Wales is making British Sign language a learning priority to help deaf people be heard.
Some languages are challenging their learners with difficult to pronounce consonants or an unusual rhythm with which they are spoken. This language requires motor skills and no audible voice to speak.
You may get away with just pointing and mimicking, but a full conversation in British Sign Language or BSL requires learning.
“Sign is very intuitive and you can explain things by just pointing to it,” says Sum Mistry, who started learning BSL during lockdown and is now helping others learn it at Cardiff University.
“But British Sign language is a language with a full vocabulary like English or Arabic, so you can talk in-depth on any topic kinetically without needing to say anything in a typical way,” says Sum about the variety of benefits to learning BSL.
When teaching deaf awareness, Sum introduces BSL not only as a way of connecting to family and friends who have hearing difficulty, but also as an alternative, non-verbal way of communication.
Sum works at Cardiff University and that’s where he gets to teach, but the resources available to students and staff through the student union are linked to community and city initiatives available to anyone in Cardiff.
The preparation and examination for levels 1 and 2 are done in Coleg y Cymoedd and a language club to all learners levels 1-6 are held at Caerphilly golf club.
“Going there [the language club] and speaking in person gave me more progress than weeks worth of trying to memorise online content,” says Sum, comparing his learning BSL during the pandemic to in-person classes.
He says, “The great thing about BSL is that it doesn’t matter why you are learning it, as long as you are ready to learn we will try and help you do it”.
