Wow... Sign Language on prime time television!

Sometimes, there are gems...

I rarely watch television, but tonight the mood wasn't much for anything else.

So I happened to watch Radio-Canada's Le moment de vérité (The moment of truth, in French). Several teams, each with a different challenge. They have a week to practice... and then they return to the studio, and they have to show their newly acquired skills.

Whether to learn the first 1000 decimals of Pi... whether the ahem... joy and pain of archery... and to be able to hit a target at 15 metres away. In just one week. Can you do that?

Well, I almost fell off my chair tonight. For one team... their challenge was to learn 250 "words" in LSQ! The Langue Signée du Québec, our equivalent of ASL!!!! Learning Sign Language. Wowie!!!

In just... ONE WEEK... and tonight... *is* the night. Gulp...

I'm learning ASL, and I agree with the two LSQ experts (and judges for this challenge) they invited in studio .

Learning 50 signs per week is quite a rapid pace (I *fully* agree! :) ). . They were skeptical the candidates would be able to learn 250 signs in just one week. So do I !!!

So they show videos on how their week went. One candidate is a teacher and she took the whole week off to work FULL TIME on learning LSQ. I think that for all the members of that team, when they fell asleep, they were "nightmaring" in Sign Language. :)

In studio, they were asked 50 LSQ signs out of the 250 signs they had to learn. No mistakes were allowed and they have just 2 minutes. Whew.

Well... I was floored and at the same time extremely thrilled! Nor that I take a sadistic pleasure... nooooooo, well... a little bit, okay... I admit !!!

Hey, I'm a student, and I've been sweating heavily, here! Well, sort of... :)

Seriously, I don't know who has thought of this challenge, but a heartfelt *BRAVO* to Radio-Canada! A fun way (and very entertaining!) to introduce Sign Language, on a popular show and on prime-time. I can't remember the last time a major TV network did that. So, Bravo Radio-Canada!

Also, I was a little bit curious to see how close is LSQ to ASL.

I was surprised to see that signs like "father" (and presumably grandfather) are the same as in ASL. (with a "High Five" hand) .

But you know what? They won!!! All the 50 signs!

Personally, I got about half of all the LSQ signs they showed, and I haven't even studied LSQ!

Some of these signs were like their ASL equivalent... and ahem... yes, on other LSQ signs, I've done some guesses. Cough cough!!!

So I had a devil of fun watching television!

Later in the evening, I was thinking of that... Sometimes, I wish I could tell (sign? :) ) to my fellow deaf friends... the future of the deaf culture isn't in sterile debates on CIs (Cochlear Implants), nor the violent protests against AG Bell, telling them where to shove their audism, etc...

The future of the deaf culture... is about original works in ASL... It is also about dissemination ...

Gallaudet, the only deaf university in the US can (and actively) promote the Deaf Culture... but like any university, even one for the deaf people... there's so much an university can do.

When I visit the US, I'm floored by the zillions of specialty channels I see on digital cable. Many channels in foreign languages (hey, I was pleasantly surprised to see the French-speaking TV5! :) )

Why there isn't... a deaf channel? Even several channels? In the US alone, it is believed there are at least several millions of people who are fluent in ASL. In Canada, since we get a lot of your US channels, add the Canadian market to the list.

Besides, having a deaf channel, it means that you have to *feed* that channel, with new materials. You can't do re-run forever!

How's about some news bulletins in ASL? How about TV game shows in Sign Language?

Can you imagine the effects onto the Deaf Culture? I think this is the jolt it really needs.

"I'll take LSQ for $200, Alex".

Heck, I'm in !!!

-My 2-cent...

-E