GSL vs. ASL - Jenseits der Stille (1998) Discussion

[–] WhyMe1977 19 years ago

GreenBowTie, not every Deaf uses American Sign Language. I am Deaf from Deaf family and I met several foreigners and enjoyed learning different sign language. There is a universal sign language for few events such as World Deaf Olympics where many Deaf gathered. That is known as interntional sign language. You can check it out at
http://www.handspeak.com/byte/isl/info.html
http://www.deaflinx.com/gestuno.html
http://www.taubenschlag.de/links/asle.html
It's really neat. Hope this message help! :)

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[–] GreenBowTie 19 years ago

That was my point. I think the characters used American Sign Language even though it was in Germany.

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[–] gorgradish 19 years ago

This movie was not ASL. It was singed in German. The differences are many between the two languages. I think you should get familiar with ASL. Anyone fluent can and will tell you that this is not a film that uses American
Sign or any of it's regional variations.

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[–] iluvmusic10 19 years ago

I totally agree. While there were some segments that i understood the sign language, it was still very different. The sign for music in the movie looked like a conductor rather than the way it is in ASL, however when the father was asking lara if he lost her for ever they used the sign that is also the sign for disconnect meaning lost relationship etc... so definitely it was in German Sign Language, but between the two there were definite similareties

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[–] Helene-pigen 19 years ago

I don't understand sign language, but I know that both Laras mother and father is deaf germans, so I would say that it sounds right that it is german sign language they use.

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[–] rugex 19 years ago

In the bonus-material the director Caroline Link told, that the actors of the parents (Seago from US and Laborit from France I think) both learned GSL for this movie to act authentic.

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[–] Helene-pigen 19 years ago

okay.. havn't seen the bonus-material, so I only know what my german-teacher told, but know i'm wiser.

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[–] Etoile 18 years ago

I noticed that too. I am an interpreter in the United States and I found it very interesting to watch German Sign Language. I saw someone said in the comments for this movie that it looked a lot like ASL (they also said ASL was identical to French Sign Language) so I posted a comment to correct them. They are definitely very different...signs for things like important, reading, music, and lots of other words were totally different.

I think Howie Seago and Emmanuelle Laborit did a good job learning the German Sign Language for this movie.

Meredith - http://journal.amanita.net

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[–] clan_eubanks 18 years ago

I'm taking an ASL course now, which is how I came to watch this wonderful flick. Our teacher asked us to spot some of the differences between the two signed languages.
I noticed the music sign diff and also "reading" is different. On top of that, my ever ready teacher handed us a sheet of handsigns for fingerspelling from GSL. More than the standard 26 letters needed for ASL fingerspelling.

-S

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[–] vunja 17 years ago

it was very interesting to watch, particularly the similarities and differences between GSL and ASL. some of the signs were similar enough that between them and the context I could understand what was being signed, which I think is really interesting. (I know that ASL and FSL are similar/related, it would be interesting to find out how GSL and FSL are related...)

I understood the fingerspelling, is it that different? I noticed the T was different (similar to an F, which is how FSL does it.)

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[–] alicia-doyon 14 years ago

The movie was filmed in Germany in German and German Sign Language with German actors and the German Deaf community. One actor (Howie Seago) is a Deaf American, and the actress who played the mother is French, but used German Sign Language in the film.

While there may be some similarities, since German Sign Language and ASL are in the same language family (as is LSF aka French Sign Language), it was definitely German Sign Language and not ASL in the film.

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