Korean Job Discussion Forums

[dutchy pink]

I've always wanted to learn sign language, and started poking around about classes in Korea.
I always thought there was 1 universal sign language, but it seems different languages have different sign languages.
It would probably be absurd to learn Korean sign language...

Anyone know sign language? or shed some light on this subject.

[CentralCali]

I know some American Sign Language and also some Korean Sign Language. You can find basic KSL books in most bookstores. Rather conveniently, they also include the English word along with the Korean word for the KSL sign in the books.

Sign Languages are divided into families like oral languages are. For example, the parent language for ASL is French Sign Language and KSL is related to Japanese Sign Language. As you can guess from that, there's not necessarily a connection between an area's oral and Sign languages.

There is a Sign Language that's kind of an attempt at international communication similar to Esperanto's reason for being. It's called Gestuno.

There is also a method of writing all Signed Languages. You can check it out at the SignWriting website. Available for download there is a free Sign processing (like word processing) program.

If you're interested in Korean Sign Language, feel free to send me a PM.

[bluelake]

I learned ASL (American Sign Language) when I was in the university many years ago. I even became my prof's TA. There are others on here who also know sign. Sadly, I haven't used it in years, so I am worse than rusty.

There is no such thing as a universal sign language. Sign languages are actual languages, complete with vocabulary and grammar. Many of the signs are closely related to the culture they come from. Some may be similar to others (fish, elephant, cup, etc.), but most will be different. In ASL, one sign for a house is outlining an inverted-V, for that type of roof; in a country where the roof doesn't resemble that, it wouldn't make any sense. The common ASL sign for "milk" is the action of milking a cow; in some other countries (like Korea), the sign denotes mother's milk by a movement around a breast (a similar sign is a dialectic variant in ASL).