Deaf Culture..

[Frisky Feline]

Do you think the "Deaf culture" will still be there in the future when the CI technology has been growing so fast? I am not talking about hearing aids.


I am not talking about using the special devices such as alarm clock or with technology thingy. I am talking about the Deaf culture that we Deaf have Deaf history, Deaf belief, and facial expressions. For example, we Deaf end up get together chatting in the kitchen, not in the living room or We Deaf have our own facial expression that hearing people don't have it. We feel connected when it comes to the Deaf culture in general.


I do not know each of you. I have my own experience that i do cherish the Deaf culture. I have so many memories about the Deaf culture. Every time, i went to sleep over my friends home and they have Deaf parents. My friends' Deaf parents had always have company. I noticed that Deaf Adult peeps (remind you that i was only 12 yrs old) that they always tell lots of Deaf jokes, Deaf stories, Deaf history and Deaf ways. When I was a kid, I did not have been interacted with hearing adult peeps that they usually tell us as kids, go to our things to play. But Deaf Adult peeps usually greets first, and tell Deaf jokes or stories for about an hour then they let us go and do our things. I never forget the special moment times with Older Deaf peeps like i forget that they were old. I really thank to older Deaf peeps who had always have time for strange deaf kids and their hilarious Deaf jokes.


think the Deaf culture would still be there? yes we would use ASL forever with no question, but Deaf culture? :shrug:

 

[shel90]

I grew up without Deaf culture and now that I am involved with it and have met many people who grew up with it. Their memories are definitely a lot richer than my memories of with all hearing peers. They have never had to deal with misunderstandings, the "never-minds", not knowing stories that have been passed down, and etc etc. I consider them very lucky to have Deaf culture.

If Deaf culture dies out cuz of CIs, it would be a HUGE shame!

 

[Frisky Feline]

me too. I would be sad for those kids who were born deaf and being implanted CI. They will never know what deaf culture is like, or feel being connected, telepathy and facial expression.

I get a feeling that Deaf culture will be disappearing years later.

 

[Lighthouse77]

of course.. have you looked at the status of people who got turned down from CI?

There will always be proud deaf parents who accept the way they are.

 

[faire_jour]

me too. I would be sad for those kids who were born deaf and being implanted CI. They will never know what deaf culture is like, or feel being connected, telepathy and facial expression.

I get a feeling that Deaf culture will be disappearing years later.

Has anyone considered including children with CI's IN Deaf culture??? Maybe if more time was spent explaining to parents the benefits of true bilingualism (both ASL and ALL of English, written and soken) instead of feeling sad or angry that the kids have the ability to hear.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9n_IjnwHDc]YouTube - Who is Our Enemy?[/ame]

 

[Frisky Feline]

Has anyone considered including children with CI's IN Deaf culture??? Maybe if more time was spent explaining to parents the benefits of true bilingualism (both ASL and ALL of English, written and soken) instead of feeling sad or angry that the kids have the ability to hear.

YouTube - Who is Our Enemy?

I can't able to view this video but i will check it later.

I don't know what you mean. I am not upset that kids with ci or has that able to hear. I am happy for them as long as they are happy. i am talking about how sad the Deaf culture is going to be gone in the future. Deaf kids with CIs or Deaf kids who raises in the hearing enviroment have no idea what the Deaf culture like once the late deafened adults are gone. The late deafened adults will not able to pass the Deaf history once they die. I have seen lots of kids who attend to hearing school, or maintain school or oral school who have been interacting with hearing people. hey that is GREAT for them. yes. Deaf culture will be gone and the deaf history will change from deaf to "able to hear with assistance but i am deaf" history.

 

[Lissa]

Why do people think that deaf children and adults cannot be involved in deaf culture just because they have implants, we are still deaf you know. We still sign and communicate with other deaf people. We use facial expression and are great story tellers

 

[naisho]

I believe in the distant near future, everyone will become as one race due to technological advances, share the same view of upholding the daily tasks of working as a "life" employee. Its not just deaf culture but it is happening to every other culture out there as well. Christianity grows, America's way of life grows, biotechnology advances and small things disappear as a result.

Similar to animals going extinct. Except no one is going extinct here. The cultures are.

CI is a subdivision, and isn't the spotlight that is focused on this topic. It is the universal deaf culture in general, which includes CI, hard of hearing, profound deafness, prelingual/post lingual deafness, ETC its like bunching a social race and country together if you can think of it like that.

Deaf culture seems to share no difference compared to any other country's culture. Its a culture of its own language, has its own morals and ethical views of what one should do in the culture.

