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Q: Is Chinese' "sign language" the same as other countires?
This weekend I was two separate groups of Chinese communicating with sign language on the subway. It got me thinking, is the Chinese form of sign language the same that is used elsewhere? If so, when did it make its way to China? It must be a relatively recent thing, right?
No. Generally, as the spoken languages differ, so does the sign languages used around the globe. I am aware there is a common misconception that deaf people can speak across borders, sadly this is not true. The language "that is used elsewhere" is in fact many different sign languages or dialects.
Hulk:
Nothing more to add. Scandinavian and xunliang are both correct.
Furthermore, sign language is usually not a direct translation of the spoken language of that country. For example, one may be fluent in sign language, but their written English/whatever will suffer horribly due to pretty drastic grammar differences.
I personally refused to learn it, even though I was constantly encouraged to do so. I feel that decision helped me more than anything.
Scandinavian:
I had a moment of "hey, I wanna learn that" back when I thought it was a universal language. As I learned it was not, I skipped the idea altogether.
Apparently even British sign language and American sign language are different
GuilinRaf:
Puerto Rico is 110 miles long and 35 mile wide (about 180 km long and 50 km wide). That said, the sign language used in the Northern part of the island is unintelligible to the southern part.
Can't claim to know a great deal about sign language but i've given people the finger in a number of different countries around the world and find it to be a universally understood form of signing that never fails to get me thrown out of restaurants.
All sign languages are different, as to my understanding.
