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Were you just wondering "What are they saying?"?

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Well, if you knew sign language, you would.

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And I think you should.

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I think everyone should learn sign language.

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I think you should be taught as a baby,

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in elementary school,

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or as a second language.

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I was raised to deaf parents, and that's why

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I've known sign language my whole life.

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And knowing sign language has really given me a gift.

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Sign language.

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It has really enriched my life in so many ways,

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and I fully believe that if everyone learned sign language,

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that we could all really enjoy the gems of knowing sign language,

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and what that has to offer.

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Here I am, with my deaf mom,

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and that's how I learned how to sign.

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I was 8 months old when I was signing.

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That's right - 8 months old.

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I had communication going both ways.

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You had to wait until you were about 1,5 years old

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because you couldn't physically produce the sounds.

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Deaf people [have known] this for centuries.

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They were signing with their babies,

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and from 6, 8, or 10 months old, they would sign back.

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The hearing community, nowadays, had said,

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"Wait a minute, why do I have to wait

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until my baby's 1,5 or 2 years old

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before we can communicate?"

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So nowadays many hearing parents and teachers

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are using sign language to communicate with their children

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so that they don't have to wait until they're talking.

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You're thinking, "Six months old? That's pretty young."

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But think of that child that you've seen that goes like this.

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What are they saying? They're saying "I want to come to you."

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And that's something that they've learned.

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Every time you've said, "Come. Can I pick you up?"

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You do that over and over again.

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That's basically what signing with children is about.

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And you just take that one step further,

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and you learn a handful of signs and you use that throughout the day.

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And then they'll pick it up, just like they've picked up waving,

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because that's what they do, right?

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Around 10 months old, a child can wave?That's also something that they've learned.

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What I'd like to do is take you through the lifespan

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of one person and show you the many different ways

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how sign language can enhance your life,and how it can enhance

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a community as a whole.

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This is Mikah, my son, and he's signing the sign for 'boat'.

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Let's see what your life would have been like if you knew sign language as a baby.

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So you're maybe 10 months old and you point to the fruit bowl

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and you sign the sign 'apple'.

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Your parents can just take the apple and give you that apple,

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because what usually happens is you point to the fruit bowl

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and your mom's like, "Do you want the banana?" (Shrieks)

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"Do you want the cucumber?" (Shrieks)

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You're kind of like constantly going until you figure out which one it is.

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With sign language, you just do the sign

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and they can give you exactly what you want.

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For parents, you really get to know what your child wants and is thinking.

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And that's the beauty of using sign language at such a young age.

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Parent: What is that?(Child names animals in Dutch and Dutch Sign Language)

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Child: Goat!Parent: Yeah, great! What does the goat do?

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Girl singing: Playing is such fun, do you play with me?

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Cause playing is the best there isif there's two of you!

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Playing with my teddy bear,reading a book,

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Playing with my prettiest doll,

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Playing is great!

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Just a short example of how you can playfully use sign language

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with the little ones,but you also saw elementary [school] age kids.

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They also love signing. I was just at an

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elementary school the other day, and I had 5- to 7-year-olds

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bombarding me with "What's the sign for 'apple'?"

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"What's the sign for 'more'?" "What's the sign for 'cake'?"

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And they were eating it up. They could speak fully,

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but they are, to this day, I heard from the teacher,

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still signing every week.

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There's also, as a benefit of knowing both,

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a spoken language and sign language,

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is that I can pick in whichever situation I want to use

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either a spoken language or sign language.

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In some cases, it's even great to use both spoken and sign language,

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and that's what I'm also advocating for.

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We already know that 92% of communication is non-verbal,

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so why not take advantage of it?

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So now picture that you're in elementary school

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and you're going to learn about the water cycle of precipitation.

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You can learn this in words.

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So your teacher would say, you know, "We have the water cycle. How does that work?

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You have bodies of water in the earth, and then that will

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evaporate, and then it condenses, and then it precipitates

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back and then returns to the bodies of water."

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Or you can use some signs.

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You can say, "You have a body of water, and then it evaporates,

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and then it condenses, and then it precipitates,

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and returns back to the body of water."

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If you use both spoken language and the signs,

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a little more refined than our everyday gestures,

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then you really see that you can be much more clear.

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The other beauty of sign language for me

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is that it is really poetry in motion.

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Sign language has some unique aspects.

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For example, you can do a close-up,

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you can do a long shot,

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you can do different characters,

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you can also do slow motion, maybe you're in the car

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and the landscape is just going by,

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or you in the train and it's going by really fast.

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When you tell a story, you can say it with words,

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but if you add all these little gestures to it,

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it makes it that much more interesting.

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I have an example for you.

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(Laughter)

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(Laughter)

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So as they say, French is the language of love,

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but sign language is the language of storytelling.

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Now you say, "That may all be well and good,

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you can use it for certain times in your life."

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But I think you can also use it practically every day.

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I can't think of any industry where signing would not be handy.

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For example, you have the music industry

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where you need to be quiet on set, or you have to wear ear plugs.

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In construction, where it's very loud.

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You also have meetings every day

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where you maybe just want to ask a simple little question,

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but it's too disruptive to talk.

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There are many days in your life

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where you really want to ask a question, or say something, but it's just too disruptive.

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Or maybe you work at a hospital, where it would be much nicer for the patients

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if you could just talk to your colleagues,

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and not disturb the patients.

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Another example is over long distances.

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A sign ... I can sign to people all the way up there

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and they would be able to see me.

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But if everyone is here talking and doing their own thing,

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I would be quite disruptive if I had to yell to them.

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And that happens way more than you think in a day.

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And let's say you're at a club, and you see a beautiful girl,

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and you want to talk to her.

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You go up to her - and it's super loud.

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What do you end up doing?

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"Hi. My name is..." (Laughs)

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You can't really get your groove going.

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But if you knew some sign language,

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it doesn't matter it's super loud, you can keep signing,

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and you can have a conversation, and you can try and score a date.

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Then she has to go home, and you're at the train station.

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She's in the train and you're on the platform.

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Again, if you don't know sign language, you're kind of like this: "Bye. Bye."

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And you're waiting...

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What I do all the time, with anyone I know that is deaf

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or knows sign language, I'm still carrying on

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a full on conversation until the train has literally taken off.

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So there are small and big times in your life when this happens.

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My time is up, so I'm going to go a little bit quicker.

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My last big point that I really want to share with you

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is that, even though we have a deaf community,

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every country has a deaf community.

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So the way we can do this is teach sign language

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in all elementary schools or high schools,

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and you can learn this as a young child

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and then you can apply this to your everyday lives.

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The last thing that I want to say is that

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there are many people that are elderly that are also quite isolated,

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and if you knew some sign language your whole life,

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then you'd be able to sign.

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And what happens? It comes full circle.

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Grandpa can sign with their grandchild

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and everyone is using sign language the whole day long.

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Am I done?

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(Laughs)

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Hey, mom is working.

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(Laughs)

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Do you think that mamma's all done? Yeah, okay.

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Well, as you see, I've got to go. Thank you.

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(Applause)