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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Tue May 1, 2001 3:40 am Subject: Quick report on Brazil | ||||||||||||
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Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 From: Charles Butler Subject: Quick report on Brazil Hello Valerie, Please add to the Sign Writing list. This is my address in Brazil with the SignNet project. Meanwhile, here is some report on my work here. Last weekend I was invited by my 6 Deaf friends to Gramado, which is the "Little Germany" of Brasil. About half the people there speak German as their first language, and in fact the voice interpreter for me during the trip was raised by a German grandmother until the age of 7 when he began to learn Portuguese. He is fluent in English, and we got a chance to chat. Anyway, we wandered around this German city for the afternoon, and went to the Church of Mary the Mother of God during the afternoon to take pictures. The stained-glass windows are beautiful. I have a roll full of pictures. The countryside is beautiful, rolling steep hills looking like the Blue Ridge Mountains at their best without smog and very very green. The roads are paved and well traveled and very steep. The city of Nova Hamburgo is a tourist trap for southern Brazil, but it's setting in the hills feels like Austria, so who can blame them. There are churrascos (Brazilian barbeque) everywhere, as well as fondue restaurants. We sampled both on Saturday. I was well stuffed. Being immersed in both Libras and Portuguese is an interesting experience. Today I went with my neighbor Fabiano to his school where he teached teenagers various aspects of Brazilian culture. I came as his guest today and he shared some of my life having been born in Brazil, and growing up the US. All of the kids were eager to ask questions, and Fabiano explained that I was there to help share Sign Writing with them. I was writing on the board in Brazilian Sign Language and the kids were eager to learn. Then my 15 minutes was up, and Fabiano continued with the class while I went downstairs and had a long presentation with most of the other faculty of the school. The principal is very much interested in seeing Sign Writing adopted as the formal way to write Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) but knows that he is going to have to fight an uphill battle against politics, social structures, and lots of money problems to do it. Meanwhile, me coming from the US and sharing some of the equivalent stories from an unappreciative Gallaudet University and an adult Deaf population slow to learn, and yet now seeing 22 school systems in the US beginning to learn to write sign language as a language of literature, and poetry, and stories, and history, is making them all take notice. He stumbled in English for a little while until I told him to just talk slowly in Portuguese and it would be easier on him and better for me in learning the language. I was able to understand about 75% of his conversation with the other teachers from that point on, so I know my "understanding" skills are improving, and with some challenge, I can converse in Portuguese. I gave a presentation for the local Deaf Society last night (Wednesday, or Quarta Feira here) at the Federal University on "why a written language is so important" and why Sign Writing can make a difference. I talked for about an hour and then we had questions and answers from parents, administrators, psychologists, and at least four different deaf folk, including two (Marianna and Anna Carolina) who are teaching Sign Writing now in several locations. ULBRA, the Lutheran University here in Canoas, is starting up a Sign Writing course this semester and Fabiano has 8 students in his new class. I will be leaving Canoas to go to Pelotas on the 6th of May. Sr. Rocha, the administrator there, wants me to come and work with him for a month to see the different progress that is being made in the deaf schools there. It has been an all-around exciting time. My 4-language dictionary project has gotten off to a good start with about 300 words now (alphabet, numbers, and about 100 other words in both Libras and ASL as a comparative dictionary). People who have seen it are excited, and it is a project I can continue when I return to the US. I feel so priveleged to be doing this work here, as who would have thought that years as an interpreter, plus parents who were missionaries to Brasil, plus a chance wandering through a library in DC had me see a newspaper in Sign Writing 25 years ago, and now I am here, in Brazil, helping to teach Sign Writing, grading a student's papers, acting as coach, researcher, and absolutely fascinated observer. Ciaou for now, Will write later. Charles Butler | ||||||||||||
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