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The ideology here is simple. Someone can simply go to the local library and borrow a book, a journal or browse online. However the twist is that the 'book,' 'journal' or website is a living, breathing individual with a story to tell.
Books are volunteers, with their own perspective drawn from their own background, reflecting cultural, religious and ethnic differences as well as view points. In short, people can be misrepresented and misunderstood. This is exactly what's been happening in the Deaf community in Cebu.
During my first week of training, I met two Filipino interpreters; Ade and Jemuel. Since we are aware of the attitude towards Deaf people in the Philippines, I was very interested in Ade. So I had a BSL interpreter with me so I could make it clear on how her attitude compared to many was an inspiration to me. My main question was "what made you want to become an interpreter and what do you think of the attitude towards Deaf Filipinos today?'
This was her response: " I was never aware of sign language being the main means of communication for the Deaf. I saw an A-Z sign language sheet at school and found it fascinating. One day I saw a group of people signing (didn't know they were deaf) and kept thinking back to the sheet I had. I went home to my mother and asked. My mother's response was that Deaf people were the result of having problems during pregnancy; and that they couldn't speak because their tongues were short."
Ade was so interested she signed up to do a course in ASL, since its a recognised language in this country. Eventually she learnt FSL on a three month course. 31 training interpreters applied and 30 pulled out. She, Ade was the last man standing and became an interpreter for their own TV channel. FSL is not an official language and she is not trained to translate. So while we have courses for British Sign Language Level 1, 2, 3 and separate courses for interpreting (translating including consecetive and voice over) to qualify, the Philipines have people translating who have recently learnt the language (they can go from learning just a month ago to years). There's no rules and no qualifications.
The Deaf Filipinos may not have the same equal rights to interpreters but she's the best they've got. Once FSL is a recognised language, can they start creating their own FSL linguistic rule book.
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