There is a common misapprehension that there is a universal sign language. That, regardless of where you grew up in, every genesis of a signed language will magically converge into a single, unanimously agreed upon system of sords (sign equivalent for ‘words’) and syntactic structure. The myth starts to collapse when one tries to imagine this hypothetical situation. That being said, Deaf communities around the world have a unique way of navigating through new linguistic environments despite what most of us would normally refer to as a ‘language barrier’.
I had the pleasure of flying to Nepal along with a group of hearing and Deaf volunteers as part of an overseas community project to contribute to the building of classrooms to one of the few Deaf schools in the country, and the only one in the city of Dhulikhel. Being the only Deaf school that conducts all its classes in Nepal Sign Language (NSL) in the entire city, some children travel for hours on foot while some others opt to stay in the few lodging areas to have the opportunity to partake in a syllabus taught in NSL.
When we arrived at the school on our first day, we were warmly welcomed by smiles and excited faces from the students and teachers. We were then divided into two groups: one assisted on the classroom construction work and the other interacted with the students in their respective classrooms in smaller subgroups. I was part of the latter. Since it was the first day, we wanted to kick things off with icebreakers and just spending some time to get to know each other. Unsurprisingly, this turned out to be a herculean task given the difference in the languages we use. Our volunteering team communicated through Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) whereas the Deaf school students used NSL.
We started with names which was easy. Deaf individuals tend to have a strong inkling when a sign name is being introduced in a sentence, regardless of the signed language one uses. After a few rounds of introduction and simple games, we kind of ran out of ideas. So we started sharing some of our own stories. I tried to explain the word weird to tease one of my teammates. First, I signed the sord weird but obviously this didn’t work because that sord was only intelligible in SgSL (and some other signed languages, just not NSL). For some reason, my natural instinct went into fingerspelling w-e-i-r-d. This is the equivalent of going to a foreign country, asking for directions and when they give you a puzzled look, you speak slower in the hopes that they will somehow understand whatever it is you’re asking. One of the Deaf volunteers stepped in and did something absolutely amazing. In a metaphorical sense, he painted a picture of what weird is. This was beyond language and gestures. He distilled the essence of the word and the students nodded their head and laughed – the message got through to them! I was astounded because here I was struggling to explain a word in the most methodological way for me but it came so naturally for the Deaf volunteer. He didn’t know any NSL, mind you. He simply constructed a string of commonly understood facial expressions and gestures to convey a piece of information. So perhaps there may not be a universal sign language, but in this illustration, it’s clear to see that there may be a universal element that signed languages have that transcends beyond a communication system. The Deaf volunteer referred to this as the Deaf experience. I’m not personally Deaf but learning SgSL has afforded me this wonderful opportunity to immerse in a rich and beautiful culture. The more I interact with members of the local Deaf community, the more I stand in awe at this culture and language. Perhaps one day, I’ll understand what it is that Deaf volunteer did and how he did it. Perhaps.
This piece was written by our #SGUnited intern, Jan Paolo (on the far left!). Jan Paolo is a Psychology major and will be in his final year this August.