法國防流感新招：用手語代替親吻

As governments rush to roll out mass vaccinations programmes against H1N1 swine flu, one man in western France has launched his own campaign to limit its spread -- use sign language.

Temporarily replacing the French custom of kissing cheeks with simple greetings in sign language would reduce physical contact, said Hubert Chalet, who co-founded Fais-Moi Signe (Give me a Sign), an association for people with impaired hearing.

"What if we substituted cheek-kissing and handshakes with an imaginative and colorful language such as sign language?" Chalet told reporters by phone from Nantes in western France.

He recommends that television news programmes broadcast the sign language for simple phrases such as "Hello," "Goodbye," "How are you?" and "Are you sick?."

"What I would like to see is a little headline on the midday or evening news on television to go over the phrases," he said.

These phrases could then be used in group situations, he said, for example when an office worker needs to greet a group of colleagues and remove the need for "banal handshakes which are not always enthusiastic."

Chalet, 69, worked as a mediator for Fais-Moi Signe for nine years until the organization shut down last year. He now works for humanitarian group L'Ecoute de la Rue, which broadly translates as "listening out on the streets."

France began its own vaccination campaign on October 20 for hospital staff, and shots will be offered to the general population starting from the first week in November.

There have been 34 H1N1-related deaths in France since the start of the epidemic.

Promoting sign language would also help to bring the hearing and hearing-impaired worlds closer together, Chalet added.

當各國政府正爲抗擊甲型H1N1流感開展大規模疫苗接種計劃時，法國西部的一名男子則發起了自己的一項控制病毒傳播的運動：使用手語。

這位名叫休伯特•查勒特的手語倡導者稱，暫時用簡單的手語來代替法國人貼面吻的問候習慣可減少身體接觸。休伯特是“給我一個手勢”協會的創始人之一，該機構致力於幫助聽力受損的人們。

查勒特在法國西部城市南特接受記者的電話採訪時說：“如果我們將親吻臉頰和握手換成一種富有想像力的、豐富多彩的語言形式，例如手語，那會怎樣呢？”

他建議電視新聞節目播放一些簡單習語的手語表達，例如“嗨”、“再見”、“你好嗎？”、“病了嗎？”等等。

他說：“我希望能在午間或晚間的電視新聞中看到一條小標題，來溫習這些習語。”

那麼這些習語就可用於一些羣體場合，比如一名職員需要問候多位同事時，而且這樣的話，人們就不需要進行“老套的、通常又不怎麼熱情的握手了”。

69歲的查勒特是“給我一個手勢”協會的調解員，他在此工作了九年，直至去年該機構解散。現在他在人道主義組織L'Ecoute de la Rue（一般譯爲“在街上時請注意聽”）工作。

法國於本月20日首先對醫務人員進行了疫苗接種，普通民衆的接種工作將於11月的第一週開展。

自甲型H1N1流感流行至今，法國已有34人因此而喪生。

查特勒稱，推廣手語還能促進有聲和無聲世界的溝通。

Vocabulary:

roll out:大量生產

go over：to repeat; review（複習，重溫）

banal：devoid of freshness or originality; hackneyed; trite（陳腐的，老一套的）