Embracing the world’s beauty with sign language

By Siti Solehah

PAGOH, 20 December 2021: Individuals with hearing disabilities often struggle to communicate because of communication gaps between them and those outside of their community.

This was stated during the recent Sign Language Workshop 2.0, which was held in conjunction with the International Day of Sign Language by the Education and Training Bureau of Mahallah Zaid bin Harithah Representative Council.

The event which was held on online platform Zoom as well as on YouTube on Saturday (18 December) morning was attended by a large number of people, with a total of 180 VIP participants on Zoom and 413 viewers on YouTube.

Bearing the same objective as the Sign Language Workshop 1.0 to promote and spread awareness of the importance of “Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia” (BIM) to the general public. Hanif Naim, the emcee, stated, “In this workshop, we make some improvements from the previous workshop by having two sessions and five break-out rooms as well as one general room for the participants to practise BIM with a total of six speakers from Institut Pengajian Guru Malaysia (IPGM) Kampus Ilmu Khas, Cheras.”

Throughout the three-hour session, the participants were divided into break-out rooms and taught basic signs such as alphabets, numbers, simple greetings, and Malaysian states.

The event’s photography session

General Knowledge about The Deaf community

The workshop’s six speakers were all IPGM students who hold a Bachelor of Special Needs and Education. One of the speakers, Nai’ma Shaimi, stated that The Deaf community is elated when someone from the general public can communicate with them using the simplest and easiest symbol.

She also stressed that many people believe that referring to The Deaf as ‘The Deaf’ is offensive to them. “The truth is The Deaf, known as Orang Pekak (OP) in Malay, do not perceive themselves as impaired or disabled because to them, not hearing is the definition of normalcy because they have lived with it since birth,” Nai’ma said.

Not only that, she debunked a widely held belief that The Deaf are unable to speak, and explained the truth is that they are unable to articulate the words because they have never heard how the words are pronounced.

While BIM is widely used in the Malaysian Deaf community, Nai’ima pointed out that the Ministry of Education has introduced another type of sign language called Kod Tangan Bahasa Melayu (KTBM), which aims to teach The Deaf to syntactically learn Bahasa Malaysia. Instead of symbolising “Gelas jatuh,” she included an example of how The Deaf can construct the sentence to “Gelas itu Jatuh.”

The workshop was jointly organised with IIUM.fm, IIUMToday, IIUMtv, College Representative Committee UiTM (Tapah Campus), Anjung Melayu (IIUM Pagoh), Academic and Debate School (IIUM Law School), Saf Qiyadah Persatuan Pelajar Islam Selangor (PEPIAS Pusat), Pertubuhan Generasi Penerus Harapan Ummah (BudiCare), Sekreteriat Akademik dan Penerbitan UKM, JPP IPG (Kampus Ilmu Khas), JPP IPG (Kampus Tengku Bainun), Pembimbing Rakan Siswa Pendidik (PRsd, IPG Bahasa Melayu), MPP UTHM and Amethyss (CFSIIUM Gambang).

Readers who want to watch the full episode can do so by clicking here.***

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