As many of you know (sticking to the assumption that only about 10 people I know read this) I am currently learning American Sign Language. I often hear it said that languages such as Italian, Spanish, and French are the romance languages and the languages of love. If this is so than I truly feel that ASL is the language of intimacy. What other languages do you know that involve you and another to give your full attention to someone to understand them? What other languages can make someone not simply tell you something, but involve the whole body as well facial and bodily emotion to convey a message properly? Some of the time it can be easy to feel disconnected from a person standing right in front of you when speaking to them. How often when you are speaking to someone are they looking away from you, or only half listening to you only listening enough to get the bare essentials of the message? This is not the case with ASL. Every time I sign to someone I feel as if they are giving me their full attention and are fully invested in the message that I want them to understand. It seems to me that the deprivation of a sense is what makes this so. I can talk to anyone, but who says that they have to listen. When using ASL there is a sense that communication must come from both parties.
One of my goals at some point before I graduate is to live a day without my sense of hearing. I want to experience not only what it is like not to hear, but also the way people react when they are put in the unfamiliar situation of having a common form of communication removed from the situation. Throughout the course of a class I am taking we have been learning about the discrimination the deaf community faces everyday. But as with many things it is hard to fully understand through the means of a simplified explanation. I made a small step toward this goal by briefly experiencing the life of someone suffering from Usher Syndrome. Ushers is a genetic condition that causes one to lose both vision and hearing over the course of their life. I was completely blind and mostly deaf for around 30 minutes. The complete reliance one someone else is something many have never experienced before. Its hard to imagine the amount of trust in others those with this syndrome would need in order to live comfortably. A large amount of trust had to be put into being led around for 30 minutes, imagine the amount of trust needed for a lifetime.
I guess what I want to say is that I really enjoy learning ASL. If anyone of you ever get the chance to learn ASL or to be introduced into the deaf community please take advantage. ASL has taught me that there is more to communicating that simply taking to someone.
3 comments:
Wow Al, great post!! I feel the same way. When I was in Deaf Studies last fall, I came to realize that there is so much discrimination against people who are deaf (which I didn't know much about previous to that class). It made me mad hearing about all the crap they have to put up with. I really enjoyed your blog post! Lindsey S.
It was a beautiful and wonderful experience. Everyday we take so many things for granted. In 30 minutes, I completely lost all sense of where I was at and if it wasn't for my AMAZING partner, I would have been lost physically and mentally in my own thoughts. I had nothing to rely on but the sound of my own footsteps and the faint phrase, it's for deaf studies. The experience just reminded me to look at the beauty of the valley, never to miss a sunrise or sunset and to appreciate the insignificant sounds around us. But most of all, it reminded me to continue to fight for equal rights for those who are unable to.
I don't know why, but I read your post. First of all, I want to say that you have surprised me Alex ! From the person I thought I knew, to the person you have become! Your so great at expressing yourself, and to me, that is a difficult thing to do. Your post, I guess, caught my attention because of the strong point you stressed on, about how you talk and talk and talk, and still feel like they aren't listening. I will definitely do some more research on ASL :). Thanks for the great info. I know this it will help me with my Masters in Business Management :)!!!
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