| This video is by a deaf psychiatrist, Dr. Sanjay Gulati, late-deafened, who has worked with deaf clients and their families for the last 25 years. This is available in ASL, subtitles, and captioning. He discusses the long-term consequences of limited or delayed language acquistion in deaf children, concerning theory of mind and self-agency, and includes more recent studies on language acquistion and cites his own clinical study measuring language deprivation and psychosocial difficulties. The results are sobering. I have said that depriving deaf infants of sign language is child abuse. Dr. Gulati works with these infants grown up (youth through adulthood), and he with other researchers found a very strong effect for language deprivation and being a danger to society or to themselves. He explains how language deprivation destroys the full capacity of the growing brain, and says bluntly that deaf folks with language deprivation syndrome often wind up institutionalized in group homes at a cost of 400,000 yearly. I will contact him to see if he would consent to me making a full transcript of his lecture. |
0 Comments
How is a butterfly like time? How is a bird like a train? Those thoughts have come up again and again as I read this rather awful synopsis of a research paper done in 2010 that says some metaphors, such as "time flies" cannot be translated into sign language. I feel offended very time I read it, as though they are saying the concept itself can't translate. I think the real lesson is that metaphors cannot translate literally, not that they can't translate at all. I don't know very much Israeli Sign Language, but I've met Israelis who have no problems with ASL, and there seem to be points of similarities. The real issue of translation is that words both denote (name a specific action/object) and connote (associate or mark specific properties of that object, both concrete and in language usage.) The Israeli sign they used had a denotation similar to "flies" as used for animals, but has a visual image and connotation best translated as as "flaps." Butterflies fly, bird fly. But I doubt that Israeli signers use a "flapping flight" sign for airplanes. Had they asked about the sign used for airplane flight, they might have found that yes, "time flies" could be translated using the airplane flight sign, or yet another sign, as in ASL. You see, sign languages have many words that denote and connotate narrower and richer meanings, just like in English. You can't say "time flies" as "time flaps, time migrates, time hovers, time dives, time lands" in English and mean the same thing. Which brings back to why the true ASL idiom for "time flies" is something very different-- "time zooms" {zooms, splits, disappears into the distance, like a train.} "Zoom" is a visual metaphor of motion and disappearance, which fits "time" as poorly as the idea of flight. So what do those two words have in common? What connotations are both metaphors using? How is a bird like a train? What does "time flies" mean after all? The answer is speed. Birds fly quickly. They can vanish almost as soon as you see them. So can a plane, or a train. "Time flies" means that time is quick, it is gone before you are fully aware. That is the metaphorical meaning. Now we can look at the Israeli sign and realize that a sign showing "flapping" is wrong to translate speed-- the connotation is literal: flapping wings, above the ground. This sign applies to butterflies, not very fast, bats, also not fast, and birds. Speed is a variable connotation of this word. It is not right as a translation. "Zoom" shows a lot of distance covered and a final disappearance in a very brief sign. Vanishing into the distance is the cardinal connotation, and the sign can be used to denotes motion either on the ground, or in the air, depending on where you put the baseline finger. "Zooms" can be applied to the rapid motion of cheetahs, planes, trains, birds, rockets, so forth- which are all very different objects. The connotation is of speed and vanishing. This makes "time zooms" a good metaphor and easily understood. It's also interesting to me, because the sign "zooms" depends on perspective drawing, which wasn't in effect until the Renaissance, and the then-common image of train tracks, which is an Industral Age image. ASL truly developed during the 19th century through 20th century, and drew from metaphors. English is an older language, and this idiom "Time flies" actually is translated from Latin-- Vergil wrote "Tempus fugit" (Time flees/ escapes) which was translated into English as "time flees" (Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, 1390) and later settled into the English language by 1639 as "time flies." "Fly" and "flee" not only are similar words, "fly" in English emphasized the connotation of quickness rather than guilt or fear (as flee shows.) Time is not afraid or guilty, it just goes quickly. So we could say that "Tempus fugit" doesn't translate exactly into English either. Maybe Vergil did mean that time flees like a thief, guilty and fearful. But as we see from the poem, he meant time escapes forever, and cannot be returned. English does not quite capture that in its translation of "time flies." But ASL "time zooms" actually captures that meaning much better, because the denotated meaning of "zooms" is to disappear in the distance. The paper is wrong; you don't even need sign language to analyze how metaphors work across languages. While "iconicity" and literal meaning may seem to be the reason why "flapping time" fails to succeed, the true problem was mistranslation based on matching words based on a denotation-- a narrow definition-- not actually