Culture? - What's that?

Let's look at some of the difference between Deaf culture and hearing culture.

DEAF

• Are not able to hear in the womb
• Only learn what are told
• Most of the time not able to communicate and ask questions of parents
• Many times don't meet very many people that are like (deaf) them.
• Are not able to understand without an interpreter
• Rely on eyes to learn and develop language
• Rely on fluctuations in expression and body language
• Use touch for gaining attention of others to communicate
• Rely on sign and seem and to use sense of feel more
• Tend to be more direct - less waste of words
• Accept communication verbatim
• Deaf parents of hearing children seem over permissive - children seem to grow up quicker, being independent earlier in life.
• Often show expressions
• Visual descriptions
• ASL (American Sign Language) was not considered to be a language till 1960 - have had to always defend their language
• Feel strong about their language
• Identified by language
• Use eye contact - this is an important part of language
• Many are bilingual - out of necessity
• Have more understanding of hearing culture than hearing people do of Deaf culture
  
  

• Are able to hear in the womb
• Able to pickup on things, even the things you don't want them to
• Able to ask questions and communicate with parents
• Live with others that are like them (hearing)
• Able to go anywhere in their surroundings and be understood
• Rely on ears to learn and develop language
• Rely on fluctuations of voice to aid understanding of communication
• Uncomfortable when first exposed to touching to get attention of others
• Rely on hearing and sight senses, then feel at a lesser level
• Tend to use many words to say little
• Say one thing/mean another (play on words)
• Hearing parents of Deaf children seem overprotective or spoiling also seem ashamed
• Often shadow expression
• Verbal descriptions - often uncomfortable or inaccurate in creating visual descriptions
• English was always accepted as a language
• English taken for granted
• Hearing not identified by language
• Do not have to maintain eye contact to communicate
• Not bilingual - usually
• Do not have much understanding of Deaf culture

Material on the Subject of Deaf Culture

"A Loss For Words" - Lou Ann Walker
"A Kaleidoscope of Deaf America" - Edited by Frank R. Turk
"At Home Among Strangers" Exploring the Deaf Community in the Untied States - Jerome D. Schein
"Just a DEAF Person's Thought" - Gil Eastman
"The Feel of Silence" - Bonnie Poitras Tucker
"Black and Deaf in America" - Ernest Hairston and Linwood Smith
"Deaf Culture Our Way" Anecdotes from the Deaf Community - Roy, Samuel and Thomas Holcomb
"The Bridge" - Bill Mosaic; Operatic score by Chris Patton (video)
"Deaf Culture Lecture" Deaf & Hearing Cultural Differences - Sign Enhancers, Inc. (video)
"Life After Deaf" Impact of Deafness on a Family - Jeanette Fredrickson
"The Deaf Way" - Carol J. Erting, Robert C. Johnson, Dorothy L. Smith, & Bruce N. Snider, editors
"DEAFinitions For Signlets and More DEAFINITIONS!" - Ken Glickman
"DEAFology" Deaf Culture as Seen Through the Eyes of a Deaf Humorist - Ken Glickman
"A Journey into the Deaf-World" - Harlan Lane, Robert Hoffmeister, Ben Bahan
"For Hearing People Only" 2nd Edition - Matthew S. Moore & Linda Levitan
"A Study of American Deaf Folklore" - Susan Rutherford
"When the Phone Rings, My Bed Shakes"- Philip Zazove, M.D.


If you can not find these materials let me know I can order them for you.




Hazards of Deafness
By Roy Holcomb

* While walking down the sidewalk someone attempts to pass you on the right, then on the left, and then on the right again. Each time the person tries to pass you, you unconsciously move in that direction and block him not hearing the person behind you, let alone knowing his intentions.

* You are puzzled when told that boiling water has sound, and a light beam while moving makes none.

* When you are a child you wonder why your dog can hear and you can’t.

* You are told that Newark (Delaware) and Newark (New Jersey) are pronounced differently. Boy, does your head spin trying to figure this one out!

* A button snaps off your shirt and you never know it until your wife welcomes you home at the end of the day. You just hope that people didn't see too much of you during the day.

* You find it hard to understand how newspapers can make noise when turning the pages, and clothes do not when being folded.

* When in school you find it most difficult to master the English language because of the slang, idioms, and the many exceptions to the rules. Some first contacts with idioms may go as follows:
When told Ted “let the cat out of the bag” you may think how cruel Ted was to put the cat in the bag in the first place.
When told that John’s father “died laughing” you may say that this is not true at all as you saw him laughing hard but not dying.

* One evening an electric storm knocks out your lights. Then you are deaf and blind until you can find some candles or a flashlight.

* Your lights go out and you wonder why until you look outside and note that there is a storm.

* You join the applauding at a special performance. You get so carried away that you fail to note that you are the only one still clapping.

* You look in the classified ads for a job or a house or something and all you find in the telephone book after each listing is telephone numbers. And Bell invented the telephone trying to help the deaf.

* People think that you are rich because your pockets always jingle with change from small purchases for which you paid with bills to be on the safe side of underpaying. You didn't wish to be embarrassed by being asked for more money. And again, you don't trust lip-reading strange people.

* A policeman blows his whistle at you but you, being unaware of this, continue on your merry way. Later you give thanks that your brains were not blown out as has happened to some less fortunate deaf people.

