Malaysia: ASL Around the World

I want to introduce you to a true Supermom, Nurul Farid of Malaysia. Nurul is a Signing Time Academy instructor, and she is also working hard to help build a Mummy and Me center for mothers and their children to gather support, attend classes and grow together.

Thank you, Nurul, for accepting our invitation to write a guest post for us.

 “Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.” – Rita Mae Brown

Firstly, I’d like to thank Joyce for inviting me to write as a guest blogger. It’s such an honor to be able to share my experience on a blog I’ve admired and turn to for information and knowledge on the Deaf community and ASL.

I live half way round the globe, in Malaysia, but ASL was the perfect sign language to introduce to my baby. There are plenty of resources and the local sign language: MySL - Malaysian Sign Language has its similarities to ASL. I taught my baby to sign at 3 months old and we became a Baby Sign Language convert! Now I teach sign language to babies and parents at select venues around town and have made it my personal mission to encourage more Malaysian parents to sign with their babies and expose them to the benefits of signing.

Why you ask?

Here’s my story: Before becoming a work at home mother, I was teaching primary school children in a public school. I am a TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) graduate from an Australian university. My first language is the Malay language and I speak and read a little bit of Japanese. Call me multilingual, but almost everyone in the country is at least bilingual, so being multilingual is quite common here.

The task of an English teacher here is important in making sure that children who come from non-English speaking backgrounds are exposed to proper use of the language. It was after I resigned from my teaching career and recalled someone mentioning about baby sign language that I realized I’ve been using a lot of the signs in my English classes. Had I known earlier about using sign language with kids, I would have incorporated it into my language classes sooner.

It creates the perfect balance in a class of visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners in language learning. Now I’m doing what I can to encourage parents to use it with their young to carry it till they are older and able to apply it in a primary school setting (or even when they’re adults!)

Since I’ve always loved babies, being a Signing Time instructor has helped combined my passion towards language, motherhood, and early childhood education. Most importantly, I’m going around sharing my love towards multiple languages simply through 1 language that helps bind them all.

Help support my fundraising (http://igg.me/at/ibuandme/x/3006776) to get a venue of our own and coordinate more sign language classes. Would also love a ‘hello’ at our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ibuandme

Thank you, Nurul, for sharing your story, your heart and your mission with us.

Be sure to stop by Nurul's home page: http://www.ibuandme.com/