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Want to learn British Sign Language? - Dawn Hoskins (11th Feb 2017 - 15:57:32) There of over 10 million people in the UK affected by hearing loss. 900,000 have severe or profound hearing loss and use Brish Sign Language (BSL). BSL is a 'British' language - but sadly not one that is taught in our schools - even ones which class themselves as 'language schools'. We have reached a crisis point in this country as funds have been cut completely for BSL learning. We now have a paltry 908 registered qualified interpreters for the whole of the UK - which means that EVERY DAY deaf people cannot communicate with us.Despite their language being a British language - we don't know it. Imagine if everyone had pigeon BSL instead of that pigeon French or German that you have never used since school? It would absolutely transform the lives of Deaf people if the hearing had the ability to just say "Hello, how are you?" If you are interested in learning BSL, there is a course starting on the 25th of February. It is in Woking - which I know is a bit of a treck - but it is the nearest provider as nearly all of the others have closed their doors due to lack of funds. I hope you can give this some thought - and maybe tell your friends. Please share if you can.

Re: Want to learn British Sign Language? - Robin (11th Feb 2017 - 17:58:33) No it's not, we have a Hard of Hearing group in Liphook, Age Concern help to run it at the Church Centre and Kay Murray runs it.

Re: Want to learn British Sign Language? - Dawn Hoskins (11th Feb 2017 - 22:44:08) British Sign Language is not the same as a hard of hearing group. Generally, people who have lost their hearing as an adult have already acquired speech, reading and written English. This means that they are able to communicate in English - English is their first language and they need help to recognise English words being spoken - perhaps by lipreading. Hearing loss is measured in decibels of hearing loss (dB HL). It can be graded as follows: 1. 20-40 dB HL: mild, cannot hear whispers. 2. 41-70 dB HL: moderate, cannot hear conversational speech. 3. 71-95 dB HL: severe, cannot hear shouting 4. 95 dB HL: profound, cannot hear sounds at all Levels 1 & 2 may use various methods of communication in addition to BSL – although a proportion may be Deaf monolinguists. Levels 3 & 4 are generally BSL monolinguists. they have no language apart from BSL. They are a cultural and linguistic minority. English is not their language, they are usually very poor at understanding the written or spoken word and are unable to speak themselves. It is these people that need hearing people with BSL skills so that they may integrate into the 'hearing world'. There are 900,000 people in the UK who have severely or profoundly deaf. They would not be wearing hearing aids, hearing aids can only amplify available sound. If they have no sound to begin with - it can't be amplified.

Re: Want to learn British Sign Language? - Dawn Hoskins (10th Aug 2017 - 10:25:37) Please let any interested parties know that there are Taster Sessions being run throughout September. Currently these are in Guildford and Woking, but if there is demand we can travel to other local venues. I will post a flier on the Liphook Facebook page. I would very much appreciated if you could share it on your own pages.

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