For example, Deaf culture upholds some of the following but not limited to:

• Speaking/communicating coherently
• General patience in communication
• Speaking major points in a conversation, rather than dragging it out
• Body language

Many other cultures may exhibit similar things that share some common boundaries.
Japanese culture can be of, but not limited to:

• Respect while speaking with elders.
• Adding suffix terminology to names to show respect(and disrespect) in denoting their status: Tom-san, Jane-sama, Jun-chan, James-kun.
• Saying "itadakimasu" when beginning any meal
• Being timely while expected of, if not earlier.
• Impolite to eat or drink while walking on the street.

Chinese culture has similar things:

• Avoiding direct eye contact with someone older than you (old way of respect)
• Not keeping in contact with another expecting their presence; although this one may be more universal to any culture.
• Pointing your chopstick at another person while eating is uncustomary
• Speaking with your mouth full while eating, standing while eating, eating before your expected company arrives.

A few of the same can be said about American culture:

• Flipping the bird at another is considered disrespectful.
• Inability to follow up on something; some may give no second chances.

One thing I keenly and always remember about Korean culture:

• It is impolite to pour your own drink before pouring for others, whichever reason you may have.

There are so many things out there for each culture and they have their own ways of following them.

Deaf culture is a social aspect of one of these and shares values that makes its own enjoyable.



However, despite the massive influx of cultures and ethnicity out there, I view eventually that everyone is going to get simplified into one master lump form of a culture that will incorporate most of the (best) values from each one out there and live like that. There is a lot of interracial marriage going on as we have witnessed the past decade. Once interracial children are produced to the content that they have a gene heritage from almost every race.. this may be when it is the down to the point where race doesn't matter anymore.

Kind of like a futuristic space world similar to the movie, Gattaca where only a specific universal "race"/culture is king and the rest will be weeded out.

Put it simply like this. It is easier to communicate with someone who doesn't have a disability in public, than it is to communicate with someone who does. A majority of the population works fine without having to use alternate means of communication, why bother with a small percentage that ever so does not even slightly matter to the large?

It is easier to teach kids in school that have no hearing/sight/coordination problems than it is to put extra work in those who do.
Regardless of what one may think, the future is advancing forward without looking back.


Humans always try to fix their errors.
Humans are insistent on seeing if they can challenge mother nature.

So it wouldn't be surprising to me once sometime by the next millennium if Earth is alive until then... That deafness, blindness, muteness, things like this have all been "fixed" or cured of by biomedical technology that took it out.

Its already happening anyways but in its infant stages at this time.
There are two divisions. One is Germ therapy which focuses on modification of haploid eggs/sperm and their results as a diploid cell to weed out the bad DNA. The second is called Somatic gene therapy that focuses on people who are currently alive but need a quick fix.

"I not only think that we will tamper with Mother Nature, I think Mother wants us to."
Willard Gaylin

 

[Frisky Feline]

naisho, exaclty why deaf culture is going to be gone years later.

 

[shel90]

Why do people think that deaf children and adults cannot be involved in deaf culture just because they have implants, we are still deaf you know. We still sign and communicate with other deaf people. We use facial expression and are great story tellers

Like the OP said, they will still use ASL but most deaf kids will not go to school together due to mainstreaming and most parents arent willing to seek out other deaf children for their child to interact with outside of school so the kind of closeness those who grew up together at Deaf schools will not be experienced by those who are mainstreamed. I dont have that with my Deaf friends even though I am fluent in ASL because I was mainstreamed and only knew 2 other oral deaf people.


It takes a strong knit community to create the stories, myths, poetry, songs, and jokes in ASL. By having deaf kids scattered around in mainstreaming programs is not going to be considered a tight-knit community.

I think that is what the OP was trying to say.

 

[Bottesini]

naisho, exaclty why deaf culture is going to be gone years later.

Sorry to say, as in the days of my grandparents, it is already long gone.

 

[Frisky Feline]

Like the OP said, they will still use ASL but most deaf kids will not go to school together due to mainstreaming and most parents arent willing to seek out other deaf children for their child to interact with outside of school so the kind of closeness those who grew up together at Deaf schools will not be experienced by those who are mainstreamed. I dont have that with my Deaf friends even though I am fluent in ASL because I was mainstreamed and only knew 2 other oral deaf people.


It takes a strong knit community to create the stories, myths, poetry, songs, and jokes in ASL. By having deaf kids scattered around in mainstreaming programs is not going to be considered a tight-knit community.

