I've been working in healthcare for 15 years now, mostly as a midwife in a tertiary hospital. In recent years I've been teaching a 4th trimester workshop to help better prepare parents and on Thursday night I taught the last 4th trimester workshop for the year, a session I’ll remember as the one that showed me how BEAUTIFUL sign language is. A deaf couple attended, their interpreter sat along side me as I taught + at the end she helped me to answer their questions, that was when I was struck with the desire to learn some basic sign language.
NZSL have a free learning portal - watch, learn + practise how to use NZSL in common situations. There are nine topics to work through, within each topic there are plenty of videos, resources + exercises.
- Meet and greets
- Needs and wants
- Family and friends
- Everyday activities
- Small talk
- Work
- Community
- My place
- Holidays
In addition to this there is the New Zealand Sign Language Dictionary which has over 4,500 multimedia, multilingual dictionary entries. You can explore the dictionary by:
- Keyword Search in English and Māori languages
- Visual Search by hand shape and body location
- Browse over 50 topics
- Learn about fingerspelling alphabet, numbers, and classifiers
Lastly, Deaf Aotearoa provides training to businesses and organisations about Deaf culture, the Deaf community and overcoming communication barriers with Deaf clients ensuring all customers receive a positive experience. They have developed seven 'I am deaf lets talk' booklets that will increase your ability to effectively communicate with existing and potential Deaf clients/customers:
- Bars and restaurants
- Medical situations
- Work
- First signs for families
- Your family
- The weekend
- Māori concepts
Come on and learn our national anthem in all three official New Zealand languages: New Zealand Sign Language, English and Te Reo Māori
NZ Sign Language Print by Lis_Oh-No, available for purchase at Society 6