some questions from Slovenia

Thu Nov 8 23:10:40 UTC 2012

SignWriting List
November 8, 2012

Hello Edi -
Thank you for this message, and welcome to the SignWriting List!

I am happy to see the 168 Slovenian signs written in the Slovenian SignPuddle:

Slovenian SignPuddle Dictionary
http://www.signbank.org/signpuddle2.0/index.php?ui=1&sgn=74

Thank you for starting to write Slovenian Sign Language. And we are here to help. I am sorry it has taken me so long to answer your previous email. I confess I get distracted easily these days, so it is good that you tugged on my sleeve ;-)

I remember you have some technical questions in the last email and I will try to answer those soon...

I will answer between the lines of your message below…

On Nov 8, 2012, at 1:28 PM, Edi Strouhal wrote:
> Hi, I'm Edi Strouhal. I am from Slovenia. I'm a catholic priest, not a teacher 
> nor professor. In Slovenian catholic Church I am a leader of several deaf 
> Catholic community. Recently, in our community I was presented that we can 
> write sign language in sign writing. They were surprised and impressed.

This is great news. Perhaps you will be writing portions of the Bible in Slovenian Sign Language someday?

Find Bible translations in written American Sign Language, Maltese Sign Language, Norwegian Sign Language and Brazilian Sign Languages here:

SignWriting Bible Literature
http://www.signwriting.org/library/bible/

We have a huge ASLBible Puddle with so many translations that I believe we are close to having the entire New Testament translated into ASL and written in SignWriting…

I can create a Literature Puddle for Slovenia if you want to start that kind of work someday -

> Among 
> the other of my duty, I would like to start our deaf members teach Slovenian 
> Sutton Sign Writing. We will started January 2013. In Slovenian Association of 
> the Deaf and Hard of Hearing people is Sutton Sign Writing known, but they 
> are not interested of it. In Slovenia, education of the deaf are mainly in oral 
> teaching method. Only in one school for deaf children (in Ljubljana) use sign 
> language and oral method at the same time. Unfortunately in other schools for 
> deaf neither teachers nor lecturers do not speak sign language.

Did you know that there is a school that is using and teaching SignWriting in Slovenia? I shipped a box of books to a teacher in the school, and they learned SignWriting in Alicante, Spain as a special trip for the students over the summer - Perhaps you know this already? I am very happy to see that Slovenia is starting to use SignWriting, no matter how small the projects - It is only the beginning ;-))

The school is:

Ljubljana School for the Deaf
Zavod za gluhe in naglušne Ljubljana (ZGNL)
Vojkova 74
1000 Ljubljana
SI - SLOVENIA

The teacher in contact with me: Dušan Dvorščak

> Thank to God, 
> in Slovenia we have a State institution “Council of Slovenian Sign Language” 
> which is responsible for developing and maintaining Slovenian sign language. 
> Because I'm a priest, I can not be a member of any state institutions, even 
> when it comes to the development of Slovenian sign language, because in our 
> state church are separate from the state. This situation is a result of the post-
> communist system in our country which ended 20 years ago but let the 
> consequences. Despite the fact that I am a priest of the Catholic Church I'm 
> really interested, that we must for deaf people and with deaf people to do all 
> what we can. I am aware that some teachers and educators in Slovenia will 
> strongly opposed to this, that we teach deaf people to write sign language in 
> Sutton Sign Writing, because as they say, the deaf must learn Slovenian 
> standard language to facilitate their integration into society of hearing people. 

But there is a classroom of teachers with Deaf students in Ljubljana, who have at least experimented with SignWriting already - even if it is only on an experimental basis, it is still a beginning. I shipped them a box of books and I believe they received the books…I can also ship you a box of books if you need them for your work…it is my gift to you…

> Despite the fact that the deaf was educated in Slovenian standard language, 
> at the end of educated process, only a few deaf mastered the standard 
> Slovenian language, because they still use the logic of Slovenian sign language 
> and not a logic of speaking Slovenian standard language. Therefore, in our 
> church community  we will start with courses of Sutton Sign Writing.

Wonderful!!

Reading and writing sign language will, in the long run, help Deaf people learn to read and write spoken languages - There are teachers here on the SignWriting List who can tell you this from their own experience… Learning to read and write both signed and spoken languages is helpful to both Deaf and hearing people, because then both languages have written forms, and we learn and preserve languages by writing and reading them...

> After this long presentation, I have some questions for you.
> 1.	Do you recommend that would be required to obtain a license for 
> teaching Slovenian Sutton Sign Writing? Maybe it will be better to have this 
> one. 

We are happy to teach you and others how to teach SignWriting in Slovenia, and I personally will be glad to help you translate our textbooks into Slovenian spoken language and sign language…so if you develop the materials with me and with others, I think that is license enough!

But if, once you have learned SignWriting with me or others, you would like a certificate or a letter from me verifying that you are a teacher, I will be glad to do that for you - I do not require a certificate from any one, but I understand if you need one on your end -

I can send you my introductory textbook, the SignWriting Basics Instruction Manual, to translate into Slovenian languages...

> 2.	If license was required, I am interested what can I do for obtaining a 
> license and at what address should I contact?

Licenses are not required. But since I am the inventor of SignWriting, why not make an appointment with me on Skype and we can discuss SignWriting and I am happy to teach you.

> 3.	In Slovenian Sign Puddle I create Slovenian sign language dictionary. 
> When I am writing it happen to me some errors which unfortunately I notice 
> after a few days. But then I can not change written sign words. Please, how 
> can I enter to a program to modify existing wrong signed words? Is there a 
> need for any special license? Who should be responsible for the Slovenian sign 
> dictionary? I am the first one which start to create dictionary of Slovenian 
> Sign language. Is it necessary to obtain copyright in order to make Slovenian 
> dictionary better and clean from errors?

I already made you an Editor of the Slovenian SignPuddle - All you have to do now, is to go to:

http://www.signbank.org/signpuddle2.0/index.php?ui=1&sgn=74

and scroll down and push the Login Button, and log in with your Username and Password. As an Editor you can change all the signs in the dictionary. You are the only Editor of the dictionary at the moment. Others can add their own signs and change only their own signs, but you can change anyone's signs…try it to see if your Editor status is working…

Please write back to tell me if your Editor status is working for you -

> 
> For  now it is all from me. I hope that you will receive my e-mail and read it. 
> Thanks for your replies and your advice. Greetings from Slovenia! Edi Strouhal.
> 

Yes, we received this email and thank you for writing! Please write again and let's make an appointment to Skype. How about Saturday? I live in California…so I am at Pacific Standard Time (PST)…we need to find a time that is good for both of us…

What about 9:00am PST on Saturday? My Skype name is valeriesutton.

I look forward to meeting you on Skype!!

Val ;-)

Valerie Sutton
SignWriting List moderator
sutton at signwriting.org

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