Do you still remember that one viral video of a woman dressed in all black making certain movements when Farel Prayoga is singing Ojo Dibandingke in Istana Negara? Her expression and moves have successfully captured the eyes of many.

But I need to inform you that her movement is not some TikTok dances, instead, it is BISINDO language or Bahasa Isyarat Indonesia Language. BISINDO is a sign language made by the Indonesian deaf community and Winda Utami, the woman I just mentioned, is a sign language interpreter of BISINDO.

Of course, it is obvious that Winda learned BISINDO for her occupation. But what is the use of BISINDO if we, someone who came from the hearing community with a normal background, learned it?

What I am about to tell you is based on my experience of learning BISINDO during the pandemic. So here is the reason why you should learn BISINDO!

 

The most obvious reason is to break the language barrier by having the ability to communicate. Just like us, the deaf community also has its own culture and it is very interesting to learn. In terms of language, BISINDO also worked the same way as the Indonesian language where there are many language varieties based on the regional area.

For instance, people from Jakarta will say thank you like this (Doing the Thank you sign in BISINDO Jakarta), while those who came from West Java will say it like this (Doing the Thank you sign in BISINDO Jabar). Interesting right? If we can communicate with the deaf community, we can learn other interesting facts and even getting know personally with many lovely people in the community.

 

But does the benefit stop there? No. Learning BISINDO will also help us in our daily lives.

 

First, relating to one of the courses in the English Education program, BISINDO can also help our public speaking. The deaf community heavily relies on their sight when communicating. For that reason, there are three important things that convey meaning in BISINDO: Gestures, facial expressions, and eye contact. These three things are inseparable.

If you want to say sorry to someone in BISINDO, you cannot convey it like this (Showing the sorry gesture while being expressionless and not staring at the audience), you need to be expressive and stare them in the eye! Like this (Showing the sorry gesture in the correct way).

Now, let’s learn how to do it properly together. Make an ‘okay’ sign and then placed it on your right cheek. Move it around two times. Remember! You need to be sincere and show how much you feel sorry (Showing the sorry gesture in the correct way; Improvise the part of giving the audience feedback about their sorry gesture).

So we can see that learning BISINDO will surely help you exercise those three important things: gestures, facial expressions, and eye contact. And if I have to be honest, I notice that I become more expressive and less tense when speaking after learning this sign language.

 

Second, learning BISINDO will also help in increasing our ability in spatial reasoning. Spatial reasoning is the ability to think and manipulate both two and three-dimensional objects. Do you remember the questions you did mostly in the psychology test that involves shapes and patterns? Those are questions that test your ability in spatial reasoning because it is an important skill for your academic achievement. BISINDO is a language with three-dimensional characters. Most of the characters require you to mentally picture that the object is in front of you.

For instance, when you want to say you eat mango, you do it like this (Showing eating mango sign in BISINDO Jabar). As you can see, it seems like you are peeling and eating a mango right?

Therefore, we can see that learning BISINDO will help increase your spatial reasoning by exercising your ability to form mental images.

 

Lastly, learning BISINDO will also help in increasing our reaction time. I learned BISINDO from a teacher who is deaf. At first, I was pretty overwhelmed with how fast she signed and have a hard time keeping up with all the language barriers.

If you want to know how fast she signed, it is similar to this (Spelling one of the audience/the committee’s first name in BISINDO). Very fast right? Do you know what I just did? I just spell (the chosen audience/the committee) first name (Showing how to spell the name again in BISINDO).

So yeah, my teacher signed really fast. But as time goes by, I can actually read her signs better and better, and even pass the class. Not only I can sign, but I am finally able to read what my classmate said to me in BISINDO.

So we can see that by familiarizing ourselves with BISINDO, we can increase our alertness, and sometimes it feels like seeing things in slow motion when the time worked normally.

 

BISINDO is a very interesting language, right? So what are you waiting for? Learn BISINDO now and you will not only support inclusiveness for the deaf community but also attain benefits for your daily lives. Thank you (Doing the Thank you sign in BISINDO Jabar).