Deaf Culture
The entire last semester, I had class with a classmate who was Deaf. My first day in class, I was excited to see that I had an opportunity to actually engage with someone of the Deaf community, outside of Dr. Logan’s American Sign Language (ASL) class that I had taken for three semesters. With him, he had two interpreters, a woman and a man. The interpreters would take turns interpreting for him throughout the entire class period, switching every 15 minutes within an hour. The last 15 minutes of the hour and 15-minute-long class, they would usually let the interpreter who is already signing, finish out. I found it cool that he had two interpreters.
We had several in-class group assignments such as discussing a reading. Since him and I marked our permanent seats close to each other, for the semester, he and another guy would just turn around, facing me, to create our group. One of his interpreters would join us as well. Up until about two weeks before the end of the semester, I never showed any sign of knowing how to sign. I will admit that I was nervous. I did not want to force it with a “fyi I know how to sign,” because honestly outside of class I never get a chance to use the language, and so I’m a bit rough. I also remembered learning that it is rude for hearing people, especially those who actually know how to sign, to be verbal when the conversation is including a Deaf individual. I would notice that my fellow hearing classmate would only make eye contact with me instead of all of us. It honestly struck a nerve, after observing the repetition of it. That’s when I began signing. My first sign was the word “nice,” after his interpreter read his paper. He laughed, and to this day I still wonder what the meaning behind his laugh was. Anyhow, I informed him that I was learning ASL, and even asked him about a sign for my performance in my ASL class.
The last week of the class, he really gave me more insight on the challenges of the Deaf community. He presented his video essay about video games and subtitles. He touched on one point that games should use closed captions instead of subtitles because they aren’t able to get the entire experience, meaning if music is playing, they wouldn’t know. Closed captions will show if there is laughter and music in the background, or if someone burps perhaps. I had never known the difference between the two, so I was grateful for that information.
Learning about Deaf culture have made me respect the community so much more. Though we are are all humans in the same world, hearing and Deaf individuals do not experience the same life. I have recently started following a Deaf blogger, Deafinitely Girly, who blogs about “the funny deaf-related things that happen to me (and to sometimes vent my frustrations).” Her blog posts are informative in terms of how the hearing community can better communicate and engage with the Deaf community, including similar things my classmate had presented in his video essay about content having subtitles and closed captions.
I remember in middle school I would walk around with a piece of paper that had the alphabet in ASL on it, just to sign with my friends across the room, so it has been an interesting experience for me to learn beyond that. I plan to continue my journey with learning about the Deaf community, and would love to share what I learn through research and experiences with my readers. Stay tuned!
