ASL Video Reaction
Jerrod Ganesh
Patricia McHugh
ASL
21 April 2014
Video Reaction Essay Based on the video, it is easier to understand the cultural differences as opposed to seeing the deaf as a minority group. There is actually a whole culture of deaf people that interact together. It seems very pitiful but it’s actually quite amazing. To have something like loss of hearing or lack of hearing, most people couldn’t imagine the idea or how they’d react. The Deaf Culture created a community of them apart from what hearing people do. To begin, the way they communicate may take most people by surprise. Not just with obvious lack of speech but also with how they keep eye contact, structure their sentences, and bluntly speak. When hearing people communicate they’re usually also on their phones while talking or looking away somewhere, not often looking the person in the eyes. When deaf people communicate they keep eye contact or else the sentences wouldn’t be comprehended. Typically eye contact for extended periods of time is seen as awkward or stressful, but it’s the only way for the deaf to understand signs due to no speaking. Also, if a sentence isn’t structured correctly it could be misunderstood. The same goes for the Deaf Culture in their structures. With only having so many signs some words can mean different things depending on where they’re placed or with facial structures. This was shocking in the video because it’s a shock of realization that people do the same with spoken words. Not everything in Deaf Culture is as complicated as most people make it seem because what we see as complicated they see as normal and vice-versa. Lastly on the topic of speech, people in the Deaf Culture have a very blunt way of speaking apart from hearing people. People in the Hearing Culture want for a person to not feel awkward or embarrassed by pointing out physical appearances. They just assume things like, “their hair looks messy because they were rushing,” or something of the sort.
Patricia McHugh
ASL
21 April 2014
Video Reaction Essay Based on the video, it is easier to understand the cultural differences as opposed to seeing the deaf as a minority group. There is actually a whole culture of deaf people that interact together. It seems very pitiful but it’s actually quite amazing. To have something like loss of hearing or lack of hearing, most people couldn’t imagine the idea or how they’d react. The Deaf Culture created a community of them apart from what hearing people do. To begin, the way they communicate may take most people by surprise. Not just with obvious lack of speech but also with how they keep eye contact, structure their sentences, and bluntly speak. When hearing people communicate they’re usually also on their phones while talking or looking away somewhere, not often looking the person in the eyes. When deaf people communicate they keep eye contact or else the sentences wouldn’t be comprehended. Typically eye contact for extended periods of time is seen as awkward or stressful, but it’s the only way for the deaf to understand signs due to no speaking. Also, if a sentence isn’t structured correctly it could be misunderstood. The same goes for the Deaf Culture in their structures. With only having so many signs some words can mean different things depending on where they’re placed or with facial structures. This was shocking in the video because it’s a shock of realization that people do the same with spoken words. Not everything in Deaf Culture is as complicated as most people make it seem because what we see as complicated they see as normal and vice-versa. Lastly on the topic of speech, people in the Deaf Culture have a very blunt way of speaking apart from hearing people. People in the Hearing Culture want for a person to not feel awkward or embarrassed by pointing out physical appearances. They just assume things like, “their hair looks messy because they were rushing,” or something of the sort.