Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Graduation

Today was Lilia's graduation ceremony. She had to give a little speech, and this is what she signed (as translated by me):

"In kindergarten, the funnest thing was 'The Mitten' play during the Culture Festival. I was the dog. I said 'bow wow wow' in a loud voice. Everyone praised me so I was happy.

"When I grow up I want to work in a clothing store. I want to sell pretty clothes.

"Thank you teacher and mama. When I become a first grader, I will do my best.

"That's all."

Sadly, her father didn't understand her signing, but we were both very proud of her.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm coming a little late into the game (I discovered your weblog through Weigook Saram), but I was wondering how long your daughter has been signing? I'm guessing she's learning Japanese sign language? These are nosy questions, but I was just kind of curious...

And I'm loving reading about your life as a parent in Japan; it makes me remember the specific things - both good and bad - that make living there what it is (and helps me to get out of my fantasies about wanting to live there again).

10:16 AM  
Blogger Gaijin Mama said...

We started signing with her as soon as we knew she was deaf, which was when she was about 6 months old. I used some ASL at first, because I had a couple videos for kids and didn't know much JSL. Now she uses JSL. I wrote more extensively about this in the book It's A Girl which comes out in a couple weeks.

2:58 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for your response; I'll check out your essay when the book comes out!

7:01 PM  

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