A Special Talk on "Learning and Living: A Deaf Perspective".

On the 19/2/2013, we had two guest speakers came down to the Univesity of Nottingham Malaysia Campus  to hold a talk  on " Learning and Living: A Deaf Perspective". They are Ms. Ho Koon Wei, a deaf speaker who comes  from University of Malaya together with her sign-language translator. During the talk, I was impressed to see  Ms. Ho, a deaf speaker presented her talk very professionally and her sign language translator was  translating  really fast especially  the way she uses her hand gestures and translating in sign language to explain what Ms. Ho is saying. Besides, in this talk,  I learnt about deaf culture, what are the causes of hearing loss and and the interesting thing was there are many different types of sign language used. Some countries has their own sign language and there are also international sign language. Moreover, this was  my first experience of seeing and listening to a Deaf speaker presenting her talk and it was truly a memorable and unforgetable experience I've ever had.  Before this, I don't know what is like to be deaf,  or what is their culture, identity and the language.

There is this article that I've read by Audrei Gesser, a German who visited a place called Gallaudet University, which  is also known as the "Land of the Deaf". The reason she

 came to this place is to learn about the Deaf people lives, culture, identity,etc(Gesser, 2007). I decided to do a little bit of research on Gallaudet University, and found out that it is a quiet campus ,it is a  place where students could speak the unspoken language of deaf America and everyone understands the culture of Deaf in that place.

Upon my first experience, before this I always wonder how does deaf people speak or practice their speech?. I remember that Ms.Ho together with her sign language translator said that deaf people are not mute , but they chose not to speak for various reasons. She also said that deaf people would learn to speak aloud.

                                                   

( According to Lane, Hoffmeister, and Bahan,1996) stated that language has three roles in bonding a group of speakers to one another and to their culture. Language is also known as a symbol of social identity,a medium of social interaction, and a store of cultural knowledge(Gesser,2007). However, the language of Deaf is known as a visual language and the use of gestures or facial expressions. This language is created by the Deaf comunity to be shared among Deaf community. There are so many ways to learn sign language. Ms.Ho demonstrated many sign languages such as American, British, France, Malay...etc.  Since Ms.Ho is from Malaysia, she uses BIM Manually coded, which was invented by the hearing people and to share with other Malaysian Deaf Communities.

Based on the article, the writer is not proficient in ASL sign language in Gallaudet University but she said that deaf people could understand him by using written communication. She said that she  used her oral mode in English to communicate, despite English is a foreign language to her. The thing she did was she develped a strategy of speechreading in English because she noticed that Deaf people at the Gallaudet University frequently mouthed in English. The writer is going to use this strategy until sheis proficient in ASL(Gesser,2007). In my opinion, I think that is a good idea. If I were the writer who is visiting Gallaudet University, I would do exactly the same because speechreading helps us to communicate with the deaf and Hard of Hearing people.

 

 

This is an example of American Sign Language(ASL)

 

In the article, I noticed that hearing people communicate with other hearing people using simultaneous communication(SIMCOM). In the Gallaudet University context, hearing people is more on a political-ideological issue, which they have their own space. Moreover, the writer also mention the Signed Exact English( SEE), where this reflects what Ms. Ho's says that (SEE) is a method  that Deaf people used sign words exactly as they used in the English Language. Ms. Ho even gave us an example of an English sentence and sign words sentence to show the differences.

 

Example : I am going to school( English Sentence)

Me going to school( sign words sentence).

 

 

 

Deaf Culture

When we think about "deaf culture", and we see that there is a huge barrier dividing hearing people and people who are deaf, and the only thing that splits these two groups apart is the communication.
 A Deaf Culture is referring to social beliefs, behaviours, values, history and institutions that are shared among the Deaf communities, who communicate by using sign language. In the cultural context, the term "deaf" is sometimes written with a big D(Deaf), meaning sign and speech. Based on the article I've read, the writer talks about a hearing person, who could use ASL proficiently said that the writer have to use ASL because many Deaf people are proficient in ASL. This reflects back to the culture that is practicing by the Deaf communities. I belief that many hearing people feel that there  are many hearing people who are socially accepted into the Deaf Community because of their willingness to adopt those beliefs that's been practiced within the community.

 Since Deaf people in Gallaudet's beliefs on political-ideological correctness, Deaf people have a sense of political correctness and a feeling of identification with Deaf people to be proficient in ASL(Gesser,2007).

 

There are two types of hearing people. One is hearing people especially those people who are more proficient in ASL, and the other hearing people who is less or not proficient in ASL. The hearing people who are proficient in ASL become the oppressors to the ones who is not proficient in ASL because they would show off that they could speak  sign language fluently and they do not care whether the hearing people who are not fluent can understand them or not. This is different from the Deaf people because they are willing to help and they would want to communicate.  In my opinion, I think it is very frustrating to see Hearing people who are proficient in the sign language  act and behave this way and it shows that many Deaf people think that they are inferior to this subordinate group( hearing people), therefore they believed that they are less capable of articulating their own

standpoint.

 

Throughout the talk, I  learnt that how Deaf People learn a second and first language. We know that their first language is sign language. Ms.Ho said that deaf people apply L1-L2 learning process. I also learnt that they could learn Bahasa Malaysia and English as their Second Language.  She said that if Deaf people could master the BIM Language, they could easily learn other foreign sign language.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Based on the writer's observation, he noticed that when most Deaf people came to Gallaudet, they feel that there were part of the minorities in prestige and number as they have no clue or experience before. This shows that there is a reverse in social dynamic, social roles, positions and social statues within the Deaf community(Gesser, 2007). So, it is hard for a Deaf person to be socially accepted  in the community because of the behaviour practices, culture that is set  in Gallaudet. The writer also emphasize that he sees that the Deaf people associate among themselves and the hearing people would form in groups. The one thing that I've found it shocking is when the Hearing people uses their sign language to communicate among themselves, not with  a single Deaf person around and eliminate the use of oral language. The writer said that this was a sin. I agree with the writer because  I can see that the deaf people are facing systematic oppression in their daily lives. This shows that these two groups struggle to have equal opportunities and the struggle for such oppression split these two groups  apart, just because they could not communicate with each other.

 

Like the Deaf people, the Black people also share the common grievance of being a minority. The term "minority" has become a position of oppression where they receive a lack of respect from the dominant culture, lack of education and lack of receiving equal rights.

 

References:

Gesser,A.(2007).Learning about Hearing People in the Land of the Deaf: An Ethnographic Account. Sign Language Studies,7(3),269-283