Goal of the event:
The goal of the event is to teach students the basics about the sign language and the deaf community and the everyday struggles they face. During an introductory lesson, a well-trained lector, coming from a deaf family, will talk about the deaf community in our town, the opportunities they have and will also tackle the most common questions, including the question of how to actually communicate with the deaf people.
Short description of the event:
The speaker was a pastor and lector of sign language in Košice. Coming from a deaf family, but being healthy as far as hearing and speaking is concerned, Ervin is the perfect person to teach us something about this language – and about life with such a disability as deafness. Not only did he introduced to us the life of people in the deaf community, he spoke a lot about particular examples in our town and country. He also answered some basic questions, such as:
How does signing work?
Is sign language international? Can all deaf people understand each other with no difficulties?
Is it hard to learn sign language?
The event took 2 hours in a conference room of our university. It was also open to public, so local people came as well as international students and a few ESNers. It was not just a lecture, but a very lively discussion and we learned the basic signs, too, in Slovak.
How did your event go?:
It went well and the people enjoyed it. I think it gave the concept of deaf community a different meaning to all of us and we are more aware of what they have to face. The lector was willing to talk about the hard questions and he gave us some advice on how to communicate with deaf people as well.
