Embracing the Learning of the Deaf Culture As a Student

From American Sign Language 2020

I had the pleasure of enrolling in an American Sign Language class back when the 'vid hit us pretty hard, so unfortunately it was done online. I think it's say to say we all learn better face-to-face and for me, I am a physically expressive person, so sign is actually preferred over verbal communication, if only I had the chance to learn it properly. Since I struggle with expressive language aphasia, hand movements are fun and feels more natural to me.

Deaf people and deaf culture have had a long, painstaking journey of oppression that they have had to overcome. They have fought for their freedom and right to use ASL and have more options available to deaf people who prefer to learn and use ASL. They have built and created deaf schools, deaf classes at most colleges and universities, deaf entertainment locations, deaf movies, and they can participate in deaf events, obtain different jobs, and communicate cross-culturally using the help of new inventions. I have learned a great deal of information about the history, language, community, culture, identity, and social rules and habits. Attending a few deaf events has aided in my experience and understanding of the culture.

For my deaf events, I participated in two, the first one being a coffee/tea chat with a few ASL lab instructors, tutors, and helpers. The first event took place in a zoom call that was primarily me, a lab instructors, a high-level and a low-level ASL student. It happened on Friday, October 16th at around 12-3pm although I stayed for about an hour. I obtained the info for the event from my ASL professor. I met two people involved in deaf culture. Ethan was the lab instructor who hosted the meeting, and he is a graduate in school and currently an ASL instructor. He is totally deaf and plans to teach ASL to others. Kris was a student in ASL 311 or 312, and he plans to go to graduate school following graduation to become an ASL teacher as well. They both enjoy teaching others sign. As a side hobby, Ethan coaches basketball and loves watching football every Sunday. Kris isn’t too involved or really pay attention to UT sports. I noticed that they were open and asked many questions about the 111 student and I to get to know us. This is part of their culture to try to learn about and become familiar with other people quickly while if it were hearing people, we would feel awkward and stay fairly silent in a zoom call. The two of them carried on in short conversations intermittently during the meeting as they

were both proficient in ASL and wished to catch up. Most members of deaf culture or individuals who identify with the deaf identity take any chance they can to connect with others, as they should since there are very few opportunities. They were very sweet and respectful, and I enjoyed speaking with them and sharing info about ourselves to each other. I was nervous at first, but they eased me into it and weren’t judging my signing skills in any way and they were being helpful. If I had any questions about vocabulary, they gladly showed me. While speaking to them it really made me realize that they are regular people with their own interests, hobbies, personalities, feelings, and background. My overall thoughts about the event was that it was pleasant and eye-opening. It encouraged me to learn more vocabulary and I believe it will be even more enjoyable as I successfully learn more signs to communicate with. Like Jax and Zane who are students at a deaf high school in California. They are young, deaf men that are members of a football team named The Eagles. One is captain of the team and the other is a quarterback. Exactly like Ethan who is a coach and plays basketball well and is interested in football, these young men enjoy playing football.

The second event I attended was a Deaf Panel on November 17th at 5-6pm, lasting almost a half an hour over. The extended time is usual for deaf culture as they enjoy any moments they get to learn about other people. We were discussing businesses and asking two special guests about their side businesses and their experiences being deaf and living in the hearing world with a business of their own. Brandy Mathes owns a craft business where she makes jewelry and home decorations. She does most of her promoting on Facebook. Many of her customers are deaf since she began marketing to the deaf community but not all are. She also posts products on etsy.com which is a website that sells a range of products. Sometimes it can be difficult to inform a customer that she is slightly limited, and communication can be harder. She has three sons ages three, five, and seven. Her oldest is deaf, second is hard of hearing, and the third is fully hearing so quite the diverse group there. She is a stay at home mom and makes some extra cash with the profits of her online business. She was previously a beautician and attended beauty school until she quit to be a stay at home mom. This and next month she will begin creating Christmas decorations to boost her business and appeal to the Holidays. At this point she hasn’t obtained her business license as she doesn’t have much extra time on her hands with her boys doing virtual school and her business. When her parents found out she was deaf was when she was two and she couldn’t hear her parents calling for her. When her parents took her to the doctor, they stated she was hard of hearing. At first, she went to speech therapy to read lips. She used hearing aids a few times to help her hear better. She attended public school rather than a deaf school. Times when their hearing status may be inconvenient is when she tries to get her boys attention and she has to either go find them or stomp so they can feel. Growing up she felt welcome and included as she had friends her made her feel just as important as hearing people. She stayed busy and participated in all kinds of activities like softball and volleyball.

