6
SEEING THE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY
UMP
大學廣場
NOV 2014
Breaking Through the Language Barriers:
Spoken and Unspoken
Student Reporter: Chong Cheuk Chi, Celia
Y
ou may not notice anything special on them at first glance – they just look like other university students. However, you
will find their “extraordinariness” when you speak to them - Kairat Eshbolotov from Kyrgyzstan, an unheard-of country
to many Hong Kong people; Laura Lesmana Wijaya and Kenny Chu, currently the only two deaf undergraduate students
at CUHK using sign language as the means of communication. Although they are “rare species” on our campus, one thing they
have in common is: they all hope to break down the language walls.
Laura Lesmana Wijaya & Kenny Chu Kwan Ngai
(Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages / Year 1)
Laura from
Indonesia
and Kenny from
Hong Kong
are
both Linguistics majors whose first language is the sign
language – Jakarta Sign Language (JSL) for Laura, and Hong
Kong Sign Language (HKSL) for Kenny. Kenny received his
secondary education at the Hong Kong School for the Deaf,
while Laura was attracted by CUHK’s unique college system
and its translation and note-taking support.
Laura is currently working on a JSL dictionary and has
been involved in associations for the deaf in Indonesia,
while Kenny has been participating in HKSL acquisition
and linguistics research projects, helping the development
of HKSL textbooks and teaching HKSL. Despite their
academic and research experience in sign linguistics and
sign languages, studying is no easy task for Laura and
Kenny. Just like other students at CUHK, apart from major
courses, they also have to take various electives, general
education and physical education (PE) courses. Interpreters
from the Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies do
simultaneous interpretation for them during classes so that
they can understand the lectures and participate in tutorial
discussions, but they do experience challenges. “Although
we have chances to voice our opinions in class with the help
of interpreters and teachers usually kindly invite us to speak,
sometimes in heated debates, students just cannot wait to
raise hands and speak one after another, so it is difficult for
us to interrupt with sign languages,” they noted. It will be
nice, they think, if students can at times pause for seconds
to see if they would like to join the discussions.
Wh i l e t h e y b o t h
f i n d c a t c h i n g u p
with reading materials
sometimes hard, they have
fun experiences at CUHK.
Kenny recalled the discouraging
moments when ordering food in canteens because of
misunderstanding, but he enjoys PE lessons, during which
he can relax himself from the pressure of study. Laura joins a
number of activities and feels welcomed by her new friends,
who talk to her with body language or by texting.
Both Laura and Kenny aspire to continue their contribution
to the deaf communities respectively in Indonesia and Hong
Kong, to promote sign languages, to bridge the gap of
misunderstanding between the hearing and the deaf, to
fight for rights of the deaf people, and to assist the hearing
impaired with their needs and identity building. In the
HKSL courses offered by the Department of Linguistics and
Modern Languages, some students are curious when seeing
them with interpreters, but as Kenny noticed, most are too
shy to come to them and start a conversation. Both of them
would like to meet more students who might wish to talk
to them in any ways in the future, and will be more than
willing to teach them sign languages.
