'Bahasa Isyarat" atau "Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia"?

Kita sering baca ayat "Kita belajar bahasa isyarat" di mana-mana sahaja. Kita berasa hairan kenapa mereka tidak lengkapkan ayat tersebut. Adakah mereka benar-benar faham maksud ayat ini? Mengikut pengalaman sebagai orang yang menggunakan Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia setiap hari, ayat ini kurang bermakna sebab frasa "bahasa isyarat" bukan merupakan kata nama khas.

Di dunia ini, orang bertutur dalam pelbagai bahasa. Kita biasanya kena sebut mana satu bahasa yang kita pelajari. Misalnya, apabila kita sedang belajar Bahasa Malaysia, kita kenalah membina ayat lengkap yang bermakna: "Kita belajar Bahasa Malaysia". Ayat ini dianggap lengkap dan bermakna sebab kita tahu apa beliau hendak menyampaikan.

Sekiranya beliau menyebut ayat seperti ini: "Kita belajar bahasa". Apakah reaksi anda selepas mendengar ayat ini? Adakah kamu akan faham apa mesej yang dia hendak sampaikan? Adakah ayat ini mempunyai sama makna dengan ayat "Kita belajar Bahasa Malaysia"? Apakah maksud "Kita belajar bahasa" kepada kamu? Meskipun ayat ini lengkap, tetapi tidak dapat memberi makna yang sepatutnya kepada kamu. Kamu sedang menantikan beliau menyebut apa bahasa yang dipelajarnya.

Mengikut maklumat didapati dari Internet, terdapat lebih kurang 6500 bahasa pertuturan di seluruh dunia dan kita juga mempunyai lebih dari 200 bahasa isyarat. Kebanyakan negara akan mempunyai bahasa isyarat tersendiri dan nama bahasa isyarat biasanya diberikan nama mengikut negara mereka masing-masing. Misalnya Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia (BIM), Bahasa Isyarat Amerika Syarikat (ASL), Bahasa Isyarat Perancis (LSF), Bahasa Isyarat Australia (Auslan) dan lain lain. Oleh kerana kita juga mempunyai banyak bahasa isyarat sepertimana bahasa pertuturan juga berbilang, kita kena bina ayat yang lengkap dan bermakna apabila kita hendak memberitahu orang bahawa kita belajar Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia dengan bertutur ayat yang betul dan mempunyai makna: "Kita belajar Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia" ataupun "Kita belajar BIM".

Dalam konteks English, kita juga akan sebut ayat ini "We learn BIM" or "We learn Malaysian Sign Language". BIM merupakan identiti dan nama khas yang memberi gambaran kepada bahasa isyarat yang digunakan oleh komuniti Pekak di Malaysia. Sepertimana kita mengetahui bahawa terminologi lain, HIV, IT, AIDS, WHO dan lain-lain masih digunakan dalam konteks Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Cina dan lain-lain untuk memudahkan pemahaman orang ramai.

Penyemakan #1: 25 November 2019.

Invitation to Disability Pride Movement

It is delightful to know that higher education institutions are still caring about Deaf people by organising an awareness event so that the general public could learn about Deaf people and other persons with different disabilities. Anthony Chong, the secretary of MyBIM is invited for the talk on 27 November 2019 at SEGI University.

Workshop on Inclusive Electoral Reforms in Malaysia

Workshop on Inclusive Electoral Reforms in Malaysia was organised by NCBM on 19 November 2019. The purpose is to deliberate about how people with disabilities can be included during the proses. 

Kursus Profesionalisme Guru-Guru Pendidikan Khas (Pendengaran) - Sesi 1

MyBIM conducted Special Education Teachers (Hearing) Professional Training Series 1 at Hotel Shangri-La, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah from 27 to 29 September 2019.

Malaysian Sign Language and Deaf Studies Association (MyBIM) was invited by Sabah Society for the Deaf (SSD) in conjunction with the Sabah State Education and Innovation Ministry to conduct a 3-days Intensive Training Course entitled “Special Education Teachers (Hearing) Professional Training Series 1” at Hotel Shangri-La, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah from 27 to 29 September 2019.

