I am thinking of going to China but I am deaf and cannot speak Chinese. What if I can’t understand their sign language as well? What will I do?
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I am thinking of going to China but I am deaf and cannot speak Chinese. What if I can’t understand their sign language as well? What will I do?
.
There are many different sign languages. American, French, South African and there’s probably a Chinese version.
Dear Yahoo!:
Is sign language for the deaf universal? Or is it English specific?
Stephen
Huntsville, Alabama
Dear Stephen:
As we learned on a site called Handspeak in the Yahoo! Sign Languages Category, sign language is not universal. Most countries have their own unique sign language.
Like spoken languages, sign languages have their own grammar, syntax, and rules. There are even variations in the English-speaking world, making it possible to sign in an “Australian accent.”
A particularly fascinating sign language developed on Martha’s Vineyard during the 19th century. Early settlers of the island carried a gene for deafness, and as a result of intermarriage, an unusually large portion of the population was deaf by the mid-1800s. Many of their signs eventually became commonly used in American Sign Language.
Gestuno is an international sign language, the equivalent of Esperanto. An amalgam of basic signs from around the world, Gestuno is an Italian word that roughly translates as “oneness of sign languages.” The Esperanto analogy is apt, as Gestuno has relatively few practitioners.