spiderjump
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I don't know whether you guys would label this as deaf news or strange news. I'd rather avoid considering this article to be strange because it brings good. Yes it is Roger the movie critic, happy readings!
Roger Ebert's Journal Why I'll be learning sign language
After spending a couple of years avoiding sign language, I received this message from James Mottern, the director of "Trucker," which told me things I needed to hear:
Dear Roger,
When I was at the festival I spoke with Chaz about sign language and she told me that on your blog you wrote about why you did not want to learn it. I have looked but could not find anything about it.
This is none of my business, but - ahem - that has never stopped me in anything before, so...
My three young daughters are learning sign language (they are home-schooled) and I am trying to learn it, too; and I am here to tell you that sign language is one of the most incredibly enjoyable forms of communication I have ever experienced. Smoke I do not blow, Roger. In sign language you can express yourself in ways that you had but hoped to be able to do through spoken language - or even the written word. The emotionality, heart and spirit that can be conveyed in this manner has been an inspiration to me to becoming more open and sincere in my everyday life. With words you can lie. But in sign language you wear your heart on your sleeve - just about literally. In sign language it is nearly impossible to betray your feelings to others. There is a purity and beauty to it that, I am not kidding, will bring a tear to one's eye. In sign language your hands and your eyes and your body language can convey thoughts so viscerally that it registers in the brain in some ways the same as film; I mean it.
And I am telling you this as a truth: although I am still not very good at it, sign language has brought me closer to my family. And beyond that, I truly feel it has made me a better writer! I realize you may be asking yourself how that is even possible, but, Roger, it's true.
And this is what I really wanted to tell you about it: in my opinion, beyond film itself, sign language is the MOST CINEMATIC forms of communication. It is dramatic, funny, tragic, illuminating, nuanced, and, yes, at times even embarrassing. If sign language could have a filmic format it would be 70mm Technicolor and viewed at the Cinerama Dome!
And I learned all this about the meaning of life from a children's sign language video series called Signing Time with Alex and Leah.
That is all.
Warmly,
James Mottern
Roger Ebert's Journal Why I'll be learning sign language
After spending a couple of years avoiding sign language, I received this message from James Mottern, the director of "Trucker," which told me things I needed to hear:
Dear Roger,
When I was at the festival I spoke with Chaz about sign language and she told me that on your blog you wrote about why you did not want to learn it. I have looked but could not find anything about it.
This is none of my business, but - ahem - that has never stopped me in anything before, so...
My three young daughters are learning sign language (they are home-schooled) and I am trying to learn it, too; and I am here to tell you that sign language is one of the most incredibly enjoyable forms of communication I have ever experienced. Smoke I do not blow, Roger. In sign language you can express yourself in ways that you had but hoped to be able to do through spoken language - or even the written word. The emotionality, heart and spirit that can be conveyed in this manner has been an inspiration to me to becoming more open and sincere in my everyday life. With words you can lie. But in sign language you wear your heart on your sleeve - just about literally. In sign language it is nearly impossible to betray your feelings to others. There is a purity and beauty to it that, I am not kidding, will bring a tear to one's eye. In sign language your hands and your eyes and your body language can convey thoughts so viscerally that it registers in the brain in some ways the same as film; I mean it.
And I am telling you this as a truth: although I am still not very good at it, sign language has brought me closer to my family. And beyond that, I truly feel it has made me a better writer! I realize you may be asking yourself how that is even possible, but, Roger, it's true.
And this is what I really wanted to tell you about it: in my opinion, beyond film itself, sign language is the MOST CINEMATIC forms of communication. It is dramatic, funny, tragic, illuminating, nuanced, and, yes, at times even embarrassing. If sign language could have a filmic format it would be 70mm Technicolor and viewed at the Cinerama Dome!
And I learned all this about the meaning of life from a children's sign language video series called Signing Time with Alex and Leah.
That is all.
Warmly,
James Mottern
