Narrative Essay On Deaf Culture

I grew up as the only deaf person in my family with zero knowledge of deaf culture. I was naïve about the existence of the culture until I transferred to the Newton North High School in 2010 as junior year. The Newton North offered support for deaf students in mainstream classes. Before that, I was the only deaf student in a school. I used FM (Frequency Modulation) system that used to help me hear better with my hearing aid and had a paraprofessional for taking notes in classes. On the first day of being a junior, I was flabbergasted to see other students signing each other. For the first time, I was excited to meet them and realized I was not alone. For being a slow learner, it took a long patience for me to be able to interact and communicate with other students without pauses. After graduating from the Newton North, I went to RIT/NTID.

Before I went to college, I visited my grandmother and a few relatives in Beijing, China. During that time, I went to an apartment where I met a Deaf girl. When I introduced to her, there was no communication. She neither had formal education or sign language. When I attempted to sign with her, she would run away to her room or look around wall without making eye contact directly. She lived with her parents who had no desire to support her future, but letting her do

chores in their home for the rest of her life. She was not allowed for schooling when she was young due to deafness. She also was not allowed to go outside due to her parents’ fear of people mocking at her.
I was in shock when I heard the story and that was the first time I met an isolated deaf person. I felt she missed out an opportunity to meet other deaf people and learn how to fit into their culture. Instead, she was left out and acted like she never met a new person. I never thought of inequality of access leading to deaf people being mistreated in the country where I was born. This means China is not the only country for deaf people to deal with discrimination, but there are other countries in the same way.
I met a several deaf international students who have international sign language. It is astonishing to see how their language that has a different meaning from ASL. As well as their hand gestures and facial expressions in unique way. I am fascinated to see the cultural differences in their countries and the United States, which has a diversity of the deaf population. For example, the international schools should provide accessibility for the Deaf students, such as education, communication, support services, and life standards.
After being a college student for three years, I am learning slowly about Deaf culture.

I am still learning ASL and implement with facial expressions based on conversations. I still did not know about many prominent deaf people besides Thomas Edison, Robert F. Panara and Marlee Matlin. I have many deaf friends who knew about deaf stories that were unknown to me. For example, I heard about the story of Helen Keller’s accomplishments of being a deaf/blind woman. Their past stories never stop to fascinate me. Their stories also got me curious about how were Deaf people like and their life in the past because there were no accessible technology during their time

period.
Therefore, I snatched the opportunity to learn and that would help to expand my current knowledge. I am interested in learning more about the deaf people of the past, but understand in the broad view of what is happening to deaf people around the world. I always enjoy learning new information every day that never cease to amaze me. After this course ends, I want to reach another person in future like me who might never hear of deaf stories before and carry them to spread out to the world.