T

wenty-seven-year-old Andrew Sihombing smiled appreciatively as a young girl he was teaching signed her name in the Indonesian Sign Language Association (Bisindo) on Sunday.

As her free lesson ended, she moved her right hand to her lips and moved it up and down '€” as if blowing a kiss '€” to say thank you, before leaving the set of white desks placed on the pavement in front of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta.

'€œWe have been offering free Bisindo classes every Car Free Day since June so that hearing people can be more familiar with Bisindo,'€ Andrew, who is deaf, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

He explained that the free lessons running from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. every Sunday were initiated by the Movement for Indonesian Association for Welfare of the Deaf (Gerkatin) to increase communication between hearing and deaf people.

The lessons were also a way persons with hearing could understand the difficulties of living in a city for deaf people, he said.

Andrew cited traveling by the Transjakarta busway as one of the obstacles he faced daily. He said that many buses had broken turn signals informing passengers of the upcoming stop.

'€œSince we can'€™t hear, it'€™s a little difficult for us to know which busway stop the attendant is announcing,'€ he chuckled.

Andrew also noted that there were only 14 licensed sign language interpreters in Jakarta and only seven of them were actively working as interpreters.

This made it difficult for deaf people to visit hospitals or attend court hearings.

Chairman of Gerkatin'€™s central management board, Aprizar Zakaria, said that 2012 data from the Social Affairs Ministry showed that there were around 200,000 hearing-impaired people in Greater
Jakarta alone.

'€œEven though that seems like a small number within the 9 million people living in Jakarta, it'€™s still significant enough that we want to make our presence known to those with hearing. We wanted a place for the deaf and the hearing to socialize with each other,'€ he said.

Around 50 people have attended since the free lessons first began, Andrew said. Curious visitors receive a card with 10 slots drawn on it, signifying the 10 free sessions they can attend.

During these one-on-one sessions, Gerkatin members patiently teach visitors Bisindo at an extremely basic level, starting from the alphabet and eventually moving up to conversational phrases.

Andrew explained that visitors could receive a 50 percent discount for a Bisindo dictionary and guidebook after they visited 10 times.

First-timer Zulfikar, 29, smiled sheepishly when asked if he could now sign the whole alphabet.

'€œI sometimes get my right and left hand mixed up, so it was pretty challenging. I can definitely spell my name now, though,'€ he said proudly.

He told the Post that he was interested in learning Bisindo because it would make it much easier for deaf people if more people with hearing could use sign language.

'€œThese people have already put in the work and effort to provide free lessons for us every week so that we can both understand each other. We [hearing people] should put in the same effort,'€ he said.

Bisindo is a sign language that is considered simpler and more expressive compared to the official Indonesian Sign Language System (SIBI). Developed by the now-defunct Education Ministry by people with hearing, the deaf community has said that SIBI is too complicated and academic and that they prefer Bisindo, which was developed by the deaf community itself.

Gerkatin has been an avid campaigner for Bisindo and has criticized the government for using SIBI at formal occasions like TV broadcasts and for failing to recognize Bisindo.