Basic English For The Deaf In Bhutan

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Introduction

In May 2003, a group of deaf young people met together with Dr. Maliwan Tammasaeng, Consultant in Deaf Education, and Ms. Yada Chinachote, Deaf Instructor, Thailand, for an INSET workshop on how to collect and record the deaf signs used in Bhutan. We asked the young people to give signs they use for everyday objects. We drew pictures of each sign as a record.

Soon after, the same group of deaf young people was employed as assistant teachers at the Deaf Education Unit to carry out sign language research and develop teaching and learning materials equivalent to the national curriculum for classes PP and I level.

We collected the signs that are most frequently used. We also collected signs that are useful for parents, children, teachers and health care workers, such as:

• Members of the family
• Parts of the body
• Food
• Clothes
• Furniture and household utensils
• Things and activities in school
• Bodily functions and sanitation
• Time – parts of the day, days of the week, seasons of the year, hours of the day
• Geographical names
• Numbers
• Frequent actions
• Feelings
• Colours
• Occupations

We took photographs of each sign as a record. From these photographs, the artist drew all the pictures to show the meaning of the words and produced this Bhutanese sign language book.

The text illustrates the manual alphabet, basic numbers, the key to handshapes and affixes such as the plural. It also describes the execution of a total of 289 signs, with the vocabulary listed alphabetically.

This is a simple publication, but it is the first record of the signs used among deaf people in Bhutan.

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