used in the metaphor itself (i.e. "time flies" never meant "time is winged just like a bird, a bat, or a butterfly") Interestingly, in Rome the god of travel, thievery, and business-- and the messenger to the Gods-- was Mercury, and he was routinely carved with wings on his feet and his helmet, to show that he was quick and could fly. We named the nearest planet to the sun for him because it moves so quickly. Today if we portrayed a similar, devious god, we would use airplanes or rockets to show that speed-- that he could fly to heaven and back- and we would have different connotations of power, speed, knowledge. Vergil may have been thinking of Mercury's speed and cleverness in mind when he wrote "Tempus fugit." Today, people in industralized cultures may see wings on feet and helmet, and we see feathers, floating, deformity-- rather than the speed the wings were supposed to show, because so many things we see and use daily, including cars, are faster than most birds. Only our cultural heritage helps remind us that people didn't always see the world like that. But without keeping that context in mind, this image of winged feet fails to convey fugitive speed almost as badly as "Time flaps" does in Israeli sign language. Olympians who excel in one sport don't waste energy brooding over how they suck at another sport. They focus and train towards what they CAN be. Businessmen may find themselves too busy or poorly-talented to become artists, but they take satisfaction in being independent, making money, and being successful. People who suck at athletics may work instead on their studies, and become successful doctors, lawyers, social workers, etc. This isn't so hard to understand. Life is short, and we have many talents-- even the people who think they have no talents do-- but we cannot develop them all or succeed to the highest level in any of our talents even if we do. Michael Jordan retired from basketball and tried MLB baseball. He wasn't good at it, then returned to basketball for a year or so before retiring again. Magic Johnson retired due to AIDS back around 1990. He is still alive, still working on his Magic Johnson foundation for AIDS. He's using what he has (celebrity, connections) to raise money for what he probably never wanted to have his life center on-- AIDS. We can think of other successful celebrities: Michael J. Fox, etc, who have had their lives changed by disability. Do they say "I hate myself?" Instead, they use what they can do to change public attitude and raise awareness for research-- and those two conditions (Parkinson and AIDS) do end lives prematurely, with suffering. But there are celebrities with hearing loss, or deafness. They don't beg for money to cure deafness. They ask for people to recognize deaf people are capable, too, or they hide their deafness in order to get work and avoid labelling. "Even though I am nearly deaf, I seem to be gifted with a kind of inner hearing which enables me to detect sounds and noises that the listeners do not perceive. " -Thomas Alva Edison, possibly referring to having synesthetic hearing. Thomas Edison, with limited schooling and deafness, worked as a telegraph operator, brought electricity, light bulbs, the first phonographs, and other inventions to the world? He was a businessman, self-booster, and inventor. He has said that deafness allowed him to concentrate, and he also said work is the secret to success. "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Accordingly, a 'genius' is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework." Deafness does not impede a person from working hard; in fact, they may work far harder than others and not realize it because they're not as distracted. Back to actors who are our current ages' celebrities, rather than scientists and inventors: Marlee Matlin is deaf/HoH, but how many know Rob Lowe is deaf in his right ear? Almost nobody, because it doesn't matter to his acting skill. It matters in his personal interactions in that he can't hear on his right side. How many know Charlie Chaplin learned sign language and studied with deaf actors? How many know Buster Keaton (another silent movie star) went deaf? We know Beethoven went deaf and continued to compose music. That sticks in our minds because it seems a paradox. How many know John Keats probably was deaf before he died, either from syphilis or mercury poisoning used to treat it? His behavior of reclusion, reluctance to meet with strangers, etc. all fit the model of sudden, late deafness. How many know Jonathan Swift was deaf? I knew it the minute I read the first page of his "Gulliver's travels" but that information was not available in his bio. We have had many writers in feminism and abolition who were themselves partly deaf, including a nun. We have had scientists, and college presidents who were deaf. The founder of the Girl Scouts was deaf. So, deafness and success are not antonyms. Deaf pride comes from knowing deep in our bones that what others see and patronize as our greatest handicap can be our strength as we work towards transforming the world, however small our efforts may be. I was just told by somebody online, in rejecting the "broken body" model for Deaf Pride is "treating hearing people as judgmental" and that she gets the impression that deaf people who don't want to be hearing are delusional and "act like" they are the next step in evolution. Honestly, that's a very strange opinion to take of somebody who says "I'm fine being deaf, thank you very much, and no, I prefer not to explain in detail why," isn't it? But maybe not so strange. Our society is commerical and continually sends us negative messages. If you're fat, you