science

North Korean Sign Language

North Korean Sign Language is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand North Korean Sign Language rather than just read about it. In short: North Korean Sign Language (NKSL; Korean: 조선수화) is a sign language used by the deaf in North Korea. It is a distinct language that differs significantly in morphology from Korean Sign Language (KSL) used in South Korea.

Key takeaways

North Korean Sign Language belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect North Korean Sign Language to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of North Korean Sign Language from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

North Korean Sign Language (NKSL; Korean: 조선수화) is a sign language used by the deaf in North Korea. It is a distinct language that differs significantly in morphology from Korean Sign Language (KSL) used in South Korea.

History The Pyongyang School for the Blind was founded in 1898 by Rosetta Sherwood Hall, a Canadian Christian missionary. The school began accepting Deaf students in 1908 using oralist methods. The following year, it was renamed the Pyongyang School for the Deaf and Blind. While oralist methods are primarily documented, a version of Chinese Sign Language may have been used to teach spoken language. During the Japanese occupation of Korea between 1910 and 1945, Japanese teachers dispatched to Korean schools for the Deaf in Seoul, using Japanese Sign Language to teach spoken language. The use of JSL in these schools influenced the development of Korean Sign Language across the country.

Before 1945, three schools for the Deaf operated in Pyongyang, Sinuiju, and Wonsan. A booklet published by the North Korean Education Publishing House states, "After liberation, the Party and the government repaired the educational facilities of these schools and improved their educational content, giving special consideration to the cultural development and education of disadvantaged people."Little is known outside the DPRK about the development of North Korean Sign Language, though in 2005 "The Sign Language Dictionary" and "Sign Language Learning" were published as a reference for Deaf students and their families. These dictionaries contain a distinct variant of sign language from South Korean Sign Language, suggesting the continued use of NKSL by the Deaf.

Contrast to Korean Sign Language The low rate of shared vocabulary between the two languages suggests that North Korean Sign Language evolved independently of South Korean Sign Language following the Korean War, forming a distinct language that varies across handshapes, movement, location, and orientation. A study of similarities between North and South Korean sign languages found that 71% of signs studied were distinct, with 53% of signs having no agreement with each other in any of the domains of handshape, movement, or placement. Only 15% of signs were found to have exact agreement between NKSL and KSL. 36% had at least one agreement with KSL across at least one of the domains. Korean Sign Language is part of the Japanese Sign Language (JSL) family, which heavily influenced the development of KSL during the Japanese occupation between 1910 and 1945. By contrast, it is difficult to place NKSL into one language family due to its heterogeny with related languages.

See also Korean Sign Language Disability in North Korea Education in North Korea

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with North Korean Sign Language

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what North Korean Sign Language claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to North Korean Sign Language before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about North Korean Sign Language ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of North Korean Sign Language

In research: North Korean Sign Language appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses North Korean Sign Language in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: North Korean Sign Language is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Disability in North Korea, Languages of North Korea, Sign languages, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for North Korean Sign Language outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study North Korean Sign Language in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what North Korean Sign Language means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain North Korean Sign Language out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is North Korean Sign Language in simple terms?

Why does North Korean Sign Language matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study North Korean Sign Language?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on North Korean Sign Language.