For the 3rd time in a year Mathilde Combes from the association Signons! in Reims has come down and helped our participants continue their passion for sign language. We were 10 students this weekend, with a little difference in level (some had level 8 in LSF, some had just done several weekends!), but Mathilde’s energy helped everybody to develop confidence and have fun together.
It reminds me of the time when I first came to live in the South of France and as my spoken French language skills weren’t very well developed I was able to find myself and communicate more easily in this world of silence and non-verbal communication. Sign Language is an essential skill for anyone who wants to communicate with others, Deaf or from another country and Mathilde is excellent at helping build that confidence to do so quickly and easily.
We were very pleased to meet new people and new artists in the region who are also interested and passionate by LSF, and who use it in their work, as well as seeing the same smiling faces come back. Our next weekend workshop is in May, with weekly workshops continuing in primary schools in La Voulte.
We hope to continue these workshops for adults in 2014-2015 and once we have a new base set up we will be considering how best to do this.