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I really wish they had pushed for a universal sign language. I think getting most countries to agree to teach a common sign language throughout the public education systems would be far more achievable and in the long run it would not only allow people in different countries to communicate but would be such a massive boon for people who rely on it.
I agree that it would be great but I have an anecdote you may be interested in.
In college, I pursued a minor degree in Deaf Studies. That meant, along with my language courses, I took a series of “deaf culture” classes. Every teacher in the program was deaf and my favorite one suggested going to this deaf Thai dance performance for an extracurricular assignment. It was pretty cool - they used heavy bass thumps to keep time - but that’s not the anecdote.
After the show, we invited the dancers out to dinner and drinks. My teacher only knew American Sign Language and the dancers only knew Thai Sign Language. They could not communicate well. My teacher took my notebook and scribbled a few things. The dancers did the same. It took no more than 20 minutes for them to be communicating fluently…and if something wasn’t clear, they reached for the notebook.
It was amazing. I still have those pages because it was such a mindblowing experience
Unfortunately at my college sign language was a fine are and did not meet the foreign language requirement.
We didn’t have a foreign language requirement at my school, I wound up taking Deaf Culture 1 for some other credit and loved it so much I minored in it.
Unfortunately didn’t get the degree because I HATED the teacher for the last couple of classes. I regret not powering through
A pale shadow of the superior unified language: Lojban