Literacy in My Life IV

Recently I watched a TV series called Moonlight Resonance. In the series, there is a dumb girl, whose parents always “sing” a song to cheer her up when she is unhappy. Or you can say that they “dance” the song. The warm and sweet scene touched me and reminded me of something about sign language. 

I have learned some Chinese Sign Language hoping to do some voluntary work in a school for the hearing-impaired. And when I came here, I found that one of my roommates whose major was education was learning American Sign Language and I learned some ASL from her. The first thing my roommate taught me was her name. And because there is a “t” in her name, so she taught me the word “toilet” by the way. It is a typical example of differences between CSL and ASL. In ASL, putting your thumb between index finger and middle finger means “t” and shaking that gesture means “toilet”. However, in CSL, the “OK” gesture with thumb and index finger not touching each other has the meaning of “toilet”. What’s interesting, the gesture actually stands for an English word—“W.C.” which means water closet. 

I think, sign language is really a miracle. It can even make dumb people "sing" and dance.