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Bringing flavors to a soundless world - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos
If he cannot fully communicate with signs, gestures and smiles, he might as well convey the words and meanings through flavors and aromas.
With that, Angel Layagan, 26 and deaf, decided to learn how to cook by enrolling at the West Visayas State University (WVSU) nonformal education class with 30 other students.
While he shares some plans of his classmates who enrolled because they want to work abroad and open a catering or restaurant business, Angel’s goal, first and foremost, is to break the barrier in the soundless world.
“I wish to open a business, a restaurant for deaf in two years,” he wrote in a piece of paper during the interview.
Angel said some of his deaf friends would want to join him run a restaurant or a café, probably the first to be put up by the deaf who want to go mainstream, beyond the reassuring care of local handicap associations.
A high school graduate of the Special Education Integrated School for Exceptional Children (Sped-Isec), Angel would have wanted to go to college and become a licensed teacher. He applied, but the local universities were not ready to take him in because they lack teachers adept in sign language.
Neither could he afford to hire an interpreter to bring to class, Angel said. He was asked to enroll instead in the nonformal education class.
Angel said he was happy in the cooking class run by Hermigilda Tupas. Students are taught the basics of home cooking and cooking for business. The recipes have ingredients one can add or leave out, depending on the purpose. Among the dishes are “rellenong bangus” (stuffed milkfish), “chorizo” (sausage) and other cured meat products, beef steak, “embutido” (meat loaf) and desserts.
“The recipes are easy,” said Angel when asked if he learned quickly. “I can cook them when I have my restaurant someday.”
His favorite is beef steak served with caramelized onion rings. But during the interview, he was cooking embutido, and he learned how to mix ground lean pork with extenders, roll them into mini-logs and steam them for an hour.
He thinks the best menus are vegetables, hearty soups and stir-fry, because they are easy to cook.
Angel said he wanted to learn more international cookery, food with flavors from lands unknown to him. But he has no intention of working abroad, even if his two sisters are in The Netherlands. “I love the Philippines,” he wrote.
Improvised sign language
In his cooking class, Angel gets along well with others even if they do not know sign language. But he can easily communicate with them by using his hands, face and body. For example, his classmate motioned by holding a colander, making circles and pointing to meat slices. That means Angel will wash the meat.
According to Tupas, Angel is cheerful and friendly. He makes an effort to communicate with hearing persons and does not feel inferior to them. He also makes full use of his mobile phone by sending text messages when hand signals are lost in translation.
Angel’s parents died when he was 15 and he was left to the care of his older siblings. Today, he earns his keep by working in a canteen at the WVSU, washing plates and making sandwiches and hamburgers. He also earns P100 every time he teaches sign language to the deaf and nondeaf for an hour or two. He also speaks in seminars on deaf culture.
He plans to master the sign language, its many variants and inflections, because he wants to be an interpreter for the deaf who are victims of crimes and sexual abuse, like rape.
Analyn Porras of the Association of Disabled Persons in Iloilo said more and more deaf in Iloilo had become confident in facing the hurdles in the hearing world.
Some were able to acquire technical skills; others were trained in computer programming. Some worked as servers, gas attendants, grocery clerks and teachers.
The discrimination remains, according to Porras, but there is more openness these days, thanks to the deaf and volunteers who advocate for deaf rights. “We have started to listen to them,” she said.
If he cannot fully communicate with signs, gestures and smiles, he might as well convey the words and meanings through flavors and aromas.
With that, Angel Layagan, 26 and deaf, decided to learn how to cook by enrolling at the West Visayas State University (WVSU) nonformal education class with 30 other students.
While he shares some plans of his classmates who enrolled because they want to work abroad and open a catering or restaurant business, Angel’s goal, first and foremost, is to break the barrier in the soundless world.
“I wish to open a business, a restaurant for deaf in two years,” he wrote in a piece of paper during the interview.
Angel said some of his deaf friends would want to join him run a restaurant or a café, probably the first to be put up by the deaf who want to go mainstream, beyond the reassuring care of local handicap associations.
A high school graduate of the Special Education Integrated School for Exceptional Children (Sped-Isec), Angel would have wanted to go to college and become a licensed teacher. He applied, but the local universities were not ready to take him in because they lack teachers adept in sign language.
Neither could he afford to hire an interpreter to bring to class, Angel said. He was asked to enroll instead in the nonformal education class.
Angel said he was happy in the cooking class run by Hermigilda Tupas. Students are taught the basics of home cooking and cooking for business. The recipes have ingredients one can add or leave out, depending on the purpose. Among the dishes are “rellenong bangus” (stuffed milkfish), “chorizo” (sausage) and other cured meat products, beef steak, “embutido” (meat loaf) and desserts.
“The recipes are easy,” said Angel when asked if he learned quickly. “I can cook them when I have my restaurant someday.”
His favorite is beef steak served with caramelized onion rings. But during the interview, he was cooking embutido, and he learned how to mix ground lean pork with extenders, roll them into mini-logs and steam them for an hour.
He thinks the best menus are vegetables, hearty soups and stir-fry, because they are easy to cook.
Angel said he wanted to learn more international cookery, food with flavors from lands unknown to him. But he has no intention of working abroad, even if his two sisters are in The Netherlands. “I love the Philippines,” he wrote.
Improvised sign language
In his cooking class, Angel gets along well with others even if they do not know sign language. But he can easily communicate with them by using his hands, face and body. For example, his classmate motioned by holding a colander, making circles and pointing to meat slices. That means Angel will wash the meat.
According to Tupas, Angel is cheerful and friendly. He makes an effort to communicate with hearing persons and does not feel inferior to them. He also makes full use of his mobile phone by sending text messages when hand signals are lost in translation.
Angel’s parents died when he was 15 and he was left to the care of his older siblings. Today, he earns his keep by working in a canteen at the WVSU, washing plates and making sandwiches and hamburgers. He also earns P100 every time he teaches sign language to the deaf and nondeaf for an hour or two. He also speaks in seminars on deaf culture.
He plans to master the sign language, its many variants and inflections, because he wants to be an interpreter for the deaf who are victims of crimes and sexual abuse, like rape.
Analyn Porras of the Association of Disabled Persons in Iloilo said more and more deaf in Iloilo had become confident in facing the hurdles in the hearing world.
Some were able to acquire technical skills; others were trained in computer programming. Some worked as servers, gas attendants, grocery clerks and teachers.
The discrimination remains, according to Porras, but there is more openness these days, thanks to the deaf and volunteers who advocate for deaf rights. “We have started to listen to them,” she said.
