When speaking of sign language, many only focus on the differences on the "speaking" realm in communication. However, we often forget that signers must find alternative ways to cope with tasks and events beyond passing the salt around the dinner table or indicating that you'll be late for something. I ran across two different articles that describe the increased awareness of these other aspects of life, and how scholars and regular citizens alike are striving to make it easier for signers to enjoy life to its fullest.
The first of the articles,
Telling Stories in Silence
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2007/12/2/lifefocus/19579105&sec=lifefocus
speaks of the admirable attempts of a Malaysian sign language interpreter (Samuel Chew) working to translate Aesop's Fables into MSL (Malaysian Sign Language) for the nonhearing audience. He speaks of the challenges in this translation process that also occur with translation in other languages. However, there are a few points about translating written word (regardless of language) into sign language that really intrigued me. Unlike normal conversation where the single speaker can pause after speaking and wait for the interpreter to translate the dialogue to the signer, a play involves the continuous dialogue between several characters at a time, meaning that the interpreter would need to be able to sign several dialogues simultaneously, without breaks. Another aspect of interpreting a play that Chew has to take into strong consideration is diverting too much attention away from the actual play. This seems to be the most problematic point, for how can the audience enjoy the visuals of the play and understand the content simultaneously, especially in this case when they're coming from two different sources. What also intrigues me is that under normal circumstances, some plays can be hard enough to understand. However, because we are able to associate movements and expressions with a rough idea of what the character is trying to convey, it is not completely necessary to understand every spoken world. But in this particular group's case, this option is no longer available. They can't "guesstimate" what correlations the actions of the characters have with their dialogue because that split second it takes to look to the interpreter and make that extra connection, something has already been missed in the play itself. Also, numerous other questions can be asked as to how much of a real play viewing experience this can be. A huge element and tone-setter of most artistic expressions is created by music. How can this missing element be incorporated into the interpreter's translation? To address the combination of these points, Chew says,
"Many expressions are culturally laden, so adapting them can be tricky. For example, ‘I am no blue bird of happiness’ has to be interpreted into its implied meaning not its literal one because MSL doesn’t have a similar expression.”
The beauty of sign language, though, is how it enables its users to be very direct, giving very little opportunity to be misunderstood, or to come across as “refined’” or politically correct, he says.
“The language itself is an art of facial and body expressions. When signing, we get straight to the point."
Although this seems to be an adequate answer, I am still dubious as to how authentic this play-going experience will be if they must "get to the point" all the time and evade artistic expressions that sometimes make up the very crux of the play. However, as a whole, this is an incredible endeavor that tries to give signers as many equal opportunities as the hearing have. Despite the obvious kinks in the plan, the effort is valiant in itself.
Another article that describes a similar attempt is
Santa Knows Sign Language
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071202/NEWS03/712020685/1005
Here, a signer has taken up the role of the local "signing" santa claus. He's doing so because he noticed how many hearing-impaired kids have expressed a desire to tell the neighborhood mall santa their holiday wishlist, but either could not do so or found the experience to be extremely unfulfilling. Thus, with this change, there is now an equal and much more intimate understanding between the kids and Santa Claus. Like the previous interpreter, this reinvented Santa Claus has taken it upon himself to cater to the various needs of the deafs' lives. But in this example, there is more direct of an interaction, and less is lost in translation/interpretation. What do you guys think would be the ideal way to interpret a play from spoken word to sign language? Is there a paragon model, or are there inevitable barriers?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
The beauty of a language, I think, is in the human inability to fully translate it into another language while still capturing all of its subtleties. Speaking in terms of translation, there will definitely always be barriers; it's these barriers that make a language unique, rich, and interesting. Speaking in terms of solutions, however, I think a better way to perform this play to a hearing-impaired audience is not to hire an interpreter, but rather to create a separate MSL adaptation based on the original play. In this way, rather than trying to translate "blue bird of happiness" into MSL, performers can simply portray the idea with their body language (creating language, rather than communicating language with their bodies, if that makes any sense =D). I admit that this will definitely still not be able to communicate the same ideas that the original play has hoped to, but it would definitely solve the attention-diversion problem, and would definitely make play-going a much more enjoyable experience for the non-hearing community. Better yet, the adaptation can become a community project from the deaf to the deaf, allowing the hearing-impaired the opportunity to perform as well as to enjoy.
I agree with Khanh, the beauty of the human language is in the ability to translate it another language while capturing its subtleties.
Post a Comment