고등학교 공통영어1 (YBM 박준언) 연계 글

Many people think of sign language as a set of simple gestures that imitate a spoken language word by word. In fact, each sign language is a complete language with its own vocabulary and grammar. Signers form words with the shape, position, and movement of their hands. The face plays an important part as well. In Korean Sign Language, for example, a signer can keep the same hand movement and change only the facial expression, turning the statement "It is delicious" into a question. Similarly, a person signing in American Sign Language can convey a question by lifting the eyebrows, opening the eyes wide, and leaning the body forward.

Another common belief is that deaf people everywhere share a single sign language. However, there is no universal sign language. According to the World Federation of the Deaf, deaf people worldwide use more than 300 distinct sign languages. Even countries that share a spoken language do not always share a sign language. Although the United Kingdom shares English with the United States, British Sign Language and American Sign Language are different languages. Likewise, deaf Koreans and deaf Americans cannot communicate easily unless they learn each other's sign languages.

In Korea, the Korean Sign Language Act was enacted in February 2016 and took effect that August. Since then, Korean Sign Language has been protected by a law of its own. The first article of the act describes Korean Sign Language as deaf Koreans' own language. It also declares that this language has the same status as Korean, the national language. The second article names Korean Sign Language the official language of deaf people in Korea, giving them the right to be educated in it. The act also requires national and local governments to provide interpreters at public events, allowing deaf citizens to follow those events in their own language.

Since 2021, February 3, the date on which the act was enacted, has been celebrated every year as Korean Sign Language Day. Around the world, September 23 has been observed as the International Day of Sign Languages since 2018. Both days aim to help more people understand that sign languages are complete languages, not just helpful gestures.