Ms. Jessica Mak, Mr. Anthony Chong and Mr. James Chua, together with interpreters Ms. Lucy Lim and Mr. Paul Gan, co-conducted this workshop on training Sabah special education teachers on nine Deaf-related topics. Over the 3 days, some 97 teachers from special education schools, polytechnics and institutes, Deaf primary, secondary & vocational schools and NGO-run schools attended this workshop, with many of them coming from different states.

On 27th September in the early afternoon, Ms. Regina Wong of SSD gave a warm welcome to all the participants and explained the workshop objectives & rules; and introduced the workshop hosts to the participants and vice versa. Ms. Jessica gave a short introduction about MyBIM. Mr. Anthony then kicked off the workshop with “Deaf Culture” which touched upon Deaf Culture in the Malaysian context, including Deaf traditions, literatures and the Deaf Community. Dinner followed thereafter, which allowed the participants to get to know each other better.

28th September was a full day where the participants learnt more about: Deaf People, Dual Identities; Introduction to Malaysian Sign Language (BIM); Language Assessment; Cognitive Development in Deaf Students; Educational Interventions; and Transitional Education. To break up the heavy schedule throughout the day, the co-hosts included a short introduction to Visual Gesture Communication (VGC) and included several games where the participants used VGC in game activities. Many participants enjoyed flexing their creativity during the VGC games without using their existing BIM and KTBM (Kod Tangan Bahasa Melayu).

The last day (29th September) featured the last two topics: Language Learning Approach which saw the participants drawing up language lessons with shape-codes and BIM Translation (using BIM in teaching English, Bahasa Malay and Geography), and a panel discussion whereby the co-hosts answered many interesting questions about teaching challenges and experiences within Deaf education environments from the floor. After a hearty lunch, the co-hosts and participants came back to the ballroom to have a “graduation” session officiated by Assistant Education and Innovation Minister Jenifer Lasimbang and took group photos with the co-hosts, interpreters and SSD. The co-hosts and interpreters had a sumptuous farewell dinner with SSD before returning to Kuala Lumpur the next morning.

Overall, Ms. Regina with the help of SSD organised this special training very well. MyBIM’s Training Course was an opportunity to share about Deaf education issues and trends, and the training participants enjoyed the course very much. Many of them opened up about their struggles being teachers of Deaf students and found the training course useful to apply in their educational settings; they also requested for a longer, more intensive follow-up training course in the future. MyBIM hopes to introduce such course in the future, and also set up a training workshop model to be replicated across Malaysian states.

Reported by James Chua

New term “sord”

New term “sord”

Sord (n. pl sords). A sign word or a combination of handshape, palm orientation, location, movement, or non-manual marker. This term is coined by blending sign and word. It is equivalent to the meaning of word of spoken or written languages, however expressed with hand.

Explanation

The sign language used in Malaysia is called Malaysian Sign Language or BIM. It is an independent language. Deaf people generally converse in their local sign language. BIM allows Deaf people to communicate their thought and feeling to other people who can understand BIM. Similar to spoken and written languages, the sign languages have their own grammatical structure. The difference is BIM and other sign languages are expressed with hands. The sign languages do not have written form yet.

Each language has a collection of words. Sign language also has a collection of words. However, the term “sign” is often used to replace “word” when reference is made to any sign language. Generally, people would tend use this phrase “BIM sign”. The phrases “BIM word”, “BIM sign word”, and the like would never been seen almost everywhere as these phrases are perceived weird or inappropriate to them. As BIM is a language, it should be appropriate to use “BIM word” instead of “BIM sign”. The term “sign” is not equivalent to the term “word” for their role in conveying our thought and feeling.

