Hi from France!

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lucyinthesky

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Hello,

I am hearing but I've been involved with Deaf culture for some time now...and now I just found out my baby daughter is HOH and may go deaf (I had a virus while I was pregnant so no one can say whether she will go deaf or just stay HOH). Anyway, I am American but I live in France...and, long story short (not too short!) I started learning ASL in high school, then moved to the UK where I learned some BSL, then back to the US where I started ASL again, but spent several months working at a deaf school in Ecuador and then later spent a year in India...so I sign mostly ASL but not a very pure form since I keep moving around and meeting deaf people (often friendlier than hearies to foreign people!)

So I am kind of lost about what to do...I started using simple ASL with my baby but I wonder if I should invest my time in practicing ASL or start learning LSF (French sign) instead. So far I haven't had much luck finding an LSF tutor. I feel like France is behind in early intervention. I know that ASL comes from LSF but it seems to have changed a lot over the years - I have only seen a little LSF but I can already see that many basic signs are different. If my daughter starts learning ASL signs will it be confusing for her to switch to LSF when she starts school? If you're curious about LSF there are videos here, I hope you can view them from abroad:
Oeil et la main - France5

Just wondering if anyone had any advice. Thanks!
 
Hi and :welcome: to AD!

My suggestion would be go with ASL (if you are more comfortable using it than the other signed languages) so she can establish a strong first language and then use to to learn French, BSL, and English.

The most important thing is for her to get that full access to language while young so by exposing her to both the signed language and spoken language (can be done by labeling everything in the house in French, English, or both) if you feel that she isnt getting access through the air from spoken language.

Best of luck!
 
Wow! I wish I had some substantial advice to give. It seems that learning LSF would be best for right now. There are so many similarities that it shouldn't be hard for your daughter to transition to ASL. It would probably actually help her to be bilingual in America (since most Deaf in America have to know both ASL and English).

Welcome!

Edit: Oops, I type too slow :(
 
welcome. :)


follow your mother's instinct between ASL and FSL if you plan to raise your kid in france.
Shel90's suggestions sounds reasonable.
 
:welcome: to AllDeaf forum. My opinion is if you are moving from one country to another country, then it would be a good idea to use ASL if you are American. But if you are planning on staying in France and want your daughter to attend a deaf program with LSF, then that is what she will learn if she have to attend the school. Going from one country to another country with sign language will be a little bit confusing for her. I am wondering when you moved, does that mean you and your family are in the military or is there a specific reason why you moved all the time. :scratch:

Have fun reading and posting all the threads here. See you around here. :wave:
 
Hi, thanks for your input and your welcomes!

No, we're not in the military...my husband is French and he is in research so he has had a lot of temporary jobs. And we like to travel! This time we were supposed to be living here permanently but I am a bit nervous about it now though, because I feel like French society is less open to Deaf Culture and I really want my daughter to grow up proud of who she is. So I am hoping maybe we can move back to the US for her to go to preschool. I don't know that much about France yet - I have just spoken to a few parents but they have all chosen CI/mainstreaming/oral only for their kids and they say they understand how it's different in the US because we have Gallaudet, etc, but here you can't go through higher education in sign language.
 
lucyinthesky said:
Hi, thanks for your input and your welcomes!

No, we're not in the military...my husband is French and he is in research so he has had a lot of temporary jobs. And we like to travel! This time we were supposed to be living here permanently but I am a bit nervous about it now though, because I feel like French society is less open to Deaf Culture and I really want my daughter to grow up proud of who she is. So I am hoping maybe we can move back to the US for her to go to preschool. I don't know that much about France yet - I have just spoken to a few parents but they have all chosen CI/mainstreaming/oral only for their kids and they say they understand how it's different in the US because we have Gallaudet, etc, but here you can't go through higher education in sign language.
Click to expand...

Meaning the schools in France wont teach children who use sign language like they do wit their hearing kids? Is there a deaf school in France?
 
Hello, LucyIntheSky....WithDiamonds...
Welcome to the board. I have been away for a week and am trying to catch up. Hope your meanderings through threads that interest you will be of some assistance.
 
There are schools that use sign language but no higher education in sign language, only vocational training. The famous Institut de Jeunes Sourds in Paris, where the Abbé de l'Epée worked, uses sign language now but it is pretty recent I think. I visited there a few years ago and the director said that most of the young students they work with are mainstreamed and have CIs, but the older students sign. In my town there is a bi-bi program through high school, but I think it can be a problem for deaf students to receive higher education in sign language, because I'm not sure if interpreters are provided by the school. So hearing parents feel they are setting their kids up not to go to college if they put them through a sign language school. I know I had a deaf student in my English class last year and she knew how to sign but she was just lipreading everything in class (she was really good at English too - better than a lot of my hearing students!) Someone told me you can have a cued speech transliterator at a university so I guess you can have an interpreter too but maybe you have to pay for it yourself? I don't know all the details of higher education yet since my kids are so young! But I do know that many French people would like to have an opportunity to go to a place like Gallaudet but it is too expensive for them (college is free here) and of course it is hard to have a good enough English level. I don't want to disparage France of course, some things are great (I found out that there's a hospital here with a special service for deaf patients with all signing staff, for instance), but I am a little nervous about the education system. I'll learn more when my son starts school I guess.
 
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