New shoes: do they fit?

Do you remember your first pair of shoes? Your first bicycle? Your first email account? I may be wrong, but I suspect that some of the kids here at the Luang Prabang deaf school are acquiring their first language at the age of 13 or so.

I don't know much sign language since I've just started, but I was surprised that they didn't understand words like "Luang Prabang" or names of other provinces. Then I was told that they'd only been at the school for 4 months. They'd just come from their villages. In their villages, they had nobody to talk to. Hearing people probably don't bother to go beyond simple games of charades to communicate with them. Furthermore, the kids don't understand the written language. For the first time in their life, they are surrounded by non-hearing friends and I am sure they are developing new signs quicker than the teachers can teach them "standard Lao signs" (if they exist).

It's not often that we can experience a language being formed. I'm careful not to impose a standardization that isn't appropriate. They need signs that are communicable beyond their little school of 35. At the same time, its unanimous that they shouldn't simply adopt Thai sign language which is quite similar.

A teacher tells me of her experience being sent to Thailand to learn sign language. She's taught the sign for "map". No problem, but after a bit she suspects that "map" is signed by the shape of the Thai map. She says, "I'm Lao. My "map" is not the same."

She's not happy about this experience. I gather she was told something like, "Well, tough luck. If you don't have your own sign, you'd better use ours."

That's what I mean when I say "A voice for the deaf" What's the point of using a language if we can't express the world we experience?

It's a delicate job. Nobody can "give" them their language. What I will try to do is "transcribe" it and get enough participation to ensure that they are satisfied with what goes down in print.