Libras - Brazilian sign language

Anyone who knows me or reads my blog knows that I have wanted to be a translator for many years - whether it be ASL (American sign language) or Spanish/English or Portuguese/English. I love languages, I love being able to communicate with people who are from different cultures/backgrounds, and who speak other tongues. Hence, my place in an international school in Brazil.
Speaking of my new job at the school, I have learned that there are a number of hearing-impaired staff at the school. One woman in particular reminds me a bit of a good friend's sister so I immediately liked her. She works in the library.Today I wrote to her on a piece of paper that I want to learn sign language from Brazil (I was told years ago that sign language not only differs by language, but by country) and that I know ASL. She told me that it's called libras (sign language) in Portuguese and we compared the alphabet that I know with the one she knows. I was also able to understand most of her gestures and she even taught me the sign for "friend".

I'm relieved to find out that the two alphabets do not differ much, and when they do it makes sense to me. For instance, the symbol for the letter "t" in ASL means a woman's intimate body part in Brazil, so that letter is different. The same goes for the letter "f" which is a derrogatory symbol in Brazil. The "m",  "n", and "g" are slightly different, but it's easy to learn. Soon my ASL alphabet will be replaced with a Brazilian sign language alphabet - much like how Portuguese replaced Spanish in my head.

This is what I found on-line while my co-worker was standing next to me - so she approved. If you know ASL you'll see that it's not all that different.

I believe that my co-worker will be a good teacher (to me) and she seems patient, so I'm grateful and will be trying to learn as much BSL (Brazilian sign language) as possible. She also pointed out another deaf staff member and I briefly met another one on accident; I realized when she didn't respond to me that it was because she couldn't hear me. She could read lips very well, though. I think it's wonderful how my school has hired so many hearing-impaired people, and how the hearing staff can communicate well with them. In the work place there seems to be little to no disparity between those hearing and those impaired. 

I'm so happy to be able to learn a new language and be able to make new friends. It's even more amazing how the woman who works in the library, who I mentioned above, has learned English on top of libras and Portuguese. So she's trilingual. And she is quite knowledgable about ASL, too.

I am looking forward to all that I can learn in my new position. I know I haven't written too much (yet) about my life and work here in Brasilia but I will do so as soon as I have some down time. I got my schedule for the school year today and it looks really good.

I have met some fabulous people at the school and I'm now ready to meet the kids and am excited about the novels that they'll be reading this first quarter - Tuesdays with Morrie, 1984, and Of mice and men. Back to school it is...