal" - he
>> said that it is not used at all in the deaf schools.
>>
>> I forgot to mention that Carol Padden thinks Signwriting is really
>> good and "cute" the bother is that its a bit too complicated for her
>> (i think shes reclutant about using it as its not yet used much by  
>> the
>> deaf community in the USA - that has to change!)
>>
>> That is something ESWO have to do something about it - we need
>> something to unite Europe's deaf community - and SignWriting may be
>> the way. It is important to get deaf organisations to back the SW
>> system - im sure the Irish Deaf Society, the Ulster Insitute for the
>> Deaf and the British Deaf Association will back this (eventually)
>>
>> the problem is that most people think SW is only limited to sign
>> linguists - thats not even the point!
>>
>> Shane
>>
>