Sign Language – Can Deaf People From Different Countries Understand Each Other?

This is one of the questions I get asked the most when I am teaching American Sign Language. The quick answer is that there are about as many signed languages as there are spoken languages. The reason for this is because sign language is a naturally-occuring, true language which develops within a localized Deaf community. Each sign language includes aspects of that culture and localized signs. There are even "dialects" within each sign language. For example, in the U.S., some words/concepts are signed differently by people on the east coast compared to people on the west coast, and people in Hawaii have signs that reflect the local spoken pidgin.

American Sign Language is most closely related to French Sign Language, because when the first formalized Deaf school was begun (later becoming the American School for the Deaf in Connecticut), the founder Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet collaborated with Laurent Clerc, a deaf teacher from France. Gallaudet brought Clerc back with him to America to assist in setting up the school. The story goes that during the long journey (they had to go by boat in 1817), Gallaudet and Clerc learned to communicate with each other.

Some international sign languages are more simliar to each other. For example, Australian and New Zealand sign language are related to British sign language. Their alphabet is signed totally different from the way that ASL and French sign language are signed. In Canada there are several sign languages, some that have more in common with ASL and some that have more in common with French sign language.

There is a sort of international sign code (Gestuno) that is sometimes used at international Deaf events such as the World Congress and Deaf Olympics, however, this is not a true sign language as it is not naturally-occuring, and for this reason is not widely used or learned. There is a sort of naturally-occuring set of gestures and language that happens when Deaf people get together, but Gestuno as a movement never gained momentum.

I used to work in the International Student Office at Gallaudet University, and I always thought it was amazing to witness Deaf students from all over the world who didn't know each others' languages communicate nontheless. ASL is my second language and I am hearing, so I certainly didn't catch on to the other sign languages as quickly as they caught on to ASL.

There is an International Sign Language Alphabet book you can get through the Gallaudet University bookstore, which is interesting to look at. It gets pretty complicated when you see the charts for the Chinese and Thai alphabets, though!