should be thin. If you're ugly, you should get plastic surgery. Self-improvement so other people see us as normal or desireable. But that's all superficial. We all get ugly, shriveled or something as life goes along anyway. Our society actually doesn't encourage wisdom, self-understanding, empathy, or self-acceptance. It's great to tune all that shallow nonsense out. It is. Why should I be eager to join a culture that says I'm broken, inferior, and should always feel that way about myself? Why should I join a culture that doesn't value diversity, unless it's pretty? No, loving deaf culture is not about finding joy in "being broken." It's seeing ourselves as whole people, with strengths and weaknesses unrelated to our disability, and who can succeed by becoming happy in the Greek sense of happiness--"eudaimona" which means well-being. The state of unifying our self, our talents, and our will in work. Work-- not in a day job, but in achieving our full potential. "If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves." -Thomas Alva Edison- Life transforms potential energy into kinetic energy, and we all have our trajectories in life. I think if we were all busy achieving our potential, even when that's more limited than we'd like, we would understand the Deaf Way much better. Deaf people are and have been artists of all types, performers, astronomers, educators, scientists, engineers, lawyers, doctors, businessmen, programmers, inventors, deejays, musicans, writers, poets; even the plain people who work in factories, shipping, post offices, administration. They're math whizzes. They're handy carpenters, car fix-it guys, They are athletes, social workers, the go-to guys for their friends. The ones who think to show up to help somebody who's hurt when everybody else is busy in denial. They're old and afraid. They're young and reckless.They're married, single, gay, straight, all races. They've been born into the best and the worst of families. They're wonderful, terrible, creative, dull. They all are alive and human, full of emotions and hopes. The Deaf Way to Success (tm) is not about wishing you had better cards in life. It's about playing your cards expertly, the patience to learn from others, knowing that you've "filled the unforgiving minute/ With sixty seconds' worth of distance run." This line, to me, isn't about running further than anybody else, just as far as _you_can in that time. It's about investing yourself in the here and now, not filling your time with others' opinions and regrets. I'd like to append the full poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling right now. Read and think. Is he really talking about those who are perfectly normal? If If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on"; If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run - Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! This is an impossible standard in many ways. But it is worth striving for. It's not exclusive to being deaf, of course. I was reading the other week about an author who researched how people respond to disasters. She pointed out "the Disaster You" may be somebody you don't know; that people often do better than they think they will, reacting calmly and decisively, or they collapse into cowardice when they think they won't. Kipling is saying you need to know yourself in disaster and pick yourself up after to carry on, without hate or deceit. No regrets. No anger. No dwelling on unfairness. Just keep going on and know yourself at all times. That's how he became a successful writer and Nobel Laureate, instead of a self-pitying drunkard on skid row. Kipling was tone-deaf, he said his ears wavered. He only knew beat and rhythm, and that's what got into his poetry. He did not have a terrific childhood, at one point being abused by his aunt for five years. He gives us a glimpse of that in his heartbreaking short story, titled "Baa-Baa Black Sheep." In real life, when his mother returned and bent to kiss him after five years apart, he thought she was going to hit him. That's how much Rudyard had forgotten what normal family was like. Fortunately his parents were appalled and did much to try and undo the damage. While Kipling is limited by his time (and often cited as a racist)--I read him for what transcends politics: humanity and imagination. And his children's literature is excellent: the Jungle Books, the Just So Stories. In Kipling's story, "They," there is a fine line about emotional abuse of children being as easy as a laugh, that I've remembered for nearly 30 years straight. “A man who laughs at a child—unless the child is laughing too—is a heathen!” That's why I read him. Alfred, Lord Tennyson was legally blind and tone deaf. He struggled with lifelong depression (and for the first half of his life, he feared he had inherited epilepsy from his father, but found he only had gout and flashes of light due to his progressive blindness.) Despite this and a chaotic family life, he was the premier poet of his age, eventually having to compose lengthy passages of poetry in his head, because he couldn't read his own handwriting anymore. He wouldn't quit poetry because he couldn't proofread anymore. His life also shaped what he wrote. Attitude is something you alone can decide to have. Nobody can take your attitude away; they can only trash you for having it. If you have something to contribute to the world, do it. The way will be hard, different, and unexpected, with the occasional failure, but it will be better than regret. I'm slow on catching up on the news. iDeafNews! published the no-contest plea bargain Reginald Redding entered with the judge's explanation of his possible sentence.