I think that is what the OP was trying to say.

yes thank you. Yes that's what i meant. thank you shel90. I really appreciate your input information how or what deaf culture feels like. boy, I have been out of touch with deaf community TOOO LONG! I have been interacting with hearing people, my hearing kids and hearing co workers everything. I forget how deaf culture feels like. I have not step my foot into deaf school for years!

 

[Frisky Feline]

Has anyone considered including children with CI's IN Deaf culture??? Maybe if more time was spent explaining to parents the benefits of true bilingualism (both ASL and ALL of English, written and soken) instead of feeling sad or angry that the kids have the ability to hear.

YouTube - Who is Our Enemy?

yes i have seen this video. She and i went to the same school. She's a cool gal. In her video, that I agree with her about all of us try to keep ASL as much as possible we can. ASL can apply to the deaf culture in some way. but my question, will the deaf culture still be there?

I met the hearing mother who knows asl, real good. She has a daughter who is 9 yrs old who had CI since she was toddler. I met her girl few times. She still does not want to sign according to what the mother said. I can understand that because we were chatting at the hearing school where my kids attends there. That's how i wonder about the deaf culture.

 

[Bebonang]

Frisky Feline is right about the Deaf Culture that explained what Deaf people do in the Deaf communities. When I was in the elementary and high school, I did not know anything about the Deaf Culture until I graduate. First I had to learn to sign at a different church, a Deaf church run by a Deaf pastor. It opened the door for me to understand what is being said with sign language whether in Exact English sign language or ASL. He was good and I learned fast. Then I joined the Deaf community and learn about our Deaf Culture and it is good to go through around our every day Deaf lifestyle like the OP said. We would sign for hours and hours and loving every minute of it. We also had TTY to talk to Deaf people. Yes, we made jokes about hearing people related to Deaf people that was very hilarious and funny what hearing people think and do. We like to go through our ways of being Deaf and learning about who was in the Deaf history and telling the stories of experiences of what is it is like to struggle in the hearing world and our success in our Deaf life. I do hope that the Deaf Culture would continue to go for many more years and I don't think it would effect the CI. I really blame mostly on the hearing schools and AG Bell Audists to separate us from having to be with Deaf people and be involve in Deaf Culture. ASL is a most important first language in our lifestyle (it is not a foreign language or second language) and we are suppose to communicate as a visual way to understand better than lipreading and using the voice which is not our voice that is funny. I have always love Deaf Culture and I hope it will not disappear ever. Let's hope not.

 

[Frisky Feline]

ahh, i have been talking to a few peeps who are very involved with ASL studies and so. They assures me that if any small kids who have CI, they better learn ASL at their EARLIEST AGE as possible as they can. Then Deaf Culture would stays alive, why? they would use ASL all the way once they get older. one day they decide to turn their CI off and have their OWN world to use ASL anytime. We all have to keep ASL for a long time then Deaf Culture would be there in years later. I am seeing the clear picture what they mean. KEEP ASL ALIVE and then the Deaf Culture would stays alive. Just keep ASL as much as they can. Those ci users will realize that asl is real KEY to them, no matter what if they can hear with their assitance of using CI. one day they will socialize with other ci users who use ASL and they will rely on ASL more and more. so let's hope to keep deaf schools alive and allow lots of kids who have CI go to deaf schools so they would use ASL therefore ASL is alive as well as the Deaf Culture.

LONG LIVE ASL!!

 

[Bebonang]

ahh, i have been talking to a few peeps who are very involved with ASL studies and so. They assures me that if any small kids who have CI, they better learn ASL at their EARLIEST AGE as possible as they can. Then Deaf Culture would stays alive, why? they would use ASL all the way once they get older. one day they decide to turn their CI off and have their OWN world to use ASL anytime. We all have to keep ASL for a long time then Deaf Culture would be there in years later. I am seeing the clear picture what they mean. KEEP ASL ALIVE and then the Deaf Culture would stays alive. Just keep ASL as much as they can. Those ci users will realize that asl is real KEY to them, no matter what if they can hear with their assitance of using CI. one day they will socialize with other ci users who use ASL and they will rely on ASL more and more. so let's hope to keep deaf schools alive and allow lots of kids who have CI go to deaf schools so they would use ASL therefore ASL is alive as well as the Deaf Culture.

LONG LIVE ASL!!

Me, too. YAY!!!! LONG LIVE ASL, FOREVER!!!! :fruit:

 

[Smithtr]

I LOVE ASL IS GOOD AT COMMUNICATION TO PEOPLE I THINK SO GOOD IDEA... i AM HAPPY HEAR SOUND GREAT............