The second business owner is Randall Haggard who is deaf and was raised in Knoxville. He was born hearing but at age two he developed an ear infection, and it took away his hearing almost immediately. He attended the Tennessee School for the Deaf and searched for a job after graduating. He then went to Pellissippi State but withdrew after a short period. His first job was screen printing t-shirts and now he has his own shirt designing business. He is married to a woman named April who is a professor at UT, and he has a 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old boy who are both hearing. He eventually became interested in teaching the deaf, so he went to Maryville college and graduated with a bachelor’s in child development. Then he went to UT to obtain his Master’s in deaf education where he switched to vocational rehabilitation. He continued to print shirts to earn money on the side until he could buy an expensive machine that does manual printing. He later bought a direct-to-garment machine or DTG which is much simpler, faster, more effective and better for his own health as he’s not around cleaning chemicals and better for the environment. It’s a seasonal business so during fall and winter he stocks up on supplies and does some maintenance on his machines. He also has his business on Facebook where he shares and supports himself. One of the irritations he may face at times is the fact that both his children are hearing so occasionally they forget to sign as they’re speaking so he has to remind them to and often times they spell instead of using a specific sign for a word as they’re still learning the language. When Randall was younger, his parents thought he needed to be sheltered due to his difference, so he was isolated at times. He gained a deaf friend who had a very strong deaf family and it allowed him to learn and grow more independent and immerse in the culture. Overall, technology and social media has really helped expand their businesses, which it has benefitted many deaf in several ways. There is now captioning on shows and movies, video phones, pagers, and video relay services.

I was surprised to learn that there is such a thing as a deaf ethnicity, which is defined as a group of people who are deaf and raised with ASL. I love how the article explains that being deaf makes you who you are as part of your identity and most people in this group are glad to be a member as they feel stronger. After all, the deaf culture has overcome hurdles and discrimination ever since the beginning. I was also unaware that deaf people and their culture wasn’t really, truly accepted until the 1960s-70s. They have only had the chance to feel happy

and free to be themselves recently if you look at all of human history. Think about the thousands of humans throughout the centuries who have been considered “retard,” or “handicapped” or who were mistreated just for being different. Through the institutes and organizations like the Gallaudet University, the National Association for the Deaf, the National Theatre of the Deaf, and the film Children of a Lesser God, deaf people gradually fought for their rightful place on earth and entertainment and places they can enjoy. Now deaf people get to thrive and be successful in all areas, obtain high-level jobs, create businesses, compete, teach, anything! They have been accepted as members of our society who share their own complex, unique, exciting culture inside of a community with their own identities and even an ethnicity!

I found it interesting to learn that I am not even a part of the community yet as I only possess the political quality of the deaf community membership diagram as I have no deaf friends, am still a beginner in the language and I can hear. I wish to change this in the future as I wish for all people to feel represented, included, and understood. This is only possible if more people pick up the language, so they feel less alone out in the ordinary public. If they ran into more ASL users in everyday life, imagine how grateful they would feel? They would have chances to learn more from others and make more friends. I enjoy exploring other cultures because you better yourself in the process, you can help other people communicate like interpreting, and you can meet new people and make memories. I took the class as an elective since I was interested in developing a new skill to interact with other types of people, therefore, after this class, I plan on expanding my knowledge in this area for all these reasons.

Although this year was awfully different than what we expected coming into it and it has made the interactive an experiential process of learning about the language and culture much less all-encompassing, we were still able to get around it and attend a few events that gave us some perspective into the deaf views, behaviors, and beliefs along with their political and social views. It is important to remember when attending a deaf event whether as a student or out of curiosity, you can’t be scared to let your guard down and try to learn something new. Nobody cares if you forget a sign or make mistakes! Most ASL users are more than happy to help you and teach you something new as they usually want more people to understand the language. That means they will have more people to interact with and they appreciate the effort! I believe that interacting with a deaf individual one-on-one makes it much easier to pick up a new language and become fluent at it exactly as it would help while learning any other language such as Spanish or French. The deaf community and the culture have tons to offer the hearing world and we should make attempts to learn from them as a society.