Karen-in-Japan
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2014
- Messages
- 13
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi! My name is Karen.
I need some help, but first let me introduce myself.
I live in northern Japan, home of the Sapporo snow festival.
I've been interested in ASL for many years, learning from books, but never got very good at it. I did find it helpful in teaching English to Japanese kids. They don't realize it, but they learned some basic ASL along with their English.
Seeing visiting gospel choirs with ASL translators onstage, I joined the Japanese sign language class at my church - but it didn't get much further than signing a few songs.
I got involved with the local sign language translation team for the Billy Graham Festival of Hope, because they were translating even the English songs and interpreting instrumental music. Some of the artists wouldn't provide song lists or lyrics to the team, so they couldn't prepare. At the festival, I ended up standing behind the signer, listening to the English lyrics, and shouting the meaning in Japanese into her ear. 2-step translating. Whew.
So I finally joined a proper Japanese sign language class, and am learning alot.
My problem?
I am the only american in the class, and have been asked to give a talk to the local deaf community about life/living in the USA.
Gulp.
I need some help with the research.
I can do the part about explaining the basic differences in the languages, and have found a site on deaf history - it looks just like Japanese deaf history. They won't find that interesting unless I come up with something different.
YES, I am browsing through the forums here so you don't have to answer the same questions again. (I noticed you guys get sensitive about that.)
I am also going through Gallaudet's website.
What would you like to tell the deaf community in Japan about life in the USA?
I need some help, but first let me introduce myself.
I live in northern Japan, home of the Sapporo snow festival.
I've been interested in ASL for many years, learning from books, but never got very good at it. I did find it helpful in teaching English to Japanese kids. They don't realize it, but they learned some basic ASL along with their English.
Seeing visiting gospel choirs with ASL translators onstage, I joined the Japanese sign language class at my church - but it didn't get much further than signing a few songs.
I got involved with the local sign language translation team for the Billy Graham Festival of Hope, because they were translating even the English songs and interpreting instrumental music. Some of the artists wouldn't provide song lists or lyrics to the team, so they couldn't prepare. At the festival, I ended up standing behind the signer, listening to the English lyrics, and shouting the meaning in Japanese into her ear. 2-step translating. Whew.
So I finally joined a proper Japanese sign language class, and am learning alot.
My problem?
I am the only american in the class, and have been asked to give a talk to the local deaf community about life/living in the USA.
Gulp.
I need some help with the research.
I can do the part about explaining the basic differences in the languages, and have found a site on deaf history - it looks just like Japanese deaf history. They won't find that interesting unless I come up with something different.
YES, I am browsing through the forums here so you don't have to answer the same questions again. (I noticed you guys get sensitive about that.)
I am also going through Gallaudet's website.
What would you like to tell the deaf community in Japan about life in the USA?