- La Papotière is a new bilingual sign language restaurant, open in downtown Nantes.
- Its creators want to raise awareness among the general public and improve the professional integration of people with deafness.
She warns, with humor: she takes care of everything but don't count on her for the playlist. For the past few weeks, Imane has been the co-manager of a new, somewhat unique restaurant located on rue Saint-Léonard, in downtown Nantes. This 28-year-old woman, deaf from birth, set up with Kanyaman, a hearing friend, a bilingual French / sign language restaurant. It is also Saturday evening that the official inauguration of La Papotière will take place.
To order, directly at the counter, customers can point the finger, through the window, the dish that seduced them. All the dishes (starters and desserts) on display are homemade. Next to it, a small drawing gives the sign language translation. "I show them how we do it, slowly so that they understand correctly, like a tourist who speaks a foreign language," says Imane, alone at reception. Of course we are not the fastest to serve, but customers are generally curious and play the game! The goal is that we can communicate together, that people are no longer afraid when they find themselves facing a deaf person. "
Difficult access to the world of work
If it is not a visible handicap, the difficulties are very real when you are deaf. And especially in the professional world, says the young restaurateur, who had to wait to start her own business to work. "During the job interviews, I was told that I was not going to be able to integrate, or that hiring an interpreter was not within the budget," recalls Imane, who obtained a diploma in dental technicians.
It was after meeting Kanyaman in a sign language training center that the idea of creating this restaurant was born. A place, like there are some others in France, where anyone can be made aware of LSF, and not only the relatives of deaf people, they say. But then again, we had to hang on. "It took two years," says Kanyaman, 27. Being hearing, I had access to all the training very quickly. But for Imane, it was really long… ”After a successful crowdfunding campaign, the two partners were also able to count on several hearing impaired craftsmen, who participated in the work on a voluntary basis.
"The exchange will take place, quite naturally"
For the moment, at La Papotière, it seems to be rolling like clockwork. For reservations, customers go through Facebook. And for suppliers, many communicate by text anyway. But communication within the team will go even better when the vibrating system is installed between the room and the kitchen, which is however open. Because in the kitchen, Lila too is deaf. "I trained seven years ago but no one has wanted to hire me since", explains the cook, who taught art history but who "always had a passion for cooking and products local ".
From the next few days, workshops will be given in a second room of the establishment. "It will not be courses to become bilingual but we will be able to learn the basics of vocabulary, on different themes," explains Imane. There will also be sewing, baby workshops, led by deaf people. Kanyaman will be there "to reassure". "But the exchange will happen, quite naturally," hope the young women.
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20 seconds of context
Imane does not read lips and the journalist who wrote this article does not speak sign language! It is therefore thanks to Kanyaman, who practices it but who is not an interpreter, that the words of each other were translated and that the interview was able to take place in a very natural way.
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