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From:
Mark Penner Date: Thu May 21, 1998 11:48 pm Subject: Introduction and a question | |
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Mark Penner I was born in the U.S., raised in Japan. After 15 years training Deaf leaders in the Japanese Deaf church, I'm now working with them on translating the Bible into Japanese Sign Language. As we're producing and distributing it on video, we didn't think we'd need to print it (after all, you can't write SL, right?), but we've run into some problems. Either we record every translation change on video, a time-consuming process that brings momentum to a grinding halt, or use written Japanese for cueing. This is far quicker, but also far less accurate. Each time you read the cue sheet, phrasing, rhythm, and facial elements change, even though the Japanese text stays the same. Saving our work accurately in written Japanese is impossible, and video is cumbersome. Cueing our signers in front of the camera is difficult too. Its hard to sign naturally when seeing written Japanese. So I joined SignWriting and the list, trying to learn what I can. Opinion Poll #1: Which do you think is the most effective way to distribute SL literature and why? 1) Video (painfully slow for searching, but everyone here has access to VCR) 2) Digital Video Disk (DVD--not many have it yet, but much more useable if programmed well) 3) Signwritten Version (random access possible, very quick for searching, but no one can read it) Realisticly, how long will it take to learn SignWriting well enough to read it and sign fluently in front of the camera? What are the chances of convincing a whole community of Deaf people that its worth learning when they've functioned just fine without it for all their lives? Even learning it ourselves for recording and cueing isn't going all that quickly. Japanese kanji (pictographs, Chinese characters) are much quicker and easier, since we've already learned them, and associate them with certain signs. Its the grammar part we need SignWriting for. Mark and Mary Esther Penner CBInternational Tokyo, Japan https://www.deaf.or.jp/vibi/ |
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