1st essay

Jessica Klase                                                        

Prof. Kelly Rowley

English 115

Sept. 23, 2012

The Deaf World Through Hearing Eyes

            I walked into the silent room, at Balboa Park in San Diego, where so many conversations were going on that the visual din was almost unbearable. I felt like I was in way over my head; I had only started learning American Sign Language a year before, and I was nowhere close to fluent. The little confidence I had was given to me by my friend who was at about the same level in the language as I was; we were going to tackle deaf awareness day together. The layout of the room was nice and open, so that you could see another person signing from across the room and not interrupt the presentation on the main stage. Walking through conversations was unavoidable, so I saw the sign for “excuse me” signed more times than I could count. The animated expressiveness of everyone's face was a huge contrast to what I normally saw in hearing culture, because these expressions in sign language help the other person understand what you were saying. American Sign Language had influenced almost everything in this room, everything in the room was geared toward the eyes, not the ears, and the culture felt like a hidden gem, an unusual treasure that could only be reached through ASL, by talking to its members. Tapping a stranger’s shoulder to help another person get their attention is commonplace. The visual nature of the language had changed the culture of the room dramatically. Culture and language are twisted and knotted into an almost inseparable mass; without American Sign Language I wouldn’t even know that the culture existed. 

            I learned how to adjust to Deaf culture extremely quickly, like what questions were ok to ask and what others would start a fight. One subject that is highly controversial in Deaf culture is cochlear implants. They are controversial in the Deaf community because many Deaf people don’t see deafness as a handicap. They are proud of being deaf and they like the community they’re in because of this. When cochlear implants were created the hearing parents, of deaf children felt they could “fix” their children, which isn’t true. This is a large issue because 90% of Deaf children are born to hearing parents, and there is often a language barrier. Before I started to learn the language and met Deaf people this confused me because I couldn’t imagine not wanting to hear and the different path my life would have taken if I hadn’t been born with the ability to hear. It was especially hard for me as a musician to imagine not being able to hear, let alone how different life would have been for me because sound is so important. For Deaf people this makes them unique and they even set themselves apart in the English language, using a capital “D”  to indicate a person who is culturally Deaf and a lower case “d” for the medical point of view of being deaf, or unable to hear. Eventually I learned the differences, although it was hard to grasp at first; after meeting Deaf people everything seemed to finally come into focus.

 The Deaf community was extremely different from anything I had ever seen. After coming into the community, I became acutely aware of the struggles many deaf people. Before, when I was in the “hearing” world and I met a deaf person I changed. I was the typical hearing person that would have said “Poor person, I wish I could fix them.” Learning ASL and meeting different deaf people showed me that it isn’t crucial to fix them, and sometimes there is nothing to fix. Changing my view showed me how the general population saw deaf people and how I had been one of them. The people who surprised me the most were the hearing people who would get frustrated and just give up. Now, after I meet a Deaf person they are relieved that I can sign and we always get along wonderfully.

In the Deaf community I was more outgoing because of how friendly everyone was. I made friends faster and I was accepted more often. Not only did my personality change in the Deaf community, but it did in the outside world as well. I even changed the career I wanted to go into, majoring in Deaf Studies instead of music. I became a sort of unofficial teacher to those around me about the Deaf community and what it was like. My “Deaf-World” personality would always be more outgoing, yet intimidated at the same time because I was always afraid to make mistakes in front of people who knew the language better than me. This “new me” was completely different than anything I had ever been before, and often times it confused me because it was almost a paradox of the “me” in the hearing world. This paradox was largely created by the fact that everyone I met was extremely nice, yet I was nervous to meet new people and use ASL because I was still learning it. Eventually I got more comfortable in my own skin, but the nervousness because I was learning about the culture still remained.

 My introduction to the community through the language changed my view on all foreign languages and communication in general. Before I learned ASL I didn’t have an opinion on access to information but after experiencing firsthand what that can do to a community and to people when they have no access I quickly saw it was wrong. I was shown this through the Deaf community and my eyes opened to how our country doesn’t provide for people who don’t speak the same language. Although the Deaf community exists in America not many people are exposed to it particularly because it is a small group of people, and you need to learn ASL to be a part of it. This makes is hard to get services for the deaf in ASL in some areas. In America, because there are so many languages and cultures most people would think that it would be easy to get services in those languages, but this is not always the case. Many places in America are hard to access for those who speak different languages or use American Sign Language to communicate. When I realized how hard it could be for deaf people I became determined to learn ASL.

American Sign Language makes Deaf culture tight-knit because there is no true “Deaf country” in the world where everyone uses ASL, so the language is always a minority language. Learning this language has made me a more culturally sensitive person and has given me a culture that I can rely on. The culture is normally very accepting of people who know ASL and are supportive, because not everyone knows the language, so when you find someone who does know it you want to get to know them. ASL has created customs in Deaf culture because of its visual nature, like tapping a stranger on the shoulder to help someone trying to get their attention. When two people who sign meet each other outside of the Deaf community most of the time they will have many shared experiences, especially if they are Deaf. Signers and Deaf people will typically get along well because they have that language in common and share many experiences with each other. Deaf culture exists because there is a group of people that use and depend on ASL every day, and if I had never started to learn the language I would have never become a part of it or found my major.