Ch 2
Chapter 2 opens with a brief history on Deaf culture. While fascinating, I don’t want to focus on that. I’m enthralled with the beginnings of the Deaf community in America. The people’s perserverance then, and still today, is inspiring. However, we’ve read about it in other books, focused on it in past semesters. What I found more interesting was the differnces in the language, the use of TDD devices and others like it, Deaf in the movies and the use of architecture.
In the section on language I found it interesting that there are different dialects of ASL throughout the United States just the same as spoken English. It shouldn’t surprise me. I started my education in ASL back in Sacramento, California. When I moved to Sierra Vista I had to relearn many signs that I had learned in California. It wasn’t that they were the wrong sign, it was that the signs I had learned back there weren’t used here in Arizona. The book said that they interviewed people from all over the country, asking them how they signed 160 words. Of those 160 words, 130 of them had 3 or more different signs. Even though there is such a vast difference in signs, Deaf people are able to understand and adapt to the differences, much like hearing people can with slang, accent, and difference in dialect in spoken English.
Another point I found interesting was where it was talking about the use of TDD devices. The book stated that most Deaf don’t like to use them because of the Deaf’s difficulty in using English grammer. It said that they don’t like to use it because it puts their words out there for anyone to see and it makes them self conscious. Another opinion on the dislike of TDD/TDY/etc that I heard, but the book does not touch on, is that there is no personal contact in it; no facial expression. It would be interesting to find out if this is a larger reason for the dislike of using the device than for the reason of being uncomfortable with English grammer.
Later in the chapter it discusses Deaf actors back when movies were silent, before “talkies”. I had no idea about this, but it makes sense. I’m an avid fan of old movies. My television is almost always tuned into Turner Classic Movies channel. Occasionally they show silent films. The book mentioned certain names: Granville Redmond, Tommy Albert, David Marvel and Albert Ballin. I would be interested to see if they are stars in any of the silent films TCM airs.
Once movies turned to sound, Deaf actors no longer had a place as far as casting was concerned. The book says that most Deaf roles in movies are cast to hearing actors. I recently saw a film that is new to theaters, Babel. In the movie, one of the characters is a Deaf Japanese teen. She did a very good job playing a Deaf person, and the other actors who were also Deaf in the film did a good job as well. What I don’t know is if they were actually Deaf or if they were played by hearing actors. I was convinced they were actually Deaf, and the movie portrayed their deafness very well, with scenes with no sound, etc.
The last thing in the chapter that really grabbed my attention was the focus on architecture. Hearing people build buildings, rooms, etc based on aucustics; sound optimized rooms. The architecture of these rooms/buildings/etc have little to no advantage for the Deaf. It said that often the rooms have low visibility. Gaulladet and other places have built rooms based on “visicustics”. These rooms have no pillars, some have no windows, and some have stadium seating. All those things optimize the visibility in the room. It helps the deaf to be able to see and understand all around them.
All in all it was an interesting chapter. It brought up some interesting notions that I had never thought of before. Of course I wouldn’t expect myself to have thought of these things, I’m a hearing person.
In the section on language I found it interesting that there are different dialects of ASL throughout the United States just the same as spoken English. It shouldn’t surprise me. I started my education in ASL back in Sacramento, California. When I moved to Sierra Vista I had to relearn many signs that I had learned in California. It wasn’t that they were the wrong sign, it was that the signs I had learned back there weren’t used here in Arizona. The book said that they interviewed people from all over the country, asking them how they signed 160 words. Of those 160 words, 130 of them had 3 or more different signs. Even though there is such a vast difference in signs, Deaf people are able to understand and adapt to the differences, much like hearing people can with slang, accent, and difference in dialect in spoken English.
Another point I found interesting was where it was talking about the use of TDD devices. The book stated that most Deaf don’t like to use them because of the Deaf’s difficulty in using English grammer. It said that they don’t like to use it because it puts their words out there for anyone to see and it makes them self conscious. Another opinion on the dislike of TDD/TDY/etc that I heard, but the book does not touch on, is that there is no personal contact in it; no facial expression. It would be interesting to find out if this is a larger reason for the dislike of using the device than for the reason of being uncomfortable with English grammer.
Later in the chapter it discusses Deaf actors back when movies were silent, before “talkies”. I had no idea about this, but it makes sense. I’m an avid fan of old movies. My television is almost always tuned into Turner Classic Movies channel. Occasionally they show silent films. The book mentioned certain names: Granville Redmond, Tommy Albert, David Marvel and Albert Ballin. I would be interested to see if they are stars in any of the silent films TCM airs.
Once movies turned to sound, Deaf actors no longer had a place as far as casting was concerned. The book says that most Deaf roles in movies are cast to hearing actors. I recently saw a film that is new to theaters, Babel. In the movie, one of the characters is a Deaf Japanese teen. She did a very good job playing a Deaf person, and the other actors who were also Deaf in the film did a good job as well. What I don’t know is if they were actually Deaf or if they were played by hearing actors. I was convinced they were actually Deaf, and the movie portrayed their deafness very well, with scenes with no sound, etc.
The last thing in the chapter that really grabbed my attention was the focus on architecture. Hearing people build buildings, rooms, etc based on aucustics; sound optimized rooms. The architecture of these rooms/buildings/etc have little to no advantage for the Deaf. It said that often the rooms have low visibility. Gaulladet and other places have built rooms based on “visicustics”. These rooms have no pillars, some have no windows, and some have stadium seating. All those things optimize the visibility in the room. It helps the deaf to be able to see and understand all around them.
All in all it was an interesting chapter. It brought up some interesting notions that I had never thought of before. Of course I wouldn’t expect myself to have thought of these things, I’m a hearing person.