Inside the house of our home in Eureka, heavy rain pouring down harder and the sounds of rain were loud as much you can hear, not to me. The rain and sound remain me when I was staying in Paris several times and I visited to one of the oldest Deaf school in Paris. I met one of the oldest students and he talked about his daily lessons out in the gardening all years round. First he was a shoe maker and later became a gardener at the de’l Epee School for the Deaf after his retirement as a shoe maker. He worked through heavy rain, snow, sunshine and wind. The best of all he loved was Spring season because Spring season gave him some rewards of flowering and fruits that bought for the staff and children at school. He does not wear hearing aids and his communicate was old French sign language. You can see the photos which I bought back to Waikato for my future job role as a Deaf Historian back in late 1990s.
The school was built right in the city of Paris and it was surrounding behind the wall as it was to protect many deaf children from dangers and public. Abbe de L’Eppe – known as the Father of the Deaf and the philanthropic educator of the 18th century, ran the school by using his own finances out of his pocket. Abbe de L’Eppe was not the first deaf person because he was hearing person. HIs discovery was the two sisters who communicating in sign language in 1758s’to 1760 where he established the school for the Deaf in Paris and it was free to public. In 1791, the French legislature approved government funding for the school at last. Abbe de L’Eppe died in 1789 just before the French Revolution took in place around in France.
Sign language – a new language for many deaf people to communicate and it is benefit for them to communicate freely as oral language as everyone speaks today. de L’Eppe was taught to sign by the deaf sisters and a few other deaf children where he learnt from them. It took awhile to understand how sign language works as same to oral speaking – linguistic method. I mean lexicon, verb ending, article, prepositions and so on.
Back to the deaf man I spoke to, he was using French Sign language and I signed in English/NZSL (New Zealand Sign Language). We understood each other from time to time. My English/NZSL sign language is not the same as his French Sign Language because it is a universal language and it is the same as spoken language around the world.
Life in Eureka 