This past Friday evening, I attended the Deaf chat at the Battlefield mall with a few of my classmates. We arrived at the Food Court and immediately began conversing with members of the Deaf community. I learned several new signs at the event and participated in active conversations between several members. At the very beginning, we chatted with one man and immediately introduced ourselves. We fingerspelled our names and explained that we were American Sign Language students. After he introduced himself, I completed objective number 7 and learned more about the history of ASL because of the fact that he presented his sign name as well as his real name. He talked about his sign name and the reasoning behind his sign name. He asked us if we were given sign names, and we told him that we haven’t. He began asking us our favorite hobbies, and he gave us each a sign name. After signing to a few of the members, I also completed objective number 10 because I ended up becoming more comfortable with the idea of using American Sign Language. I felt more relaxed because I immersed myself into the Deaf community for an evening. I conversed with several people at the Deaf chat, and a few of the signers were hearing. The hearing …show more content…
I completed objective number 5 because I was able to improve my pragmatic skills while I was conversing with members of the Deaf community. During the conversation, I explained the topic and then furrowed my eyebrows while asking the “wh” question in American Sign Language. For example, when I was asking their names. I furrowed my eyebrows when I asked “what” at the end of the sentence. Also while affirming yes and no throughout the conversations, I raised my eyebrows. For example, a member of the Deaf community asked me if I was a student. I responded by saying “yes” and raising my eyebrows. I then went on to explain where I went to
As a hearing person in a hearing environment I do not come across a lot of deaf people. I have only encountered three deaf people and in the three situations it was hard for me understanding them. Now I am taking an ASL class and it has been one of the best choices I have made in my educational path. The event I was able to go was the Deaf Pizza Night at Shakey's in Garden Grove. It was on July 16 from 6pm-8pm. There were only 5 deaf people in the event and a lot of ASL students. One of the 5 deaf persons in the Deaf Event was Rennie. He was kind to tell the others that not a lot of deaf people went to the event because the venue was too small. Instead they met at Starbucks located at the Outlets of Orange. Rennie was the only one who was approaching the students the other 4
Deaf Again autobiography is a man’s recounting of his life growing up in deaf culture, but virtually living in the hearing world. Mark Drolsbaugh was born to deaf parents, but grew up partially hearing. When he was diagnosed with hearing loss, his grandparents responded by not allowing Mark to learn ASL. Doctors and speech therapists concluded that Mark should not be immersed in deaf culture, instead he should hang on to his hearing as much as he can. He was given hearing aids and translators did not sign to him, but just repeated everything clearer. His parents were actually instructed to not used ASL around Mark because that would promote deaf culture. He became very reliant on lip reading and had no significant connection to the deaf community, even though his parents were both deaf! When he wasn’t familiar with the lip patterns of an individual, he found it very hard to understand them. Because of this, he was unable to keep up in school and had to rely on teaching himself all of his classwork. Eventually, he was accepted into Germantown Friends School, which was very rigorous, but people
...n my store, I will not offer help unless their non-verbal language looks lost or they ask for help. I don’t want to be a bother to Deaf people, and I feel the only time I should use ASL with them is if we really are having a problem in communication and they have a specific question.
The narrator begins this chapter by introducing himself as well as his colleagues and co-authors. Ben Bahan, the narrator, is a deaf man from New Jersey whom was raised by deaf parents and a hearing sister. After spending an immense amount of time studying American Sign Language (ASL) he moved on to now become an assistant professor at Gallaudet University in the Deaf studies Department. His colleague Harlan Lane, a hearing man, is a specialist in the psychology of language and having many titles is a key aspect of this book as he believes, as does most of the Deaf-World, that they are a minority language and takes up their point of view to the hearing world. Lastly Bob Hoffmeister is a
While reading Mark Drolsbaugh’s Deaf Again where he wrote about his experiences with becoming postlingually deaf, I realized that I was able to relate to some of the situations he encountered, especially when he spoke of his frustrating childhood due to his disability. As he grew older, he needed to find new ways to cope with and accept his deafness. Because of his unique viewpoint with deaf parents who were not allowed to sign around him, the book gave readers a different perspective to look at deafness with. Drolsbaugh’s personal account of his life was inspirational as he grew up with a truly exceptional situation, yet was able to overcome his obstacles and become successful after he quit denying who he really was.
Throughout the course of the semester, I have gained a new understanding and respect of Deaf culture and the many aspects it encompasses. The information supplied in class through discussion, movies, and guest lecturers since the previous reflection have aided in the enhancement of my knowledge of Deaf culture and nicely wrapped up all of the information provided throughout the semester.
“Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things” (American). For centuries, people from all walks of life have been using their hands to communicate with one another, and for centuries people from all walks of life have been learning. Today I am following in their footsteps with a passion from God for the deaf language, culture, and souls. For almost a decade, an intense ardor for American Sign Language and a desire to reach its native users for Christ seeded itself in my soul, wove its roots deeper and deeper, and blossomed into one of the greatest loves of my life. American Sign Language is a unique language with a rich history that not only provides a service to people in the deaf culture, but also to hearing people who seek to attain fluency.
Stepping into a room filled with both students who were deaf and others who were not, I was instantly met with smiles and hugs. While most people sat cross legged in a circle on the floor, the warm and amiable atmosphere imitated how Deaf culture is founded on a collective mindset and not on a separated
During registration last semester, when I decided to take this course to see if I wanted to continue onward with ASL as my minor, I was not sure what to expect. Through my brief introduction of Deaf culture during my first sign language courses, I knew some vague details about historical events. Gallaudet had been mentioned several times within not only my workbook, but also by my professor. I could have given you a short synopsis of the oral movement that threatened to wipe ASL out as a language. Though I knew these facts, and a few traits about Deaf culture that I had experienced firsthand, there was so much that I had not considered before the readings and journals for this course opened my eyes.
That made me think a little bit, because my thought process was if everyone is taught the language the same they would all say it the same. Then again, so are spoken languages and there are all kinds of accents. After applying that idea to spoken languages. It showed me a connection with spoken and non-spoken languages. It showed me that these languages were not so different after all. Slang was a big thing as well. They were teaching me how people from different areas have different signs for the cities around them depending on where they lived. Like when I showed them how I signed Rancho Cucamonga or Chaffey. In class, we learned to fingerspell Chaffey when Jesse had showed me how he had seen to sign Chaffey College. Jesse showed me that rather than fingerspelling he signed college while his hand was showing a “C”. I thought that was something interesting in the deaf
Individuals who are deaf or are hearing impaired are faced with many problems in today’s world. There are so many tasks and activities that are done today that deaf or hearing impaired people may have difficulty doing because of there handicap. There handicap used to stop them or inhibit them from doing something that they are interested in or there friends and neighbors would do. However in today there are new and different technologies, that help the deaf and hearing impaired in the activities in which they want to participate in which is hard for them to take part in because of there handicap. Technology is used to help with everyday tasks in the lives of deaf and hearing impaired individuals. With out this new technology which is being invented everyday, deaf and hearing impaired people may be considered to have a handicap which prevents them from certain activities, but this is not the case anymore, now these people just have different obstacles which through the use of technology they are learning to over come. They can do anything that regular normal range of hearing individuals can do, due to the new technology being invented everyday.
Bahan, Ben. Hoffmeister, Robert. Lane, Harlan. A Journey into the Deaf World. USA: Dawn Sign Press.
The Deaf event I attended was the DEAFestival. This festival took place at the Los Angeles City Hall on October 3rd at 12:00pm. I specifically attended this event because I felt I would be much more comfortable at a larger gathering with more space and people rather than a small one such as Starbucks. Since the festival was greatly occupied I had more time to observe, take everything in slowly, and prepare myself. To say the least, I was extremely nervous. In fact, I don’t remember the last time I was genuinely that apprehensive. The cause of my anxiety was I because didn’t want to embarrass myself and I especially didn’t want to offend anyone. There were so many things going through my head. I stood to the side and repeated everything I knew about Deaf culture and American Sign Language in my head. Nonetheless, after several conversations with deaf individuals I felt marvelous. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I anticipated. The people I had the privilege of communicating with were very
I will be writing about my experiences at Deaf Nation Expo in Chicago, Illinois that I attended on the date of November 7th, 2015. I have to say that it was really overwhelming, even as a deaf person, because it was actually my first time experiencing deaf people signing everywhere, the real deaf world. It was hard to not look at them and see what they 're saying, because I 've been living in the hearing world my whole life where I 'm used to people just talking and barely moving their hands and arms. It was a joyous and fun experience, however, meeting a lot of deaf people with many different backgrounds. It was the day that I truly realized that the deaf world is undoubtedly a melting pot because it doesn 't matter what race, background,
...nger needed. I was excited, but very nervous. Northern Voices only had about 5 students in each classroom and Rice Lake had about 27. It was so noisy! I saw kids chattering, but was so shy to meet them. The kids were welcoming and I quickly made friends through talking. This moment I felt that talking is now part of me as it is ingrained into my soul. Signing has left my soul. Growing up with hearing students for the past 12 years, I no longer feel that I am part of the deaf community, but part of the hearing community. My true self blossomed. The difference between body and self