The Art of Sign Language: for Babies, Boobs and Bobs - Lissa Zeviar at TEDxAmsterdam

Lissa is the owner of Babygebaren and a professional sign language interpreter. Born to parents that are both deaf, Lissa Zeviar feels that sign language is not only natural but also a great gift. What if everyone was raised with sign language? Would everyone benefit if everyone knew sign language?

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

Well, if you knew sign language, you would.

And I think you should.

I think everyone should learn sign language.

I think you should be taught as a baby,

in elementary school,

or as a second language.

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

I've known sign language my whole life.

And knowing sign language has really given me a gift.

Sign language.

It has really enriched my life in so many ways,

and I fully believe that if everyone learned sign language,

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

and what that has to offer.

Here I am, with my deaf mom,

and that's how I learned how to sign.

I was 8 months old when I was signing.

That's right - 8 months old.

I had communication going both ways.

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

because you couldn't physically produce the sounds.

Deaf people [have known] this for centuries.

They were signing with their babies,

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

The hearing community, nowadays, had said,

"Wait a minute, why do I have to wait

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

before we can communicate?"

So nowadays many hearing parents and teachers

are using sign language to communicate with their children

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

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

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

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

And that's something that they've learned.

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

You do that over and over again.

That's basically what signing with children is about.

And you just take that one step further,

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

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

because that's what they do, right?

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

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

of one person and show you the many different ways

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

a community as a whole.

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

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

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

and you sign the sign 'apple'.

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

because what usually happens is you point to the fruit bowl

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

"Do you want the cucumber?" (Shrieks)

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

With sign language, you just do the sign

and they can give you exactly what you want.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Playing with my teddy bear,reading a book,

Playing with my prettiest doll,

Playing is great!

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

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

They also love signing. I was just at an

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

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

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

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

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

still signing every week.

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

a spoken language and sign language,

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

either a spoken language or sign language.

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

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

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

so why not take advantage of it?

So now picture that you're in elementary school

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

You can learn this in words.

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

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

evaporate, and then it condenses, and then it precipitates

back and then returns to the bodies of water."

Or you can use some signs.

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

and then it condenses, and then it precipitates,

and returns back to the body of water."

If you use both spoken language and the signs,

a little more refined than our everyday gestures,

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

The other beauty of sign language for me

is that it is really poetry in motion.

Sign language has some unique aspects.

For example, you can do a close-up,

you can do a long shot,

you can do different characters,

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

and the landscape is just going by,

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

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

but if you add all these little gestures to it,

it makes it that much more interesting.

I have an example for you.

(Laughter)

(Laughter)

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

but sign language is the language of storytelling.

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

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

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

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

For example, you have the music industry

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

In construction, where it's very loud.

You also have meetings every day

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

but it's too disruptive to talk.

There are many days in your life

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

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

if you could just talk to your colleagues,

and not disturb the patients.

Another example is over long distances.

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

and they would be able to see me.

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

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

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

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

and you want to talk to her.

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

What do you end up doing?

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

You can't really get your groove going.

But if you knew some sign language,

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

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

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

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

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

And you're waiting...

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

or knows sign language, I'm still carrying on

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

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

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

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

is that, even though we have a deaf community,

every country has a deaf community.

So the way we can do this is teach sign language

in all elementary schools or high schools,

and you can learn this as a young child

and then you can apply this to your everyday lives.

The last thing that I want to say is that

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

and if you knew some sign language your whole life,

then you'd be able to sign.

And what happens? It comes full circle.

Grandpa can sign with their grandchild

and everyone is using sign language the whole day long.

Am I done?

(Laughs)

Hey, mom is working.

(Laughs)

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

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

(Applause)