This is awful. Fear of jail did not stop him assaulting his girlfriend Marci last Thanksgiving. What would stop him again? What are the terms of probation: if he leaves the state, even the country, what can they do? What will be the default sentence if he violates parole? It's important he is declared guilty. That's finally a victory. But I don't understand. We give more time in jail for using drugs than we do for calculated violence this severe, with prior history? That does not make sense. That just doesn't. Not that jail is foolproof against further domestic violence, I must admit- there are always women who will fall for the stories of prisoners and even marry them. About the hard staring. It is true that abusers use nonverbal body language to menance others. They know that those threats are harder to explain and prove since they may not be witnessed by others as the person has witnessed it. He is not sorry he did it, he is angry at Marci for surviving and reporting it. He wants to scare her. He wants to keep power, keep hurting her. If you support abusive behavior to anybody, even if you don't like that person much, maybe think they deserved it, then your heart and head are wrong. I would say that anybody who supports Reginald Redding after he pled guilty to this conduct needs to take a hard look at their own thinking and feeling. There's no room for reasonable doubt. He admitted to at least one of the charges. If you let him "explain" he will twist it up so nobody knows what to believe regarding his guilt or innocence. Those people are experts. I was his student for one year, long ago. I wasn't entirely surprised to hear about this violent side of him, although he never showed anger in the classroom, he was moody. He did have brains and taught us a lot. His brains are exactly why he has eluded prison so long despite all the complaints filed against him, and also probably why he now will walk on probation. But he's not smarter than all of us. I guarantee it. I want to thank everybody who came here to read about Miss Tea and my thoughts on domestic violence, those who shared or forwarded that to others, and those who shared what the story made them think of.
I also thank everybody who encouraged me to continue the world I created in Miss Tea. That will happen, but I tend to write many stories at once, so it will be a slow process. I've met many deaf writers in my lifetime, and it's always a challenge to write about our own lives because we have that reflex resistance based on fear of audism. That's why fiction works-- it shows lives and what happens, rather than preaches right and wrong at people. I would like to share a cute video about hearing-deaf relationships called "Quiet Signs of Love." This video was sponsored by the National Relay Service in Australia, and while this is in Australian Sign Language (NOT American Sign Language!) it shows how relay services does make deaf people independent and not "in need of help" by hearing would-be lovers. Many hearing-deaf relationships fail, due to certain factors shown in this video, but many do succeed and last long-term.The key is family and social (friend) support on both sides, and it takes time for that to happen. So, for me, Deaf awareness (and fighting ignorant attitudes) is not just for deaf people, their families, employers, coworkers, and friends. It's for all friends of those people, too, any potential employers, etc. Finally, I think in an ideal world anybody who has just found out his or her baby is deaf should already know something about deafness. But we can't predict who will have a deaf child. Much of deafness is recessive and as high as 70% are born to hearing parents who have never had a deaf relative before, other than a 'deaf great-aunt' or 'a grandfather who went deaf in his late age.' Most haven't really know any deaf people before. Deafness is a very hard thing to educate yourself on the spot about, especially if you have experts who may be pulling you in different directions, but perhaps not enough telling you about the basic social and linguistic milestone your baby needs, and how to achieve those as best as you can in your area. Some states already have those kind of services, but not all. So, have a heart. Educate even those who you don't think are interested in deaf people. Ignorance is no excuse anymore. ILY puzzle from Busybeelearning. (click on pic for link) I've just published a short story, called "Miss Tea." about a deaf English teacher in a deaf school. This story is fictional; Miss Tea is a composite of at least eight different people I have known-- hearing, deaf, male, female, different races and cultures. I was surprised at times whom I thought of while I wrote this story. But we are more alike emotionally than we realize. I was asked to publish online, and I realized yes, the time is right. Why? The issue of domestic violence is hot right now in the Deaf Community, and it happens that is part of the story of "Miss Tea." The subject of domestic violence is important to me for personal reasons. The first stage is verbal or emotional abuse. Now, I want to tell you that sometimes family and friends can recognize an