Even thus, the school has not changed its position
to admit the use of both languages. And not many
teachers informally ask students to teach them their Sign
language.

Of course, the Sign language they themselves
created within school environment is now being used in
the rest of the town, in all aspects of the social life of the
deaf population. I know some hearers who have learned it
in their teens just by playing games with deaf neighbours.
On the other hand, there also parents who do not like their
deaf children to use Sign languages and politicians, who
talk about policies for the deaf population, but retain
many prejudices and myths respecting Sign languages.

Standardisation of Sign Languages in Brazil:

Two curious (and failed) attempts to standardise Sign Languages in Brazil came to my mind.

The first attempt was unofficial and informal:
it involved a very small number of persons, who had been exposed to the
reality of Sign Language communities in the US.
They simply expected Sign Language to be one Universal language and tried
to spread the US Language among both Hearers and Deafs. Sooner many
told them that the Languages used in Brazil were different and that nobody
knew the US Language well to use or teach it.

The second is more recent: it is the ‘introduction’ of a Brazilian Sign Language
into the mass media. That seems to be the language of some larger cities, such
as Sao Paulo and Rio (I am not 100% sure though).
However, many small and middle size Town communities have had their own
Local Languages for years and they find the ‘National’ Language as strange as
the US one.

In my home town the word for ‘father’ is the same as ‘moustache’ and root
sentences have an SOV order, for instance. 40 Kms from my hometown,
there is another local Sign Language, which is completely different, and the
word for ‘father’ may be the same as the one for ‘beard’ and Grammar also
differs.

Consequently, when people watch TV News with someone translating into
the National Language, the vast majority of Sign Language users in places other than Sao Paulo or Rio complain
that they cannot understand anything said by the translator.
Most Deafs still prefer subtitles or closed caption.

1- Although Dutch and Icelandic are Germanic languages,
it is certainly a huge mistake to include Dutch among
the Scandinavian Languages. Portuguese, Italian, Spanish
French are all Romance, but it is not only an instance of
ignorance but a huge dis to call Portuguse a ‘Hispanic
Language’.

2-It is important to compare ‘ignorances’ and show that
People do not want to revise them. For instance, even when
a Brazilian tells you that Portuguese is not a Hispanic
Language, you found an argument to resist, saying
something like ‘well, they both come from Latin’.
So BU CAS does the same: even if you tell them they do not
know certain things, they resist and keep the attitudes.
And, trust me, even being wrong they can give you all
sorts of arguments to maintain their position and not
revise their beliefs. Even if Sign Language users ask them
more consideration, just like when Brazilians ask ‘please,
we do not speak Spanish’.

The number one ignorance is to think that Spanish is the
language of Brazil, a kind of ignorance Hollywood film
makers seemingly want to perpetuate in every movie
they make about Brazil.

There are in certain Universities (such as the University of
Edinburgh) a Department strangely called ‘”Hispanic”
Languages/Studies Department”, which includes
Portuguese, as if Portuguese speaking Countries were
Hispanic in any sense.

And to make matters worse, it does not matter how many
times you explain these mistakes, the same minds resist
and do not review their misconceptions.

So, if Boston University made a mistake, it made a very
insignificant one in comparison to others.