It’s the ‘Dawn of a New-ish Era’, a time when people are moving away from old fashioned ideals and embracing diversity, liberalism is widespread and the young are our saviours.
So imagine my surprise when a University educated, 24 year old told me that her 75 year-old great uncle was ‘deaf and dumb’ and that she couldn’t be bothered learning sign language because ‘what’s the point if I will never use it?’ despite the fact that there is clearly a reason staring her in the face.
No, not me, but a family member. She doesn’t talk to him much because ‘I don’t understand him.’
Imagine the look on my face when when she said, speaking of door-to-door fundraisers of a Deaf organisation, ‘Why would I give money to people who claim to work for a deaf organisation but can’t sign?’
I was so amazed at the sheer ignorance that spewed forth from her mouth that I had to remember myself and control the unspoken fury waiting to be unleashed from within.
I have had nothing but praise for the younger generation, breaking free of the chains that bound generations before them, embracing change and accepting others for who/what they are but to have my bubble well and truly burst, and, to realise that there were actually some who had those kind of thoughts in their heads, was a bit of an enormous shock.
I ‘assumed’ with the growing awareness of deafness that people were taking more notice of the importance of communication or are people just not making the
connection between disability and communication?
There have been large campaigns from organisations in recent years highlighting living with a hearing loss, great, but what about actual DEAFNESS?
We see ads on the telly for Mental Health illnesses and people no longer think ‘Eh! Lock them up!’
People are now more educated than ever before. We wander into stroke/heart disease charity shops and think ‘I can buy something AND help support the cause.’
We see trainee guide dog puppies misbehaving in the street and think ‘Aw! PUPPIES! Cute AND beneficial!’
People might go out of their way to avoid a blind person with a white stick in case of an embarrassing, physical accident, we’ve all done it, don’t deny it, but that’s it. No-one avoids them like the plague in case they start doing weird things with their eyes.
These campaigns work, so why aren’t the ones for deafness working? There have been billboard adverts splashed UK wide showing statistics of how many people have a hearing loss but what about DEAF people, people who use sign language as a way of communicating?
Why is this so alien when more parents are taking their babies to Baby Sign classes because it’s well known that teaching babies to sign boosts communication and social development?
WHY are people so afraid of sign language!
It’s a disappointing realisation, and a smack in the face, but, we must learn from this and consider new ways to educate the masses.
Support Sign Language as a way of communicating by encouraging friends and family to learn.
Deborah Cochrane is a Belfast resident who immerses herself in literary, art and popular culture. She has worked at Deaf and hearing organisations and has firm opinions on both. When she’s not reading the likes of Diana Athill and watching Asian cinema she spends her time tending to her allotment and quilting.
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Rosie Malezer
March 23, 2016
It never ceases to amaze me when people with Deafies in the family don’t bother learning how to sign. My own family have no clue how to sign, regardless that I am profoundly Deaf. It shows what the hearing people think of the Deaf family member, which really sucks.
Roger
March 24, 2016
Rozie I really don’t know anything about the general experience of Deafies with their families.
It surprises (and upsets me) that your own family have no clue how to sign.
I have been priviledged to be invited to a couple of birthday parties of Deaf people.
At the last one I was intrigued by someone signing as proficiently as the other guests but also speaking flawlessly to me.
Being nosey I asked how her signing was so good.
It was her brothers birthday party!
They are very close and she had learned BSL from him and at college to a fluent level.
My partner and his brother know some sign language but its more like sign supported english I think.
They can both communicate with their Deaf mum,
You could say they didn’t learn to sign in BSL or you could say their mother didn’t teach them? Neither would have been able to afford college course fees to learn.
They both look after their mother and think a lot about her.
Roger
March 23, 2016
Hi Deborah,
I am not afraid of sign language, quite the opposite, it is fascinating.
A few years ago my partner’s mother had a heart operation and while we were visiting the hospital several of her friends from the deaf club were also visiting.
I was a bit taken aback when one of them signed and vocalised “you should learn sign language” at me.
This was done with forcefulness and attitude which to be honest still seems a bit rude.
The person was right of course, it would be a great help to be able to communicate in BSL.
