For me, the Personal Project has been an eye opening journey. I decided to learn sign language, specifically Mozambican Sign Language and it has opened up a whole new world for me.
By Khushi
I took this opportunity to move away from my comfort zone and learn more about the wider community that lives amongst us. The deaf school is just around the corner and yet can appear to be light years away when we aren't able to communicate with each other. This is why I found it important to learn sign language. During some of the first few weeks of the Personal Project, fear and excitement were some of the emotions I felt as before this moment I had never tried to reach out to the deaf community in any way. But the Personal Project proved to be just the beginning and this journey has yet to end.
Historically, those with hearing impairments have been faced with marginalization and oppression. They were deemed “dumb” as languages could only be learned by hearing and speaking and they were prohibited from using signs as a way of communicating. In the 16th century, a Spanish Benedictine monk named Pedro Ponce de León first developed the concept of sign language. He used signs as a way to communicate his messages during his period of silence. Over time his idea evolved into the creation of many different sign languages where each country or region has its own. It is very surprising to some that a universal sign language does not exist. A universal sign language is a concept that would require every country and every deaf community to know it and to use it. But this is unable to happen due to the differing signs and accents that each region might have, ensuring that these signs are used and understood differently. Instead,there is an International sign method also known as Gestuno. This sign method is used between two or more deaf communities as a way to communicate with each other and is also used during international meetings. Its sole purpose is to ensure that international institutions are able to be inclusive of all deaf communities around the world. Gestuno is similar to how English is considered the world's Lingua franca. Like English, it is commonly shared between communities with different sign languages. One of the reasons why I decided to learn sign language was because of the need for it. Our community has historically isolated ourselves from the deaf community because of our inability to communicate with them. This inability to communicate has caused us to create stereotypes, prejudice and social assumptions about the deaf community, which creates barriers between both communities. As a result, people with disabilities rarely have their voice heard and are forced to adapt to a world that is not accessible to them. This creates a challenge for all people with disabilities to experience “normal”, day-to-day activities. As a speaking individual, I took it as my responsibility to do what I could to try to break down this barrier and create change. Learning Mozambican Sign Language will help me solve this problem at a local level and allow me to connect with the deaf community. Through my experience, Mozambican Sign Language is one of the easiest languages that I have had to learn. Although I was faced with multiple challenges that I have had to overcome along the way, the process was quite simple. I took classes twice a week at the local deaf school for about an hour and half. Each class would introduce a new topic where we would learn different signs and use them in sentences as a way of applying what we learned. During some classes our sign language teacher would invite others to come to our class to help boost interactions using sign language with other deaf students and teachers. One of the biggest challenges that I faced at the beginning of this journey was finding online resources. All of the resources that I could find were about ASL (American Sign Language) or BSL (British Sign Language) as they are the most common and known sign languages. Due to the fact that Mozambican sign language is a language that is only used in Mozambique and by those who live here, not many sources online teach it. As a result, I had to resort to finding primary sources and using the deaf school as one of my biggest resources for this project. One of my proudest moments during the process was getting my sign name. A sign name is a name that is given to you by a deaf person as a way of referring to you in sign rather than spelling your name out. They use your physical characteristics along with your personality to choose a name that best fits you. This was a milestone for me as it means that now I am now a speaking person who is a part of the deaf community. "Learn sign language at the playground" by Valerie Everett is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 .
Now that I am adequately able to sign, new opportunities and possible experiences have arisen for me. I am often referred to as a translator by my sign language teacher as multiple times I have had to translate things from Portuguese or English to Mozambican Sign Language. For the Personal Project presentation I was the Mozambican Sign Language interpreter. Although there weren't any deaf people in the crowd, doing this was still important and it served as an eye-opener as to how important simple gestures and actions are in helping to boost inclusivity. In addition, learning Mozambican Sign Language has allowed me to bring our school community closer to the deaf community by communicating what I have learned.
Hopefully, this is a sign of the changing times.
1 Comment
Terry
9/5/2024 20:57:05
Khushi your beautifully written article gave me even more insights into the journey you took to learn Mozambican sign language. I didn't know about Gestuno before - it would make so much sense to have a universal sign language but you also do a great job of pointing out why that's hard. It was so moving to read about how you were given your name in signs. Beautiful. Congrats, Khushi!
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