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The Art of Sign Language: for Babies, Boobs and Bobs - Lissa Zeviar at TEDxAmsterdam

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    Were you just wondering "What are they saying?"?
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    Well, if you knew sign language, you would.
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    And I think you should.
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    I think everyone should learn sign language.
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    I think you should be taught as a baby,
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    in elementary school,
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    or as a second language.
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    I was raised to deaf parents, and that's why
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    I've known sign language my whole life.
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    And knowing sign language has really given me a gift.
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    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.
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    Here I am, with my deaf mom,
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    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.
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    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.
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    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.
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    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?
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    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
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    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)
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    "Do you want the cucumber?" (Shrieks)
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    You're kind of like constantly going until you figure out which one it is.
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    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
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    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'?"
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    "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,
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    still signing every week.
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    There's also, as a benefit of knowing both,
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    a spoken language and sign language,
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    is that I can pick in whichever situation I want to use
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    either a spoken language or sign language.
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    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.
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    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
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    evaporate, and then it condenses, and then it precipitates
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    back and then returns to the bodies of water."
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    Or you can use some signs.
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    You can say, "You have a body of water, and then it evaporates,
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    and then it condenses, and then it precipitates,
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    and returns back to the body of water."
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    If you use both spoken language and the signs,
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    a little more refined than our everyday gestures,
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    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.
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    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.
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    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)
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    So as they say, French is the language of love,
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    but sign language is the language of storytelling.
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    Now you say, "That may all be well and good,
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    you can use it for certain times in your life."
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    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.
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    In construction, where it's very loud.
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    You also have meetings every day
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    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.
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    Or maybe you work at a hospital, where it would be much nicer for the patients
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    if you could just talk to your colleagues,
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    and not disturb the patients.
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    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.
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    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)
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    You can't really get your groove going.
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    But if you knew some sign language,
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    it doesn't matter it's super loud, you can keep signing,
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    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.
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    She's in the train and you're on the platform.
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    Again, if you don't know sign language, you're kind of like this: "Bye. Bye."
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    And you're waiting...
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    What I do all the time, with anyone I know that is deaf
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    or knows sign language, I'm still carrying on
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    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.
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    My time is up, so I'm going to go a little bit quicker.
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    My last big point that I really want to share with you
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    is that, even though we have a deaf community,
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    every country has a deaf community.
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    So the way we can do this is teach sign language
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    in all elementary schools or high schools,
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    and you can learn this as a young child
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    and then you can apply this to your everyday lives.
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    The last thing that I want to say is that
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    there are many people that are elderly that are also quite isolated,
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    and if you knew some sign language your whole life,
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    then you'd be able to sign.
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    And what happens? It comes full circle.
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    Grandpa can sign with their grandchild
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    and everyone is using sign language the whole day long.
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    Am I done?
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    (Laughs)
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    Hey, mom is working.
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    (Laughs)
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    Do you think that mamma's all done? Yeah, okay.
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    Well, as you see, I've got to go. Thank you.
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    (Applause)
Title:
The Art of Sign Language: for Babies, Boobs and Bobs - Lissa Zeviar at TEDxAmsterdam
Description:

Lissa is the owner of Babygebaren and a professional sign language interpreter. Born to parents that are both deaf, Lissa Zeviar feels that sign language is not only natural but also a great gift. What if everyone was raised with sign language? Would everyone benefit if everyone knew sign language?
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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDxTalks
Duration:
10:19

English subtitles

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