 

[Mountain Man]

Unfortunately, the Deaf community has a powerful enemy in the hearing world. The sensibilities of Alexander Graham Bell, who viewed deafness as something to be treated and eradicated, still persist today in the form of audiologists and speech therapists. My wife and I are hearing, and when we learned that our son was deaf, the audiologist didn't even want to say the word "deaf", as if the very word was offensive. Instead she was vague and used phrases like "hearing loss" and went to great lengths to emphasize that he did have residual hearing and that it could be "corrected". My wife and I had to practically force her to acknowledge that, yes, he was indeed deaf. Then the audiologist immediately started pushing cochlear implants, trying to sign us up for a cat-scan and a surgery date, and our son was only six-months old! "Barbaric" is the word that comes to mind.

It's been three years, and we still encounter people who will apologize to us when they find out that he's deaf. "Oh, he's deaf? I'm so sorry." Our typical response is, "Why are you sorry? There's nothing wrong with him. He just can't hear." The other thing we often hear is, "Did you know about these things called cochlear implants?" So that's the hearing world's first response, to feel sorry for the child and look for a way to "fix" him. And with 90% of deaf children born into hearing households, a large majority of them get implanted straightaway and never have the opportunity to grow up Deaf and only discover Deaf culture later in life. It amazes me how few hearing parents think it worthwhile to learn sign language, even when their children beg them to.

I think a Deaf culture will always exist to some extent, but it will never again be like it was in years past, which is sad.

 

[jillio]

I think Deaf Culture will change to reflect the changes in our wider society, but I don't see that it will ever die out. For instance, in the 1920's, Deaf Clubs were necessary for contact and communication with other deaf people. The only way to communicate was face to face or by writing a letter. Now we have Backberries, Sidekicks, email, texting, VRS. It isn't necessary to be face to face with another deaf to communicate with them. There are other ways besides writing and mailing a letter to stay in contact. This forum is another way for deaf to stay in contact with each other.

Deaf will always seek other deaf out because it is the sameness of experience that draws them together. We all want to be understood, and who better to understand what we are going through than someone who has walked the same path we have? In that respect, the culture will never die out. Oralism in the past has not been able to destroy the bond that deaf people have with each other. It has not succeeded in integrating the deaf into the hearing culture completely, even though that was exactly what it was intended to do from the very beginning, and is still intended to do today. Oralism has seen a revival with the increased implanting of not just adults, but children at young ages. I think the culture will change to readily accept implanted individuals into the culture when they learn that the CI does not make integration into the hearing society as easy as they were told it would.

There have always been orally raised adults finding the deaf culture after years of being denied exposure to it. That is not going to change. There have always been a few orally raised adults that bought into the myth, and think they don't need deaf culture. That will not change. Deaf Culture has survived over the years despite the fact that the oralists have attempted to destroy it. It will continue to exist. Deaf people will always continue to seek contact with others who share their experience. Modern technology through the use of pagers, email, VRS, etc. has just changed the way they seek each other out.

 

[jillio]

Unfortunately, the Deaf community has a powerful enemy in the hearing world. The sensibilities of Alexander Graham Bell, who viewed deafness as something to be treated and eradicated, still persist today in the form of audiologists and speech therapists. My wife and I are hearing, and when we learned that our son was deaf, the audiologist didn't even want to say the word "deaf", as if the very word was offensive. Instead she was vague and used phrases like "hearing loss" and went to great lengths to emphasize that he did have residual hearing and that it could be "corrected". My wife and I had to practically force her to acknowledge that, yes, he was indeed deaf. Then the audiologist immediately started pushing cochlear implants, trying to sign us up for a cat-scan and a surgery date, and our son was only six-months old! "Barbaric" is the word that comes to mind.

It's been three years, and we still encounter people who will apologize to us when they find out that he's deaf. "Oh, he's deaf? I'm so sorry." Our typical response is, "Why are you sorry? There's nothing wrong with him. He just can't hear." The other thing we often hear is, "Did you know about these things called cochlear implants?" So that's the hearing world's first response, to feel sorry for the child and look for a way to "fix" him. And with 90% of deaf children born into hearing households, a large majority of them get implanted straightaway and never have the opportunity to grow up Deaf and only discover Deaf culture later in life. It amazes me how few hearing parents think it worthwhile to learn sign language, even when their children beg them to.

I think a Deaf culture will always exist to some extent, but it will never again be like it was in years past, which is sad.

Well said, Mountain Man. I can certainly relate.