法国防流感新招：用手语代替亲吻

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.

当各国政府正为抗击甲型H1N1流感开展大规模疫苗接种计划时，法国西部的一名男子则发起了自己的一项控制病毒传播的运动：使用手语。

这位名叫休伯特•查勒特的手语倡导者称，暂时用简单的手语来代替法国人贴面吻的问候习惯可减少身体接触。休伯特是“给我一个手势”协会的创始人之一，该机构致力于帮助听力受损的人们。

查勒特在法国西部城市南特接受记者的电话采访时说：“如果我们将亲吻脸颊和握手换成一种富有想像力的、丰富多彩的语言形式，例如手语，那会怎样呢？”

他建议电视新闻节目播放一些简单习语的手语表达，例如“嗨”、“再见”、“你好吗？”、“病了吗？”等等。

他说：“我希望能在午间或晚间的电视新闻中看到一条小标题，来温习这些习语。”

那么这些习语就可用于一些群体场合，比如一名职员需要问候多位同事时，而且这样的话，人们就不需要进行“老套的、通常又不怎么热情的握手了”。

69岁的查勒特是“给我一个手势”协会的调解员，他在此工作了九年，直至去年该机构解散。现在他在人道主义组织L'Ecoute de la Rue（一般译为“在街上时请注意听”）工作。

法国于本月20日首先对医务人员进行了疫苗接种，普通民众的接种工作将于11月的第一周开展。

自甲型H1N1流感流行至今，法国已有34人因此而丧生。

查特勒称，推广手语还能促进有声和无声世界的沟通。

Vocabulary:

roll out:大量生产

go over：to repeat; review（复习，重温）

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