Reflection Paper On Deaf Culture

821 Words2 Pages

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 …show more content…

Each deaf person I communicated with greeted me relatively the same. Everyone was really friendly and polite. Each individual introduced him or herself and then asked what my name was. Understanding the fingerspelling was somewhat difficult for me. As a matter of fact, there were a few times when I had to ask individuals to repeat their name. I felt kind of ashamed, but they made me feel better about the situation. They smiled and finger spelled their name again but this time slower. I suppose it was obvious I was new to the language and really anxious to meet people using ASL. Another aspect I found interesting regarding the greeting behavior was each individual shook my hand. After introducing themselves with their name, they always put out their hand with a smile. Sometimes I see this while using English, but I feel as if it people associated with American Deaf culture shake hands to a greater

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