My wife was looking for a clean duster. I surprised her by producing a brand new one, forty years old. A BBC archive clip of programs I wrote for deaf children reminded me of it recently (the one-minute clip is here). Someone gave me the duster at that time.
We decided the duster was much too nice to use as a duster, so it went back in the drawer.
I never did manage to learn the sign alphabet. I can spell out my name, but little else.
Memories churned around in my head, as often happens these days, and in the middle of the night, out of nowhere, there emerged a song.
To the tune of the old British music hall song Let's All Go Down The Strand:
Let's all go through the codes (Have a banana)
Let's all go through the codes (Gertie Gitana)
A B C D / E F G
H I J K / L M N O P
Q R S / T
U V W X Y / Zee
A B C D / E F G
Let's all go through the codes.
What a great way to learn it:
He's as daft as a brush.
Right, who wants a part in The Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights, or Julius Caesar on an Aldis Lamp?
What an unusual mind you have Lord Tasker! I applaud your independent thinking... and how splendid it was that you were able to give Lady Tasker a forty year old duster! Was it her birthday or something?
ReplyDeleteI'm not quite right, you know. I was saving the duster as a present for our 30th wedding anniversary, but completely forgot about it.
DeleteAh well, she'll just have to make do with a small dry sherry and a bag of cheese and onion crisps.
DeleteDefinitely too nice a duster to use on dirty things.
ReplyDeleteI did learn the sign alphabet but it wasn't very useful - as I am the deaf person and those I "converse" with don't use it, it is a little one-sided.
The teacher in the film clip, Chris, was profoundly deaf. When you see how quickly he signs to the kids, it seems enormously difficult to become proficient at it.
DeleteMy cousin worked in a residential school for deaf-blind children, and learned the signing. She was a maintenance worker, not a teacher, but the kids were happy she chatted with them when she could. She tried to teach me one time she visited us, but I wasn't very adept.
ReplyDeleteI think it takes a lot of practice and persistence. The important thing is the interaction through any kind of language at all.
DeleteNice one. Were you a producer at the BBC for those types of shows? what does it mean to write a show?
ReplyDeletePrograms not programmes. I wrote the software to investigate an approach to helping children with severely impaired language development.
Deleteoh yes, I get it. whats the conclusion of your programs? =]
DeleteIt was a long time ago and the ideas have advanced enormously since those days, but it is a standard approach in therapy.
DeleteThere's not enough semaphore or Aldis lamp performances in this world.
ReplyDeleteYou can have the starring role of Catherine Earnshaw. You'll be a natural. But you will have to learn to signal in a Yorkshire accent?
DeleteI would like to see The Semaphore Version Of Wuthering Heights.
ReplyDeleteYou can be Heathcliff to Debra's Cathy, unless in the name of equality you would both like to bring it slap-bang up to date into the 21st Century by swapping the roles.
DeleteI don't know that song at all, so I can't imagine the tune, but I can see how it might be handy as a teaching tool! I wonder if I will ever need to know semaphor? I hope not.
ReplyDeleteIt would probably twist your arms off trying to keep up with the song in semaphor. Either that or you would fly away into the distance.
DeleteMy niece is deaf, and proud of it. She is a member of the very strong deaf community. I learned the alphabet when she was young, to talk to her. As an adult, signing to my sister and myself, my grandchildren were so impressed by her and us they took signing, which was a four year course at their high school. They even convinced the high school to accept signing as their foreign language requirement.
ReplyDeleteThat's great. Signing (not just the letter alphabet) should be taught in schools. It's wonderful that it counted as a language, because that is what it indeed is.
DeleteAldis lamp? Do you mean a lamp bought from Aldi? I happen to have several in my flat; in fact, I am sitting under one of their ceiling lamps as we speak.
ReplyDeleteI doubt Aldi sells them, and you would find it difficult on ebay! They were the louvered flashing lamps used by naval ships to signal to each other.
DeleteI had never heard the term before. Thank you for making me learn something new today.
DeletePS: I wasn't serious when I asked whether you meant a lamp from Aldi - I just really didn't know what you meant.
DeleteI learnt all the letters when I was young, but I can't remember them now. My partner used some basic Auslan, as the local signing method is called related to his work. I can only remember 'Do you want tea or coffee?", which was a stirring motion with a closed fist. I am sure the song was helpful but was the letter zee really sung?
ReplyDeleteThe song came out of my dreamy head, with Zee to rhyme with T.
DeleteI've often wondered how easily signers in BSL, ASL and Auslan can understand each other.
I laughed my way through the concept of Wuthering Heights with an Aldis lamp. Believe it or not warships still use (shuttered) lamp signals at times. I guess it can't be intercepted with a radio scanner. Does British sign language use letters so much (spell things out?) as signs that represent things, actions or phrases?
ReplyDeleteIt's a Monty Python concept - there are YouTube clips of signalling Beware the Ides of March to Julius Caesar. I believe BSL has signs and gestures for a lot of things, and quite sophisticated abstract concepts, but where there is no sign it has to be spelled out. You can see the teacher doing it in the video slip linked at the top.
DeleteI've got commemorative tea towels that stay in the drawer and never get used! I once started to learn sign language but can't for the life of me remember any of it now.
ReplyDeleteI think it is like any language in that you have to use it regularly to keep it. Laughing - I think we've got tea towels too.
DeleteWhen younger, I learned morse code and also semaphore but don’t remember any of it now. I only learned morse in order to get a short wave radio licence so I could talk to my brother when we were on the boat and he was back home. As soon as I got the license I never used morse again. Gigi
ReplyDeleteHi Gigi. Thanks for visiting. I was fascinated by Morse and semaphor when young, also the shipping flag codes, but never mastered then. You have to use them all the time to become proficient.
DeleteI have in the last 5 years belonged to a group, who has learnt BSL, I have no need for it other than my neighbour, who is becoming more deaf, she is in the group as well, sadly she does not remember the signs. It's a useful language to have.
ReplyDeleteHi Poppypatchwork. Thank you for reading. Full BSL, rather than just the sign alphabet, is indeed a useful language. We have a deaf-from-birth near-neighbour and it would be fantastic to be able to communicate more easily as she is a very interesting person. I would have gone to a class had there been one. I would find it too difficult now because of illness.
DeleteAt least the duster yet lives to dust another day (perhaps). When you first mentioned it in your comment on my post, I thought it might be a 'security' duster (y'know, like a security blanket), so just goes to show how wrong I was. Here's an idea, TD - why not get it framed (custom made) and hang it on the wall like a picture? I'm afraid I'd be useless at sign language as it would require too much brain power on my part and, like William Brown, I don't want to wear out my brain in case I ever need it.
ReplyDeleteBut it would fade if hung on the wall. I think that as Addy says above, it needs to be put away with the special tea towels.
DeleteOnly if it was in direct sunlight, TD. You'd get away with it if it was hung in a shaded place. Or you could scan it and print out a copy to frame. That way you could see it without having to dig out the original from a drawer.
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