0:00:10.393,0:00:14.420
Were you just wondering "What are they saying?"?

0:00:14.420,0:00:17.902
Well, if you knew sign language, you would.

0:00:17.902,0:00:19.920
And I think you should.

0:00:19.920,0:00:22.335
I think everyone should learn sign language.

0:00:22.335,0:00:24.753
I think you should be taught as a baby,

0:00:24.753,0:00:27.202
in elementary school,

0:00:27.202,0:00:29.651
or as a second language.

0:00:30.621,0:00:33.070
I was raised to deaf parents, and that's why

0:00:33.070,0:00:35.212
I've known sign language my whole life.

0:00:35.212,0:00:38.096
And knowing sign language has really given me a gift.

0:00:38.727,0:00:40.197
Sign language.

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It has really enriched my life in so many ways,

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and I fully believe that if everyone learned sign language,

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that we could all really enjoy the gems of knowing sign language,

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and what that has to offer.

0:00:56.536,0:00:59.787
Here I am, with my deaf mom,

0:00:59.787,0:01:01.903
and that's how I learned how to sign.

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I was 8 months old when I was signing.

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That's right - 8 months old.

0:01:06.704,0:01:09.302
I had communication going both ways.

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You had to wait until you were about 1,5 years old

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because you couldn't physically produce the sounds.

0:01:16.770,0:01:19.204
Deaf people [have known] this for centuries.

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They were signing with their babies,

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and from 6, 8, or 10 months old, they would sign back.

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The hearing community, nowadays, had said,

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"Wait a minute, why do I have to wait

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until my baby's 1,5 or 2 years old

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before we can communicate?"

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So nowadays many hearing parents and teachers

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are using sign language to communicate with their children

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so that they don't have to wait until they're talking.

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You're thinking, "Six months old? That's pretty young."

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But think of that child that you've seen that goes like this.

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What are they saying? They're saying "I want to come to you."

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And that's something that they've learned.

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Every time you've said, "Come. Can I pick you up?"

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You do that over and over again.

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That's basically what signing with children is about.

0:02:02.020,0:02:04.303
And you just take that one step further,

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and you learn a handful of signs and you use that throughout the day.

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And then they'll pick it up, just like they've picked up waving,

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because that's what they do, right?

0:02:13.753,0:02:16.602
Around 10 months old, a child can wave?That's also something that they've learned.

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What I'd like to do is take you through the lifespan

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of one person and show you the many different ways

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how sign language can enhance your life,and how it can enhance

0:02:33.654,0:02:36.403
a community as a whole.

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This is Mikah, my son, and he's signing the sign for 'boat'.

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Let's see what your life would have been like if you knew sign language as a baby.

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So you're maybe 10 months old and you point to the fruit bowl

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and you sign the sign 'apple'.

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Your parents can just take the apple and give you that apple,

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because what usually happens is you point to the fruit bowl

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and your mom's like, "Do you want the banana?" (Shrieks)

0:03:05.091,0:03:07.046
"Do you want the cucumber?" (Shrieks)

0:03:07.046,0:03:10.388
You're kind of like constantly going until you figure out which one it is.

0:03:10.788,0:03:13.436
With sign language, you just do the sign

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and they can give you exactly what you want.

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For parents, you really get to know what your child wants and is thinking.

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And that's the beauty of using sign language at such a young age.

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Parent: What is that?(Child names animals in Dutch and Dutch Sign Language)

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Child: Goat!Parent: Yeah, great! What does the goat do?

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(Girl sings in Dutch) Playing is such fun, do you play with me?

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Because playing is the best there is if there's two of you!

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Playing with my teddy bear,reading a book,

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Playing with my prettiest doll,

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Playing is great!

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Just a short example of how you can playfully use sign language

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with the little ones,but you also saw elementary [school] age kids.

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They also love signing. I was just

0:04:06.949,0:04:10.186
at an elementary school the other day, and I had 5- to 7-year-olds

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bombarding me with "What's the sign for 'apple'?"

0:04:12.032,0:04:14.579
"What's the sign for 'more'?" "What's the sign for 'cake'?"

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And they were eating it up. They could speak fully,

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but they are, to this day, I heard from the teacher,

0:04:20.325,0:04:22.385
still signing every week.

0:04:26.801,0:04:30.503
There's also, as a benefit of knowing both,

0:04:30.503,0:04:32.987
a spoken language and sign language,

0:04:32.987,0:04:36.871
is that I can pick in whichever situation I want to use

0:04:36.871,0:04:39.873
either a spoken language or sign language.

0:04:39.873,0:04:43.578
In some cases, it's even great to use both spoken and sign language,

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and that's what I'm also advocating for.

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We already know that 92% of communication is non-verbal,

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so why not take advantage of it?

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So now picture that you're in elementary school

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and you're going to learn about the water cycle of precipitation.

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You can learn this in words.

0:05:00.871,0:05:06.686
So your teacher would say, you know, "We have the water cycle. How does that work?

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You have bodies of water in the earth, and then that will

0:05:11.655,0:05:15.586
evaporate, and then it condenses, and then it precipitates

0:05:15.586,0:05:18.836
back and then returns to the bodies of water."

