- Oh, I know exactly what you mean. I think I have hearing loss, too – I have a hard time understanding people sometimes. You know, like at concerts and moster truck rallies.
Wow. This is really nice. Both my parents are profoundly Deaf, so I grew up in Deaf culture. New Zealand Sign Language was my first language - I was fluent in that (as fluent as a young child can be) before I was in English. So often I come across articles and people talking about Deafness in a way that I completely wasn't used to - I had conversations with people in which they (having known zero Deaf people) insisted that the only ones who didn't get Cochlear implants either couldn't afford it or didn't know better, and kept insisting so when I attempted to explain my own experiences. I've never seen it as a disability. Growing up, it was always this weird thing - to other people. I didn't even really recognise it as different. A bunch of friends and almost every teacher sort of made an exception for me, singled me out as "different" - all because my mother was Deaf and asked (very reasonably) for the school to hire an interpreter for events and the like. I've got to dash, but I'll come back in a few and finish these thoughts.
Yeah, kind of interesting that I ended up so interested in music - and now working in music. Ah, I'll have to write more about it the next time I'm at a computer. Typing on a tablet, even with a Bluetooth keyboard, is irritating and slow work.
It might be understood, but that sign is closer to the NZSL for "where?"
I'd be interested in hearing more about that too. It's amazing how our parents circumstances have the potential to shape us. I find myself more aware of this than ever as my daughter becomes more aware of my actions etc.
Gosh. So, 3 - can you read? is offensive? I read a great article (which I can't find, of course) on some website a while ago, and it was about how people in the deaf communities don't trust "hearies" and ignored AIDS literature because they believed it to be a hearie conspiracy. I found that TIME did an article in 1994 on it, though, and that has proved useful. > Why should a deaf person be more vulnerable to the 20th century plague than a blind person or, for that matter, the average American? The answer, say deaf activists, is that their peers do not read English. The first language of more than half of America's deaf, whose number is variously estimated at between 250,000 and 2 million, is American Sign Language (ASL). Half of the deaf in America don't (or didn't, in 1994) read english? So I guess that's a pretty good question, considering it's a coinflip. edit: I found the article! http://poz.com/articles/226_1609.shtml
I had found the article not long after but hadn't had the chance to edit it in. Now I did, and I wanted to update you: http://poz.com/articles/226_1609.shtml
This article shines a lot of light on the cultural differences between deaf Americans and hearing Americans. That there is little vocabulary for science in ASL, is extremely worrying. The fact that there are those among the deaf community that consider ASL to be "better" than English, is even more worrying. Thanks again for taking the time to find that article."There's a lack of sign-language vocabulary for science and its diseases," Karen Sadler says. "It's difficult to get across the meaning of words such as positive, which in medical terminology has the opposite meaning from the traditional definition."
according to this article, learning to read for a deaf person is comparable to someone that can hear learning to read a foreign language. I would imagine it would be like me learning to read chinese, they would just be symbols with no phonetic attachment. That 50% number seems pretty high, not sure I buy that.
I'm not satisfied with that article, but it does bring up some interesting points. I know that among learners who can hear, writing and learning how to spell in a target language is pretty crucial for pronunciation, at least that's what the current literature says. I wonder if part of it is because signing is a much more dynamic (in terms of sheer physical movement) system than speaking. People have different preferences for learning and recalling information, but kinetic memory is very, very strong. If that's your primary experience, then I think it would be very difficult to learn to remember all the rules and associated stuff that goes with communicating in grammatically correct written English.
I have seen comments like this from deaf people before and I always find it interesting that within the deaf culture, being deaf is seen not as a disability that should be accepted but as something that should be embraced entirely. Being deaf it seems is not a disability you have to suffer with; it's a culture you belong to. I remember reading about the American Sign Language community being vocal against cochlear implants, including children born to hearing parents. I don't know enough about deaf culture or implants to comment on whether their stance is just but it at least hints at a parochial culture which you cant be a part of if you don't play by the rules.8 – Oh, are you going to get that implant thing to fix your hearing?
Besides the fact that this question assumes that something is wrong with me that needs to be fixed, it’s a really personal, complicated question.
I share your impressions. I thought this might be interesting to people for various reasons, but if I'm honest, as an outsider to deaf culture, I found some of the rationales rather bizarre. For example: It's so dismissive of the ability to hear. I can't grasp that. I mean, it's so important to me in ways more fundamental than "hearing birds chirp, or whatever." It's all well and good to be part of a culture that provides support and acceptance, but being against cochlear implants for children who have a good chance of living in a way that reduces hardship for their parents seems . . . odd, at least from my point of view.and b) the fact that they like hearing birds chirp, or whatever.
Yep. Just to be clear I'm not trying to knock deaf culture, hopefully someone on hubski who has more experience can offer their opinion on how it operates. It looks to me that if you are a deaf person there is a large amount of pressure on you from other people within the culture to avoid getting an implant. If I was deaf and the choice of getting an implant means I lose my friends or am shunned from a culture that provides me support then that's a very difficult choice to make. It seems this article hints around that.
I think it certainly does. Like you, I'm not trying to disparage deaf culture. I certainly found some of the items in the list to be informative. Another thing that struck me was how the lines were drawn, that is to say, this list made it more apparent to me that there is a very real cultural divide between deaf culture and the larger culture. I have only limited knowledge of ASL, but I understand that the grammar is very different from spoken English. The way in which we communicate primes us to take certain cues for granted. Certainly, I think that though people tend to focus on content and tone in spoken exchanges, much of what we "say" face-to-face is communicated via other vocalizations that are not part of speech as well as the "tone" of our body language and gestures. I wonder if there's any way to bridge the gap between deaf culture and the culture at large. If there is, I then wonder if there would be resistance from either side.
This is a really good point, I have on occasion called my boss a bastard to his face but because my tone was playful the message was received as I intended. When I ask my wife whats wrong and she says "Nothing." I know I'm in trouble. We do it without thinking, imagine how difficult it is for a deaf person to communicate with a hearing person who is constantly using tone to increase the amount of information they send when speaking. That has to be tough. It may go a long way to explaining why there is such a divide between the two groups.much of what we "say" face-to-face is communicated via other vocalizations that are not part of speech as well as the "tone" of our body language and gestures