Speaking – …And the Truth Shall Set You Free.

Hi JT,

Thanks for thinking of me and allowing me to share some of my thoughts.

Living on campus is one of the best ways for hearing students to truly immerse themselves in Deaf Culture. However, when two or more hearing people gather in the absence of a Deaf person, the urge is to switch to SimCom or voiced English (I don’t know which is worse). This means that entire dorm rooms, cafeteria tables, and even classrooms follow this unwritten policy. If one person switches languages, then the entire group is pulled toward English because it is our first and native language. When faced with the decision of choosing a downhill path and a uphill struggle, most would choose the former. But that is not why we are here at Gallaudet. We are not here to practice our English. We’ve done that for our entire lives. We are here to completely dive into a language that is not native to us. But when voicing happens on campus, it becomes a black hole, sucking in all hearing people, regardless of their good intentions. It takes every fiber of self control to sign answers in response to voiced questions. However if everybody understood this, respected the mission statement and language policy of Gallaudet University we wouldn’t feel this internal struggle between which language to choose. But for now all I can do is surround myself with as many Deaf people as I can find so that both on and off campus I will not have to choose which language to use.

Although there are many hearing students who voice on campus, I believe that there are even more hearing students who are uncomfortable with this unwritten philosophy. These students are just not confident enough in their signing to surround themselves with Deaf friends, not confident enough to ask their hearing friends to “Please for me, voice-off”, not confident enough to stand strong in the presence of a black hole. However it is our job as allies to stand up for a voice off campus.

Thanks,
BN

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Hi JT,

I was just thinking about some of my frustrations regarding this issue and two things that hadn’t yet come to mind did.

1. Escapes
Many hearing people here, even ones who are very skilled in ASL, have difficulty signing all day and feel the need to speak English as a way to escape, to have a moment where they can feel themselves. This can be true of any person in another culture, or if they moved to china spoke Chinese all day, they may need some times where they speak English. So, when hearing people live on campus with only hearing people they treat their room as “the escape.” They feel their room is the only place where they can be themselves. I think that anthropologically this makes a lot of sense.

2. Hearing Culture Conflict
However, this becomes a problem when the entire suite is hearing because then the suite allows hearing culture to take over which can be a problem for someone like me who does not feel the need to participate in hearing culture. Hearing people behave certain ways in hearing environments because of their hearing and there are also certain manners that accompany that. As a hearing person who does not feel like I need a “break from using ASL” I don’t have the ability to only sign in a suite where everyone speaks because it is considered very rude in a hearing environment for someone to speak to you and for you to not speak back if you have the ability. In doing so i would be rejecting their right to speak which they do have in their own bedroom without deaf people around. This creates a culture conflict amongst hearing people on the campus because how their hearing culture exists changes, and it affects the way ASL exists in Gallaudet when there are all of these pockets of hearing culture due to the fact that there is such a concentration of hearing people in the graduate school.

Didn’t come to any conclusions but i thought i should share it.

-WB

-JT

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I saw a perfect picture yesterday that I would like to share with you. Is America obsessed with listening and speaking?

Alexander Graham Bell (AGB) is dead but Oralism and Cochlear Implant remain alive; Keep saying it. It is the truth the far right that cannot be lied about anymore.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) once said, “Socialism is man’s attempt to overcome the predatory stage of human development.” Ask then: Why does socialism equals cooperation? Many people only think of the good side of AGB and the media refuses to look under the covers. The real truth about AGB: he had no baggage–obvious to anyone–besides he was the guy who stole telephone patents and invented them. Oh, yes, the same person who loathed Deaf people, in his own famous words about Deaf children that needs to be heard and seen over and over, “We should try ourselves to forget that they are deaf. We should teach them to forget that they are deaf.”

After his death in 1922, we know that AGB had been in over his head and we the Deaf are suffering for it. We own our rights of the state of being Deaf, and we have to claim it back and be in shape. The bottom line is that there are millions of Deaf people who are suffering ostracism which has been tanking again, especially when Alexander Graham Bell Association of the Deaf (AGBAD) takes over in charge.

AGBAD’s plans for Oralism and Cochlear-Implanting Deaf babies is social insecurity and makes Deaf people suffer longer before receiving curtailed benefits. AGBAD invests billions of dollars in Cochlear Implants and Oralism in market by making sure that both the AGBAD and its sister organization, Oberkotter Foundation, earn the profit of the income. AGBAD and Oberkotter Foundation makes sure to let the floodgates on future Deaf babies to be cochlear-implanted for profits of a lot of money from insurance companies through a voucher system at any cost. They are truly the sharks.

The picture up there is a perfect example of the U.S. Constitution that Deaf people should be protected by First Amendment to have the rights to use American Sign Language and their rights to be Deaf. Why is AGBAD still holding Deaf-center on a degraded legal rights control zone after all these years because the politics of Oralism and Cochlear-Implanting companies fear the media profiteering off the Deaf-centered topics? The AGBAD is a joke if they want to expect to protect the society. The AGBAD is for the solo benefit of those Oralists and Cochlear-Implanting companies running for “election” to use the media profiteers to use the FEAR to destroy Deaf people off the face of Earth. PERIOD.

Conclusion: Historically, AGBAD seems to find a way to throw out the Deaf-signing nor Deaf-centered people under the conditions and it gives AGBAD the power to fix things. AGBAD has been contrasted with the ugly, hateful, negative, I hate Deaf-centered people, and will never show you their returns or tell you the details of their plans because Deaf-centered people do not deserve it at all. AGBAD’s ideologies were both uplifting and inspiring.

The question that we the Deaf need to think in a free society like ours, how far should efforts in public safety go before we are trampled on the very foundations of freedoms and liberties of all Americans? Happy July! The same month that honorable Laurent Clerc passed away 144 years ago. Never mind the Bill of Rights was adopted by the Congress.

-JT

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Tag: Speaking

Thoughts about Speaking/Voicing at Gallaudet From Two Hearing Students

A Dumb Picture: Not The Real Thing!