A couple of years ago I was made redundant and had time on my hands between jobs.
So I looked into learning BSL at college and luckily I could take the course for free as I was unemployed.
I just looked at cost of level1 and it currently is £450. Level 2 is an eye watering £724 !
As I now have a part time job I couldn’t possibly afford to take the course.
My experience of learning BSL in college started off great and went downhill to the point where I hated going.
First off, none of this was the tutors fault, she was/is brilliant.
Also I have a fear of public speaking which I now realise extends to public signing.
By public I mean being the centre of attention addressing a large group of people.
One to one, small groups I am fine but once I realised that in this class I could be called upon to demonstrate my inept signing in front of the whole class with all eyes on me I felt panic, anxiety and fear creep in.
This must be something to do with feeling judged, having my performance commented on, in the moment.
I had no problem being filmed for assessments, didn’t worry that people I don’t know and will not meet may disapprove of my sloppy hand shapes.
This was not just my problem, several other students had far worse performance anxiety than me.
Luckily fairly early on our tutor (did I mention she is brilliant?) noticed some people were uncomfortable with signing to the whole class and instead asked for volunteers .
My class mates were all women
(do women usually make up a large percentage of the students on BSL courses?)
In most cases this BSL training was paid for by employers to help the students in their jobs.
On the course with me i think among others there several Bank Workers, college and uni staff, nursery workers, and a trainee physiotherapist?
I had assumed there would be more parents and siblings of Deaf people on the course.
Where do they learn to sign and is there help with the cost?
In our lessons we were given a handout with several visuals of signs for that weeks topic.
Might be signs for weather ,transport, numbers…
Then the tutor went through each sign several times demonstrating how to produce it.
After that we would split into groups of two to practice these signs to each other.
Then we would change partners a few times and continue practicing.
Some of the people on my course were just lovely people and others not so much.
Over the weeks the less confident people would have to practice with one individual who would treat them with disdain and disinterest.
Instead of being encouraging she bluntly pointed out every mistake she thought they made and caused them to feel very uncomfortable.
Week after week people would miss a lesson here or there, several weeks…
People who had been happy and up for learning BSL were disillusioned by their experience.
At college we had access to DVDs on signing and this was a mixed blessing.
Trying to practice ‘numbers’ I found my number signs were different from the ones used on the DVD. I now know there are different signs for the same thing but it is confusing at the start
.
When my partners mum came over she was interested in my sign language sheets.
Then I realised that she uses a different signs for numbers than the one I was learning, likewise colours…
It seems to me that at present sign language is inaccessible to hearing people.
(Apart from lots of finger spelling sheets)
Learning BSL is prohibitively expensive and courses seem to be aimed at gaining qualifications for prospective employment working with Deaf people.
I never wanted a piece of paper, just to learn BSL
If anyone out there knows an easier and cheaper way for me to learn BSL I am interested….
Also if it could be a sociable fun friendly way of learning all the better
Aaron Makepeace
March 23, 2016
I can relate to a lot of what you said roger, ive recently become deaf & bsl course are very expensive. I too had a fantastic tutor & was in a class made up of women too. However the ones in class with me were all great people. The courses grew into something more significant than a certificate for me, i felt id found people i could easily communicate with rather than constantly struggle trying to talk. I found a sense of community too. I felt very lucky to be able to afford it after becoming deaf & wonder if there are many deafened people who havent learnt bsl due to the cost?
Su
March 26, 2016
Where you based?
Cathy
March 23, 2016
Oh dear Deborah! I have no wish to dishearten you, but you are never going to educate the masses to learn sign language. Firstly, they have to be interested, whether they have family members who are deaf or not!
I went deaf aged 4 but learnt no sign language until my early 20s. No family member ever learnt sign language, but in all fairness sign language classes did not exist in the 60s!
I know a deaf lady married to a hearing man. I was shocked, when, one day, her husband banged on a pub table and shouted to his wife “you learn English!” He had never picked up sign language and I realised he had no intention of doing so! Yet their marriage has endured for about 25yrs!! The deaf lady has virtually lost all her sign language skills though!