abuser when you can't. Abusers do wear a mask with others, but it doesn't always stay on that well. I was involved with one: I was hit twice, but it was mostly emotional abuse and controlling behavior. I think I was lucky compared to so many women I've known. But it was very difficult. He'd fight with me for hours over little things (this is controlling abusive behavior) then apologize and analyze how things would not have happened that way if I had behaved or talked to him nicer. Seriously. He also refused to see my friends, backstabbed them, claimed they weren't really my friends. He made up stories about his friends' opinions of me, too. He was trying to make me paranoid, gaslighting me. It didn't work because I am not naturally a paranoid person, unlike him, but it over time, still hurt my ability to trust and made me feel very lonely. He also didn't like what I liked, he wanted to get rid of my books, he wanted me to do what he liked. I stopped writing creatively during that relationship. I remember how I was finally out, on my own, lonely and scared, and I started writing again and it was wonderful, to be with myself again, without his constant negative opinions in my head. Anyway early on, I was really in love with him, just fell suddenly, and I was naive. I told a male friend about that. He had met this man just once, but he had already pressured him on something he didn't want to do. "He's a bit pushy for my taste," he said. I said "okay, I don't need for you to like him." I just thought it was personal dislike, which I understood. But wow, he was right. He spotted a major warning signal I had overlooked; he was not respecting others' signals to stop discussing things; he was pushing for what he wanted, hard. But what seemed like nothing, escalated. He wore me down. He put me down. He argued. He gave his friends distorted image. He distorted everything I said (and some friends said) just to win an argument. But I will tell you one thing: this kind of behavior didn't happen immediately. It happened, slowly, over months. I remember some turning points, where I could have escaped the relationship, and I had doubts about getting in deeper. But I was naive, young, wanted to be in love. I ignored my gut. I didn't see any danger yet. Okay. I was lucky. But I have also known women who were killed or nearly so by their boyfriends. I've known a man who had to leave his life overnight, taking his kids with him, because his wife woke him up one night, pointing a knife at him, talking about killing him. I have known many people who never felt recognized for themselves or appreciated by their own families. And even after that, I did not see myself as emotionally abused. I was in denial. It was just a really awful relationship that didn't work out. That changed when I read the Washington Post one day, and found out my old classmate Erika Harper had died. I was stunned by how she and her two children had died. But I was also even more stunned by how I reacted to it. I hadn't seen her more than once since she was 15, and in my head, she was always 15, and all that happened to her. That I understood. That her boyfriend was mentally ill and she loved him. I understood. But where was this crying coming from? Why couldn't I stop thinking about her, how she died, from a boyfriend she loved? Why? When I learned more about domestic violence-- and I hadn't really studied it before-- I learned about emotional and verbal abuse. It hit home. I was nodding to everything on the list. I realized it wasn't just my seeing domestic violence happen to others, it was about me, too. My denial broke that day. Most importantly, I was already out of the relationship long ago (he cheated on me. Most abusers cheat) and I only had "friendship" with him and he still was trying to force his opinions of my life on me. I broke off ALL contact. Made sure my family and friends understood. And with that safety at last, I could begin to recover from my experience, see what happened for what it was. Miss Tea was first drafted just months before that experience hit me. I wanted this story online, because I wanted it well-read. I wanted people to feel what she feels. Sadly, emotional abuse is calculated to stress you so much that you can't think about leaving. It really is. It's designed to stress you so much that you can't ask the right questions, think straight. The abuser won't leave you alone. Everything has to involve him, because he doesn't want you to have mental freedom from him. He will gaslight you, make you doubt your own abilities and confidence, to that end, too. He will trap you by humilating you, if he can.* Emotional abuse is worse than any bullying, because it happens in a situation of trust. It is calculated to shock, terrify, confuse, strike to the root of who you are. Miss Tea realizes this. "No bully had ever said anything that bad to her." This story is not at the point of the relationship where the gaslighting has fully happened, but as you can see in the story, Peter tried to get her back, use a friend to soften her sympathies, get her to minimalize what happened, even doubt her own emotions. Jenn * I say "him" but abusers can be women, too. Most abusers grew up abused in some way-- emotionally, physically, verbally. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/may/30/louise-stern-deaf-chattering-interview
