Why learn Filipino Sign Language
Don’t just eat with your hands, talk with them :)
There are 3 official languages in the Philippines: Filipino, English, and Filipino Sign Language. Many Filipinos know the first two, but sign language has yet to catch on in terms of speakers – or signers, rather.
Luckily, the Benilde School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies at De La Salle University offers Filipino Sign Language (FSL) classes every year. I took in-person classes a few years ago, and learned so much about sign language, Deaf culture, and the benefits to learning sign language as well.
One aspect to learning FSL was learning Filipino words, especially for food. One word for longganisa involves gesturing as if you’re holding up a string of longganisa links with one hand, and gesturing the shapes of the sausages with the other.
It also strengthens your ability to connect with people through gestures and facial expressions. It makes you more expressive, and more attentive too. In some ways it has also made me a better artist, because I have become more at home with using visuals to communicate whether it be through pictures or my face and hands.
Learning sign language, as with any new language, opens your world to a community of people you’d otherwise never correspond with. Learning popular “foreign” languages like French or Italian can be fun, but it also means you have to travel abroad to strengthen your ability. Learning sign language however connects you with your Deaf neighbors and community members right where you are.
It also allowed me to become a more empathetic person. Deaf people are overlooked and ignored in terms of job opportunities, relationships with hearing people in general, and even mere everyday conversation. Everyone lives a full life and has a story to tell, and learning sign language is another way for us to broaden our perspectives. Learning sign language also opens up another career pathway – interpreting, education, and social work are some avenues one can take. It also demonstrates one’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.
The classes at Benilde can either be taken online or face-to-face. It is definitely way better to join in person, but I’ve met people from around the world who have attended online sessions and still benefitted from joining.
Registration is open now, and ends May 10. Consider registering, or sharing this with someone you know who might be interested in giving Filipino Sign Language a try!
To register: bit.ly/FSLLPT3
As someone who is Hard of Hearing and afraid I might lose it altogether, my husband and I took an American Sign Language class. The instructor was Deaf, so we couldn’t ask questions and never returned. I did find some really good videos though so maybe I’ll try that.
While I was reading this, I checked to see if I can still do the alphabet in sign language and I can. I remember they were in every notebook back in the day and everyone I know from childhood learned through those notebooks for fun. Incredible how muscle memory works!