* You grab a number in a store where you must wait for your turn to be served. Your number is called over the loudspeaker to no avail. Then you note one of the sales clerks looking around the room and calling a number like there was someone in the room with a hearing problem.

* You become deaf overnight from an accident or from some illness and find you would shrank many times over. For a time you may try to hide your deafness by bluffing, but in the end you must adjust or you are in for real trouble with yourself.

* You are a deaf baby. Your parents will not accept your deafness. They take you everywhere searching for someone to tell them the magic words that you are not deaf, just stubborn and don't want to hear.

* You put some water in the kettle and turn on the stove. You fail to hear the kettle whistle. Soon you have lost your water and your kettle.

* You never hear your baby's first word, let alone the hundreds upon hundreds of others which follow.

* You put dishes and silverware away as if there was an earthquake, never realizing that you are making so much noise.

*Your cooking on the stove boils over and over and is not brought to your attention until you smell something burning, you see smoke, or your husband tells you; in the latter case, pray that you have a sweet husband.

* You are trapped all along in an elevator and can’t talk with anyone on the emergency phone or on the outside. You just hope people are trying to get to you even if you can’t hear them.

* You are a Ph.D. and know just about every word in the Webster’s Dictionary, but just try finding words to tell your paper boy that you are missing papers and he'll make you feel you are both deaf and dumb.

* You are on the freeway or the toll way. You have car trouble. You go to an emergency phone booth and give your location. You wait awhile but no help shows up. Thinking that your deaf speech may not have been understood, you call twice more. Soon three detour trucks and a police car come to your rescue.

* After brushing your teeth, you gargle with some mouthwash. Your mother comes running as she thinks you are strangling to death from all the noise you are making unconsciously.

* You drink Manhattans instead of other drinks and you smoke certain brands of cigarettes because your favorites are often difficult to pronounce correctly.

* You are involved in an accident with a hearing person. The police are called. Each of you has a different version of what happened. The policeman listens to the story of the hearing person. He cannot understand you, and you cannot understand the policeman. The policeman does not want to wait until you write down a long description of the accident. The policeman tells both of you to report the accident to your insurance companies. You are given a ticket, but the hearing person is not.

* Your car is hit by the car of a hearing person. You want to call the police, as you feel you were entirely in the right. The hearing person refuses to call the police and leaves. There were no witnesses. You drive into the police station to report the accident. Since a policeman was not at the scene of the accident, your report is inconclusive. This makes it difficult for you to collect from the other party's insurance company.

* Your stomach growls. You reason that since it occurs in your stomach, it can’t be heard outside, never knowing that the growling is louder than that of a mad dog.

* You apply for a job at a place where a deaf person was fired for being a slow worker. You don't get the job because the employer considers all deaf people alike even though you have a reputation for being a fast and effective worker.

* You are a star football quarterback. You take the ball through the middle, throwing opponents right and left as you go seventy yards for a touchdown, only to find that the whistle was blown twenty yards back where a clipping penalty occurred.

* You let a friend out of your car. Your car door slams on her coat. You start up; your friend runs for dear life, hollering all the time. You finally glance to the right and wonder what in the world a sixty-year-old lady is doing racing your car on foot before you realize what has happened.

* You are talking with a hearing person. You are getting along fine with your conversation until another hearing person comes along. Then you are dropped cold, so cold that you couldn't be colder if you were at the North Pole.

* You give your newborn daughter a beautiful name and then find for the next fifty years you never pronounce it correctly.

* You talk on the phone for yourself. An interpreter listens and interprets for you from another phone. Later you meet the person who you talked with and he won't believe you are deaf because you talked so well and replied so quickly.

* There is laughter in the room, laughter in the air, laughter all around you and you hear it not but you see some of it and this makes your heart glad.

* You become deaf from spinal meningitis and have poor balance. You walk in a zigzag manner, especial at night. One morning your landlord notes your footsteps in the snow and concludes you have been drinking. She won't have drunks in her house so she asks you to move out. It takes a little explaining to convince her of your problem and that it is not drinking.

* You are going to California. The plane runs into trouble and is detoured to Las Vegas. The plane lands and the passengers are let out for a two-hour or more wait. Boy, are you surprised to see how much “California” has changed with all its slot machines, gambling tables, and the like.

* You work in a factory. You have a break. You sit alone. At lunch you sit alone. For fifty years you are pretty much alone at work. When you retire and they give you a gold watch, you go out and celebrate alone.

* Some people avoid you like deafness is contagious. These people go out of their way in order not to come in contact with you, no kidding.

* You never hear your father's farewell as he goes to work; his talking to mother; his telling of stories to your brother and sister; his discussion of the day; his plans and hopes for the future or his greetings as he walks into the house from a day at work.

* You call your sick wife at home. She has a TTY phone, but has to get out of the bed with a temperature of one hundred five to answer it.

Deaf Cyber Kids
Perserve Deaf Culture
Resources for Deaf & Hard of Hearing
Hearnet
ASL Language and Culture"
The start of Deaf Information
Deaf Children
Page 1 - Purple Jade's Page
Page 2 - Deaf
Page 3 - Sign Language
page 5 - Interpreting
Page 6 - Other Things

Email: purplejade@angelfire.com