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Diversit Day Buffer

Sign Language Demonstration

Wednesday 19 May 2021

12:00

Online event

European Investment Bank

Description of the action
At the EIB, we often ask how many languages our colleagues can speak. But perhaps a better question would be how many languages can we use? There are and estimated 750,000 Deaf Sign Language users in the EU. And that number does not count the number of people who learn Sign Language as a second language or children of Deaf parents who have Sign Language as a first language. And as for how many languages you can use, did you also know that there are language families within Sign Languages? For example, Austrian or Dutch Sign Language are more readily understood by someone who knows German Sign Language than by a person who knows Italian Sign Language. As a result, at EU and international level, international sign (IS) is increasingly being used by Sign Language users with different nationalities who work and socialise transnationally. International Sign is also increasingly used in the webstreaming of events and meetings, enabling Sign Language users to participate in conferences where interpretation is provided in several languages. 15-21 March was the UK Sign Language week and one of the EIB colleagues, who is a first language British Sign Language user, will host a demonstration session on 19 May, just in advance of Luxembourg Diversity Day, to give EIB colleagues a starter lesson in Sign Language!
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