0:05:19.036,0:05:21.436
Or you can use some signs.

0:05:21.436,0:05:28.126
You can say, "You have a body of water, and then it evaporates,

0:05:28.126,0:05:31.139
and then it condenses, and then it precipitates,

0:05:31.139,0:05:34.013
and returns back to the body of water."

0:05:34.013,0:05:37.574
If you use both spoken language and the signs,

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a little more refined than our everyday gestures,

0:05:40.070,0:05:42.754
then you really see that you can be much more clear.

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The other beauty of sign language for me

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is that it is really poetry in motion.

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Sign language has some unique aspects.

0:05:54.720,0:05:58.553
For example, you can do a close-up,

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you can do a long shot,

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you can do different characters,

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you can also do slow motion, maybe you're in the car

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and the landscape is just going by,

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or you in the train and it's going by really fast.

0:06:17.252,0:06:19.704
When you tell a story, you can say it with words,

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but if you add all these little gestures to it,

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it makes it that much more interesting.

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I have an example for you.

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(Laughter)

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(Laughter)

0:07:06.094,0:07:09.520
So as they say, French is the language of love,

0:07:09.520,0:07:12.789
but sign language is the language of storytelling.

0:07:15.236,0:07:17.460
Now you say, "That may all be well and good,

0:07:17.460,0:07:20.286
you can use it for certain times in your life."

0:07:20.286,0:07:22.986
But I think you can also use it practically every day.

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I can't think of any industry where signing would not be handy.

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For example, you have the music industry

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where you need to be quiet on set, or you have to wear ear plugs.

0:07:33.370,0:07:36.087
In construction, where it's very loud.

0:07:36.103,0:07:38.116
You also have meetings every day

0:07:38.116,0:07:40.194
where you maybe just want to ask a simple little question,

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but it's too disruptive to talk.

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There are many days in your life

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where you really want to ask a question, or say something, but it's just too disruptive.

0:07:48.986,0:07:51.353
Or maybe you work at a hospital, where it would be much nicer for the patients

0:07:51.353,0:07:54.468
if you could just talk to your colleagues,

0:07:54.468,0:07:57.346
and not disturb the patients.

0:07:58.053,0:08:00.428
Another example is over long distances.

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A sign ... I can sign to people all the way up there

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and they would be able to see me.

0:08:05.039,0:08:08.986
But if everyone is here talking and doing their own thing,

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I would be quite disruptive if I had to yell to them.

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And that happens way more than you think in a day.

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And let's say you're at a club, and you see a beautiful girl,

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and you want to talk to her.

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You go up to her - and it's super loud.

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What do you end up doing?

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"Hi. My name is..." (Laughs)

0:08:28.568,0:08:30.692
You can't really get your groove going.

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But if you knew some sign language,

0:08:32.379,0:08:35.279
it doesn't matter it's super loud, you can keep signing,

0:08:35.279,0:08:38.224
and you can have a conversation, and you can try and score a date.

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Then she has to go home, and you're at the train station.

0:08:42.703,0:08:45.603
She's in the train and you're on the platform.

0:08:45.603,0:08:50.020
Again, if you don't know sign language, you're kind of like this: "Bye. Bye."

0:08:50.020,0:08:52.239
And you're waiting...

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What I do all the time, with anyone I know that is deaf

0:08:55.537,0:08:57.909
or knows sign language, I'm still carrying on

0:08:57.909,0:09:00.633
a full on conversation until the train has literally taken off.

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So there are small and big times in your life when this happens.

0:09:08.353,0:09:11.886
My time is up, so I'm going to go a little bit quicker.

0:09:11.886,0:09:14.667
My last big point that I really want to share with you

0:09:14.667,0:09:18.970
is that, even though we have a deaf community,

0:09:18.970,0:09:20.950
every country has a deaf community.

0:09:20.950,0:09:23.681
So the way we can do this is teach sign language

0:09:23.681,0:09:26.379
in all elementary schools or high schools,

0:09:26.379,0:09:28.316
and you can learn this as a young child

0:09:28.378,0:09:31.563
and then you can apply this to your everyday lives.

0:09:31.563,0:09:34.557
The last thing that I want to say is that

0:09:34.557,0:09:38.370
there are many people that are elderly that are also quite isolated,

0:09:38.370,0:09:41.020
and if you knew some sign language your whole life,

0:09:41.020,0:09:43.019
then you'd be able to sign.

0:09:43.019,0:09:47.236
And what happens? It comes full circle.

0:09:47.621,0:09:49.289
Grandpa can sign with their grandchild

0:09:49.289,0:09:53.576
and everyone is using sign language the whole day long.

0:09:54.453,0:09:55.868
Am I done?

0:09:55.876,0:09:57.290
(Laughs)

0:09:59.229,0:10:01.311
Hey, mom is working.

0:10:01.311,0:10:03.708
(Laughs)

0:10:04.970,0:10:08.520
Do you think that mamma's all done? Yeah, okay.

0:10:08.520,0:10:12.144
Well, as you see, I've got to go. Thank you.

0:10:12.144,0:10:13.867
(Applause)