The term “word” must be associated to sound. The “word” is deemed inappropriate when “BIM word” is phrased. The “sign” is also deemed inappropriate when “BIM sign” is phrased as it suggests pantomime instead of linguistic aspect. Therefore, “sign word” looks better than “word” or “sign” alone, however, it only further suggests that a sign language does not have its own structure. It even indicates that spoken languages can be pronounced, written and now signed (See translation issues below). Therefore, it is necessary to coin the new term “sord” which is meant only for sign languages, to indicate that every verbalisation in sign languages is a sord, which is equivalent to every word in spoken/written languages.

Translation issues

Generally people would understand that English words are unable to be translated literally into any other languages due to different cultural aspect. However, people often expect that all sords allow literal translation of spoken or written languages. See examples below.

When they ask “how do you pronounce dignity?”, you would respond to it by using your voice. When they ask “how do you spell dignity?”, you would write the word on a paper. So now when they ask “how do you sign dignity?”, of course you would sign the word. The pattern suggests that verb words “pronounce”, “spell” and “sign” are within same category, i.e. the languages can be expressed in three ways.

These three responses have same pattern and the last response suggests that any words can be expressed through pronunciation, spelling and even signing. It could be perceived that a sign language does not have its own structure. The same perspective could be seen in English dictionary, when it defines verb “sign”: to express (a word or thought) in a sign language.

Written by Anthony Chong

Basic BIM linguistics for SELDYA members

Bengkel ini dianjurkan oleh Persatuan Belia Pekak Selangor pada 31 Mac 2019. Ms Ho Koon Wei merupakan penceramah bagi bengkel ini. Tujuan adalah untuk memberi ceramah tentang tatabahasa Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia (BIM) di Malaysia kepada seramai 20 ahli SELDYA dengan tujuan untuk meningkat pengetahuan mereka tentang bahasa mereka sendiri. Ini adalah untuk meningkatkan kebanggaan mereka sebagai orang Pekak.

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This workshop is organized by the Selangor Deaf Youth Association on 31 March 2019. Ms Ho Koon Wei is the speaker for this workshop. The purpose is to give a lecture on the grammar of Malaysian Sign Language (BIM) in Malaysia to a total of 20 SELDYA members with the aim of increasing their knowledge of their own language. This is to increase their pride as Deaf people.

Basic Understanding on Deaf Culture in Malaysia for SELDYA members

Bengkel ini dianjurkan oleh Persatuan Belia Pekak Selangor pada 17 Mac 2019. Ms Jessica Mak merupakan penceramah bagi bengkel ini. Tujuan bengkel ini adalah untuk memberi ceramah tentang budaya Pekak di Malaysia kepada seramai 20 ahli SELDYA dengan tujuan untuk meningkat pengetahuan mereka tentang identiti Pekak sendiri. Ini adalah untuk meningkatkan kebanggaan mereka sebagai orang Pekak.

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This workshop is organised by the Selangor Deaf Youth Association on 17 March 2019. Ms Jessica Mak is the speaker for this workshop. The purpose of this workshop is to give a talk about Deaf culture in Malaysia to a total of 20 SELDYA members with the aim of increasing their knowledge about Deaf identity. This is to increase their pride as Deaf people.

2-day BIM Instructor's Training Workshop

Yayasan Majudiri Y & YMCA Kuala Lumpur menganjurkan Bengkel Latihan Pengajar BIM selama 2 hari (23-24 Februari 2019) dan menjemput Jessica dan Koon Wei yang merupakan AJK MyBIM untuk melatih 24 pengajar BIM untuk meningkatkan kemahiran dan pengetahuan mereka. Semua pengajar yang datang dari Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Sarawak dan Sabah menunjukkan kesungguhan mereka untuk melakukan yang terbaik walaupun mereka kurang pengetahuan dalam BIM dan pengajaran.

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Yayasan Majudiri Y & YMCA Kuala Lumpur organized a BIM Instructor Training Workshop for 2 days (23-24 February 2019) and invited Jessica and Koon Wei who are the MyBIM Committee to train 24 BIM instructors to improve their skills and knowledge. All the instructors who came from Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Sarawak and Sabah showed their determination to do their best despite their lack of knowledge in BIM and teaching.