signs in different cultures

[Neil Bauman]

Hi Val:

>So you are left-handed, I believe? That is why you are so
>intelligent!

You're making me blush Val. I doubt I'm any more intelligent than you 
and the rest of you people on this list. I've learned a LOT by 
keeping my mouth shut and my eyes open on this list.

Years ago I read that left-handed people have many more connections 
between the two halves of their brains. What this means is that we 
can think faster supposedly. Also we tend to be more logical.

Interesting story. Years ago when I was the head of the computer 
department at a college in Alberta, I realized that everyone in my 
department was left-handed--right from me, my assistant, my 
programmers, all the way down to the data-entry people. (And I didn't 
hire them because they were left-handed either! LOL)

>  I heard that left-handed people are brilliant ;-))

So are bald people. You should see the sun gleam off the top of my dome! LOL

I seldom post to this list because this is not my main area of 
interest. I am focused on helping hard of hearing people cope with 
their hearing losses--but now and then I like to chime in. Actually, 
I'm so busy helping thousand and thousands of hard of hearing people, 
that I don't have much time for Sign Writing and signed languages.

You may not know this, but I'm almost deaf now, so signing is slowly 
becoming a small part of my life. Without my hearing aids, I hardly 
hear any sounds any more.

>You know what is interesting in the statement above, is that even
>though it is true that we have different signed languages,
>SignWriting is visual enough that some people can learn to sign by
>reading it, or learn other languages by reading it.

True. I'd do the same if I spent more time on it.

I've been collecting the fingerspelled alphabets of various signed 
languages. The first one I really learned wasn't ASL fingerspelling, 
but Czech fingrespelling. I like it much better than ASL. The 
interesting thing is that Czech fingerspelling is similar and 
sometimes identical to British fingerspelling. Something you might 
not have expected.

Regards

                                         Neil


Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
Center for Hearing Loss Help
49 Piston Court
Stewartstown, PA 17363
Phone: (717) 993-8555
FAX: (717) 993-6661
Email: neil at hearinglosshelp.com
Website: http://www.hearinglosshelp.com