It is a sad story you have told, Deborah, but far from unusual and the 24yr old girl is actually right: when is she going to use sign language? I only use it with deaf people not hearies, that means hearing people and deaf people need to mix more to make hearing people realise they need to learn to sign.
I do not believe, personally, that your dream of the masses learning sign language is going to come to fruition anytime soon. I think it will have to stay exactly that: a dream!
The interest is not there, the opportunity to use the language is not there, unless they are happy to visit deaf clubs all the time. And last but not least, courses for sign language are far too expensive! So Deborah, perhaps you could start reducing the price of classes as a start to teaching the masses!? But how you would generate interest is another matter, entirely! It would be like forcing people to learn to cook, but they are not interested, when there is a chippy round the corner! Or forcing someone to learn to drive, when their partner drives them everywhere!
Sign language will only become more prominent when there is a real mix of hearies and deafies. It is very sad that the 24yr old girl has made no effort for her great Uncle, though. I feel for him.
Deborah
March 23, 2016
Hi Cathy, thank you for your reply to the article, while I agree with some points you made there are others that are quite negative. If everybody lived by that attitude nothing would ever change and it already has begun to change for the better.
It is important to promote the benefits, I believe a lot more hearing people are interested however it’s the cost of classes and information about where to go, that delays progress. More people are learning about Makaton through tv programmes, children are picking up these signs – it’s enormous progress, and I know it’s not BSL, but it’s making people aware of language in non-oral forms.
Staying silent is detrimental, we can all do our bit by sharing articles and information via social media, word of mouth and so on. Small steps are better than no steps.
Roger
March 24, 2016
I think Cathy is saying it how it is now.
I agree with Deborah though, think of a better future and try changing things to get there.
I have heard of Makaton but don’t know anything about it.
My first thought is that it odd to be teaching children a different signing language when they could learn the BSL signs instead?
recently I have been thinking that a great step would be getting primary school children to learn BSL signs for things at the same time as they are learning to read and write?
Last night in a noisy pub I could hardly hear the people sat opposite trying to talk to me, it would have been easier to sign to each other.
sign language can have it uses for hearing people too.
One of our friends is learning BSL and we had a short conversation in sign oblivious to the people around and more importantly inspite of them.
I think more casual learning of BSL (rather than structured expensive courses)
and more signing in public (to generate interest/curiosity) could help make BSL more widely used and understood.
Su
March 26, 2016
I have bad hearing loss and my level 6 in sign and yes very very expensive but I wanted to prove to myself I could. Sign Is the easiest way for me to talk and I love it.
Students learning sign I feel sorry for a lot of them as they learn, are enthusiastic, but then how to practice?
Please take deaf to mean Deaf too but awkward to make capital every time.
Most students experience of deaf clubs, and therfore contact with deaf people, is unwelcoming, regardless of the whole another debate this could raise, they give up.
Or they just practice with each other at same level and therfore don’t progress or teach each other wrong sign!
I wanted to start teaching in an informal way, no exams, cheap, and socially, but with what I know now of deaf community I dare not as would make many deaf people angry. I teach a couple of people but would love to teach more. Would also happily teach parents who have deaf babies, for example, for free, but again scared of bad reaction through taking work away from deaf course teachers. ..
I started a practice group on Facebook for them, as apart from tutor i am only deaf they interact with. And it’s so I can have some social life where I can actually communicate in pubs/town etc as old friends not sign.
I think more girls learn generally not sure why.
In my experience the people who are ‘scared of signing’ are more impatient people who just can’t be bothered or scared of offending. I go out of my way to interact with people serving in pubs etc in almost a comedy way, hoping to put then at ease and to stop them being scared of offending me and then others. Most of my regular pubs now know at least numbers for paying, or, how are you and thank you. Progress, however small. All the children where I work are now at ease through exposure to me teaching deaf to ride in sign language. Maybe more exposure needed?
And as for relationship I’ve had with both people who learnt sign so we could go to pub and chat and with people who didn’t. The last one ended through man embarrassed when I signed in public.
So to Roger, search for practice groups on Facebook! And keep on signing.
And just keep on giving positive image of deaf and sign by being friendly and nice to the scared people, not grumpy at them. ..
I’ll shut up now! ! bye! !