Fake Sign Language Interpreter at Nelson Mandela memorial

whatdidyousay! said:
I wonder if SNL will have this on for a skit . They love have fun things like this. I saw it on the news again and people in South Africa are not saying
if it fake or not.
Click to expand...

im looking forward to it i know it is NOT funny but I like SNL myself. eh...
 
:laugh2: If he got paid for it, oh boy he's in a big trouble once they hear the news.
 
IMO, someone should have stepped up and stopped this facade and exposed him! I don't care if the president was talking. Deaf/HoH have the right to understand what he's saying as much as anyone else.

I'd like to know what the results are of this discovery.
 
He looks like he's trying to come up with other bs ways to sign. :roll: I do agree that this is quite embarrassing, poor guy.
 
Communication access was cut off to Deaf people who wanted to pay their respects to Nelson Mandela. I'm enraged.
 
"...Since the mid-1990s, South Africa has adopted one sign language, SASL, and a set of educational policies that encourage it to be taught in schools. But interestingly, the new language is still in the process of being codified, which means there’s no single, standard form -- and according to the Deaf Federation of South Africa, not all language schools there use it. In fact, in 2008 there were only six professional, accredited SASL interpreters in the entire country, a situation that University of Cape Town researcher Marion Heap, writing in the Cape Times, called an “urgent” public health risk…."
Is South Africa’s ‘fake’ sign language interpreter a legacy of apartheid?
 
A man who stood close to President Barack Obama and other heads of state while providing sign language interpretation at Nelson Mandela’s memorial Tuesday was a “fake” who was making up his own gestures, sign language experts say, raising questions about the security at the event.

"[He] was moving his hands around, but there was no meaning in what he used his hands for," Bruno Druchen, the Deaf Federation of South Africa’s national director, told The Associated Press Wednesday.

The country’s deaf community and the ruling African National Congress have no knowledge of who the man actually is, despite him appearing on television gesticulating alongside South African President Jacob Zuma last year, Reuters reported.

"I don't know this guy. He doesn't work for the ANC. It was a government event. Ask them," ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said.

U.S. Secret Service Spokesman Brian Leary told FoxNews.com that the department is aware of the matter, but declined to elaborate.

Zuma’s office is also trying to find out the man's identity, according to Reuters.

Druchen and three other sign language experts said the man was not signing in South African or American sign languages and could not have been signing in any other known sign language because there was no structure to his arm and hand movements. South African sign language covers all of the country's 11 official languages, according to the federation.

"He didn't follow any of the grammatical rules and structure of the language. He just invented his signs as he went along," Delphin Hlungwane, an official South African sign language interpreter at DeafSA, told Reuters.

"There was zero percent accuracy. He couldn't even get the basics right. He couldn't even say thank you," she added.

Ingrid Parkin, principal of the St. Vincent School for the Deaf in Johannesburg, said she's received complaints from the deaf community from Canada to China about the man on stage and that his movements look "like he's signing gibberish." He also used no facial expression to convey the emotions of the leaders, a key element of sign language interpretation.

"This man himself knows he cannot sign and he had the guts to stand on an international stage and do that," Parkin said.

The scandal over the interpreter is another indication of shoddy organization of the historic memorial service, which took place Tuesday at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa. Other difficulties included public transportation breakdowns which hindered mourners from getting to the event and a faulty audio system that prevented many of the tens of thousands in the stadium from hearing the leaders' speeches. In an apparent security failure, police did not search the first wave of crowds arriving at the stadium.

When the man appeared last year with Zuma, a deaf person in the audience videotaped the event and gave it to the federation for the deaf, which analyzed the video, prepared a report about it and a submitted a formal complaint to the ANC, Druchen said.

In their complaint, the federation suggested that the man should take the five years of training needed to become a qualified sign language interpreter in South Africa.

Druchen said a fresh complaint will be filed to the ANC about the interpreter he called a "fake" with a demand for an urgent meeting.

"It was horrible, an absolute circus, really, really bad," Nicole Du Toit, an official sign language interpreter who also watched the broadcast, told The Associated Press.

Bogus sign language interpreters are a problem in South Africa, because people who know a few signs try to pass themselves off as interpreters, Parkin said. And those hiring them usually don't sign, so they have no idea that the people they are hiring cannot do the job, she said.

"They advertise themselves as interpreters because they know 10 signs and they can make some quick money," said Parkin. "It is plain and simple abuse of the deaf community, they are taking advantage of the deaf community to make money."

The bold part is sad...
 
MangaReader said:
A man who stood close to President Barack Obama and other heads of state while providing sign language interpretation at Nelson Mandela’s memorial Tuesday was a “fake” who was making up his own gestures, sign language experts say, raising questions about the security at the event...
Click to expand...
Thanks for the detailed report.
 
Frisky Feline said:
Sad... Nelson Mandela fought to end oppression , yet SA govt oppressed and insulted Deaf people by putting a fake interpreter on stage in front of million people. :shock:
Click to expand...
Did Mandela fight to end oppression against deaf people? I thought he fought to end oppression against black people.
 
CrazyPaul said:
Did Mandela fight to end oppression against deaf people? I thought he fought to end oppression against black people.
Click to expand...

No. the F A K E interpreter is BLACK and continue to oppress South Africa Deaf people included black Deaf people. Ok.
 
CrazyPaul said:
I wonder if deaf South Africans took action in the past or not. For example, in America, once we see a fake interpreter like him, we take action.
Click to expand...
Someone did report him before but it seems the follow up action was lacking.

I suspect there may be a political angle to this problem.
 
Reba said:
Someone did report him before but it seems the follow up action was lacking.

I suspect there may be a political angle to this problem.
Click to expand...
Another possibility is that there were no deaf people attending those events. :dunno:
 
CrazyPaul said:
Another possibility is that there were no deaf people attending those events. :dunno:
Click to expand...

You certainly have an interesting thoughts. :ugh3:


anyway, no one knows his name, and no one know how did he gets the official security pass too.
 
CrazyPaul said:
I wonder if deaf South Africans took action in the past or not. For example, in America, once we see a fake interpreter like him, we take action.
Click to expand...
From MangaReader's post:

"When the man appeared last year with Zuma, a deaf person in the audience videotaped the event and gave it to the federation for the deaf, which analyzed the video, prepared a report about it and a submitted a formal complaint to the ANC, Druchen said."
 
Back
Top