I haven't read Louise Stern, but I'm so glad to see more and more Deaf writers writing fiction about Deaf characters, and I like this interview a lot. As she points out, speech alone is not sufficient for a deaf person. Indeed, when I was growing up, I would routinely turn on TV and see, for instance, clips of David Letterman making fun of an immigrant character for talking funny. I will not say that I actively thought "nobody can make fun of me for writing funny," but it was clear that writing was already a good voice for me. I had long conversations with a neighbor who never learned sign, exclusively through writing. I routinely went around, having to communicate in a pinch to hearing people. In my usual rounds-- buying minor things like soda, things like that, I used to answer a lot of rather naive questions from adults about deaf people. Did I go to school? etc. One particularly strange example was from a convenience store clerk: "can you read?" written down for me to read. I was around ten years old. I was half amused, half bewildered. I wrote back, "No but I can write!" Unfortunately, the joke fell flat as the clerk stared at the paper in confusion. (There went my career as a write-down comedian, before it even began.) But I've never thought I couldn't write. Maybe not novels. Maybe not things people would find interesting. Maybe not even things that should be published. But writing has always been a tool for me to communicate with others, and I get so angry, like Louise Stern does, about those who have been deprived of even sign language and have no language in which they can use as a base to learn how to read. How can they, then, get connected to other people's thoughts, experiences, learn to know a person outside that very moment of interaction? Language is precious; sign language especially so because it's a major lifeline to open and equal communication. Lydia Callis, who interpreted for Mayor Bloomberg in the important hours of preparing for Hurricane Sandy, has become famous for her "expressive" signing. I saw the parodies before I found a clip of what she was actually doing.
She worked many televised sessions and because Mayor Bloomberg has limited charisma, I understand, she quickly became the focus of all New Yorkers' attention. Her signing style is pure ASL, with a little "New York" body language, but her expressions are appropriate throughout. Not overdone, and correctly inflected. She signs very clearly for all levels of comprehension and language skills. Unfortunately, closed captioning doesn't help deaf people who are not fluent in English, as many New Yorkers are not. Lydia Callis is charismatic, but no more so than many of the best sign language interpreters; rather it is the context (of hurricane preparation, serious information) and the poor speaking skills of Bloomberg that made her expressive style stand out so much, like how a diamond shines best when shown on dark velvet. I also wonder if her build and size made people of a certain age recall Linda Bove on Sesame Street from the 70's through the early 90's.. Many commenters on the Youtube videos said viewers were memserized because they hadn't seen sign language before. But that's not true if they grew up watching Sesame street; perhaps they even saw this Sesame Street segment talking about how they, too, can have fun with sign language. In any case, Lydia Callis's signing was remixed into gibberish and set to music. How weird it is to see emergency preparations and continuing information fragmented then remixed. ASL is a language, not a dance. The song is "The Sign" by Ace of Base (read lyrics here.) I read the lyrics and realized just how funny this remix is, and how it is indeed meant as homage. And to be fair, hearing speakers have been remixed like this, too. Now let's talk about the parodies. Saturday Night Live (SNL) had a parody using an actor who did seem to be copying Linda Callis best as she could. She was at the signing level of a beginning ASL student; with bad or no inflection, choppiness. However, it was actually somewhat understandable, and indeed, with New Yorker attitude, and I did laugh at the made-up "sign" for Obama. Once I could get even bad beta captioning on, I could laugh at the made up sign for "Firemen", "policemen" and "EMTS." (Although one sentence looked a bit like "electrocute me for being openminded to some New Yorkers" while Bloomberg was saying power was back for most New Yorkers. Whoa! But this was just sloppy signing-- I saw her sign "finish" again and it was too high up, so I think she meant ELECTRICITY FINISH.) In contrast, the mock Christie's "New Jersey Interpreter" didn't know any sign except "happy" and one or two other signs, and resorted to slang (loser), which in captioning I see refers to the Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Lightfoot, who refused to evacuate his town, and let's be honest, she seemed generally to be a slovenly barfly called up to sign for the governor