[Asia Economy Reporter Jonggil Lee] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the National Institute of the Korean Language announced recommended sign language expressions for ‘confirmed case(s)’ and ‘self-quarantine’ on the 7th. The sign language for ‘confirmed case(s)’ combines the meanings of both ‘confirmed’ and ‘confirmed case(s).’ To ensure clear communication, specific disease names or infections can be prefixed. For ‘self-quarantine,’ two commonly used expressions in the field were selected as the recommended forms. These will be used in government announcements (briefings) and sign language interpretation going forward.
The recommendations were prepared by the newly formed Sign Language Group launched last month. This group includes representatives from the Korea Deaf Association, sign language interpreters (public sign language interpreters and interpreters for the hearing impaired), sign language teachers, and linguistics experts. They collect sign language expressions from the deaf community and review them biweekly. A representative explained, “In the deaf community, specialized terms or neologisms often do not spread quickly as unified sign language. If sign language interpreters use different signs individually, it becomes difficult for deaf people to access related information.”
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the National Institute of the Korean Language plan to continuously investigate new sign language expressions and select those likely to be widely used for dissemination. The selected sign languages can be checked on the websites of the National Institute of the Korean Language and the Korean Sign Language Dictionary.
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