without any credentials; obviously as untrained and unprofessional as you could get, even chewing gum. The "mock interpreter" was largely relying on "New Jersey" big hair and attitude to give a visual contrast between NYC and NJ style. But really, Christie didn't use a sign interpreter at all onscreen. So sadly, even this stereotypical New Jersey Barfly interpreter parody was actually more interpreting than happened in real life, as this Youtube clip makes clearer. And yes, Big Hair Lady could be exactly the sort of interpreter Chris Christie would hire. I hope not (interpreters have to be certified) but who knows? Interpreters should be used more in emergency TV broadcasts, in large metropolitan areas, since it provides accessibility to emergency broadcasts on public TVs even if the captioning is not turned on. As a deaf person, my primary concern in seeing interpreters on-screen is not about the potential humor, it's about accessibility. Mayor Bloomberg did a good job there, but Christie didn't even plan for that. So... I give SNL a C- on their parody. If they had a better signer parodying Lydia, it would have been a B, maybe even an A. I did like the "Spanish" message. As for what is fair and not fair parodying of ASL, well,it's simple. Parodying sign language with gibberish to be funny is not cool, but mean. Try that on any signer, and you well may get the New York Salute in return. If you still wonder what I mean by offensive gibberish, I suggest a brief look at the voice interpreting of this video: "The Interpreter Fiasco." In it, Doll discusses how insulting certain parodies can be (Mark and Cheslea Lately's parodies are highly offensive, while SNL is rated decent.) Incidentally, any interpreters reading this who are curious as to how to be a better interpreter for the deaf (if not as famous as Lydia Callis), I would suggest you do exactly the dead opposite of what the CODA brothers do in their heavily sacrastic video: "What Deaf People Love About Interpreters." Incidentally, if you can't face-read sacrasm in ASL, practice with this video. Watch it over and over until signed sarcasm seeps into your dreams and make you wake up in a cold sweat, screaming. You will never do sacrasm the dull, hearing way again, ever. Thanks for reading. It's been a bewildering week watching sign language suddenly become a pop culture trend worthy of comment on late night shows and SNL. I think in hard times, people do want a laugh anyway they can get it. The BSL Zone, devoted to british sign language productions, has done a very fine Victorian Drama based on the advent of oralism in England and how the transition to oralism, sans sign, affected the deaf there.
Click here to watch this 22 minute drama, called Confession. I urge everybody to watch, regardless of how they stand on speech versus sign. The ideas and opinions reflected by Alexander Graham Bell are real and based on documentary evidence. The impact on deaf kids and deaf adults is real, including the firing of deaf teachers, the association of oralism with impaired literacy, and the advantage of a primary language in infancy with improved literacy. Enjoy, and think about why deaf people were not allowed to have a say in their own educational future, and why Mabel Bell was treated as a child by her own husband. It's what we call paternalism, prevalent in Victorian times. Women,minorities, etc. were all regarded as child-like: to be helped, but not to be listened to. The word of the day was assimiliation. Freed slaves had to be integrated into society. Native Americans were easier to wipe out if we wiped out their culture by forcing ours onto them. Bell also was a pioneer of eugenics, and eugenics laws were passed in America (and some are still on the books to this day) until WWII and the events in Nazi Germany made eugenics a radioactive concept. Even so, it took a while for American laws to change. To this day, there is no solid assurance that deaf people have a voice in their own education rights, although we fight, empowered by new technology, and research supporting our stance. The fear oralists spread to parents of deaf is that somehow, other deaf people will teach their children to be deaf rather than successful pseudo-hearing people. We have 300 deaf lawyers in America. We have deaf doctors in America. We have deaf professionals in every field. We have deaf writers, scientists, college presidents. They succeeded by using their talents, not by fitting themselves in a box somebody else had designed for them. Many speak. Many sign. Many do both. There are also many successful hearing people: doctors, lawyers, actors, other professionals, whom Bell fought to ban being born-- for they are the children of deaf parents, as Bell himself was (but his mother was deaf, and his dad a speech therapist.) If you want to know more about what it is like to grow up with deaf parents, contact CODA International, or take a look at their archives of scholarship essays. Thank you, Jason Hodges for transliterating this for me and allowing it to be posted. With all this "news" no single media outlet has thought to do a full transcript of this radio interview. Shameful, really.
Click here for the Youtube source used for the transcript: (Michael Higgins is the president of Ireland and this interview with Michael Graham, a "tea party" interviewer happened in 2010) BEGIN TRANSCRIPT MICHAEL HIGGINS: I spoke about my time in the Midwest and going to the Greyhound bus station and hearing for the first time the phrase "poor white trash." These people, and you know I was there just before the civil rights uh, charter you know, came in. And frankly, the idea that a person would not have one job but have two jobs or three jobs and work all the light hours that are there and still not be entitled to the basic protection of fundamental care. It's so outrageous. So whether you agree with Obama and what he's doing and aspects of his foreign policy, and I might disagree with some things about Latin and South America, but one of the things I do agree: The idea of there being a social floor below which people wouldn't fall. That's the future. I think even the poorest people in the great country that is the United States should be entitled to basic health care and I don't think they'll thank the Sarah Palin look-alikes and followers for taking it off them. (to the moderator) You're about as late an arrival in Irish politics as Sarah Palin is in American politics. And both of you have the same tactic. That tactic is to get a large crown and whip them up and try and discover what is the greatest fear, work on that and feed it right back and you get frenzy. And that leads you in time then when you have in fact maybe one of the most gifted Presidents elected though I happen not to agree with all his foreign policy but you know, you regard for example, someone who happens to have been a professor at Harvard as somehow ignorant and handicapped. You don't find anything at all wrong with this Tea Party ignorance that is being brought all around the United States which is regularly insulting people who've been democratically elected. Moderator: Deputy Higgins, I'm not going to insult you... Higgins (interrupting): Oh, I think you should Moderator: ...by bringing up your lack of knowledge of the Tea Party movement... Higgins (interrupting again): I lived in the United States and do you know what the interesting thing, Mike (the moderator) do you know what the big difference is? I listened. I lived in the Mid-West in Willie Nelson country. I was a student there at the end of the 60's I was a professor in Illinois when they entered the 70's. The magnificent decent generous people of the United States with whom I had supper. People I sat up with there... (I) ate home made ice cream with them. The difference between them and the tiny elite who are in charge of the war-mongering foreign policy of the United States is just enormous. So, therefore, when you go on your picnic around the country you're really not representing the decent people of the United States. Who are very proud,correctly, at who they've elected President, which they're entitled to do. But you have the neck to say who are willing to talk to people or are willing or at least are trying to build peace are somehow or another in favor of people who want to murder Jewish people. that is an outrageous statement. I am not anti-Semitic. I'm not in favor of murder. and unlike you, I make my profession in politics and I worked in human rights. And I condemned Hamas for sending rockets. None of that will matter to you. Because do you know what you are? I mean I wish you well. Keep drinking Guinness and keep ranting away. But don't suggest that those of us who are working for peace in the heat of the day are somehow interested in murdering Jews. There's a man in the United... you know him. I think you may have interviewed him. Mark B Klien. He represents 14 Jewish organizations in New York. He organized 45 members of the House or Representatives to sign a letter condemning Barack Obama for giving Mary Robinson the Medal of Honor. Yea. I was debating with him on program rather like this. and I said to him how...why...how can you conclude that Mary Robinson is anti-Semitic? and he said, he said, um, Bishop Tutu for example. Bishop Tutu is anti-Semitic as well. You're going down that road. And really it is very dangerous stuff. The fact of the matter is, look, young people from the United States are traveling all over the world again. They're welcome in Europe. They're backpackers in hostels. People are talking to them. Because the image of the United States, we've got away from this war-mongering, is getting better. At least 47 million people that the likes of you condemn to no health care in a country that I was proud to work in...these people are going to have some health care. So this is the issue. Therefore be proud to be a decent American, rather than be just a wanker whipping up fear. END TRANSCRIPT (For the British/Irish English impaired: The Meaning of Wanker. ) If anybody has translated this in ASL, please send me your video link. Thanks! |
JennASL poet & signer, and chronically shy about vlogging. Archives
October 2014
Categories
All
|