Jenelle Noguera

Sign 202 Deaf Culture

7 June 2016
Class Publication

This semester in Deaf Culture class, I learned something that made me grateful to be a
part of my growing experience in American Sign Language. As a student of learning a new
language, its pretty awesome that we do not only focus on the grammar, sentences, and that type
of stuff as I did when I took Spanish class, that is what we learned grammar, structure and
pronunciation but as I began taking the American Sign language classes I am not only learning
the proper way to sign but also the culture of the Deaf. To be accepted into a community/culture I
think it takes more than to just to know the language, but learning the language gives you a foot
in the door, and knowing the culture gets you more and more through the door, and just how it
was said in class to know Deaf people is to know their history. Therefore I have learned being
part of the Deaf community is much more than knowing just the language. And to me learning
the language is just an awesome experience, but knowing the history of all the deaf people has
given me a respect and a heart to continue learning more and wanting to be part of the
community.

This semester in Deaf culture class I have gained more knowledge on the history of the
deaf. The struggles they faced, the limitations they had to learn and get an education. This piece
of art I found on google, and to me it portrays the limitations to deaf people, because it is focused
on the ears and the lips. I remember talking about the Milan conference, where people got
together trying to come to a conclusion of what method would be the best to teach deaf
individuals. And many or most of them decided that oralism was the best method to teach deaf
individuals, and the ban of sign language happened. That caused a big limitation to deaf people.
They could no longer use their language in classrooms, or in public places they had no rights to
it, I believe the only place they used it was in the privacy of their homes, which to me is a
limitation.
The Milan conference in 1880, was a conference that changed the lives of many deaf
individuals because the conference was held in Milan, Italy the professors who taught in
classroom were clearly Italian, and taught in that language as well, I cant imagine the struggle of
learning Italian pronunciations and the grammar, it is like the struggle and process I had learning
sign language. This caused a complete change of perspective of the hearing people to the deaf
people I would believe.
In one of the books assigned to us in class called A journey into the Deaf-world explains
more of what happened in the Milan conference, but something I found very interesting was the
effect that came from the ban of sign language, and so it says in the book older Deaf students
who had been contaminated by signed language were quarantined in the residential schools
(page 61 paragraph 2). The isolation they had, because they did not want the use of sign language
in the classrooms, they wanted it completely erased from the schools, but just because they were
not able to use it in their schools does not mean they did not use it in their homes. And that is
where another thing that was mentioned in class a quote from an individual (I paraphrase) as
long as there are deaf people in the world there is sign language and I believe that to be true
because to this day, deaf people are around and so is the language.
To preserve something it has to be practiced, there has to be those people that would carry
on the traditions, beliefs, or for this example the language. It takes persistency, and because Deaf
people are around sign language continues to be taught and used. I do wonder that if one day
there would be another area in the world were sign language was the only thing that was used,
just as we learned for Marthas Vineyard. The area was not just populated with deaf but also with
hearing and hard of hearing, all the bunch in one area that only used sign language because deaf
people were around it was used. It was not limited for only deaf people to use the language but it
was welcomed to be used for any person who knew it.
We do have those areas around still as Bob mentioned but they have become much
smaller in people but it is the beginning, as I have heard before, do not despise the day of small
beginnings. To further add, the film we were required to watch, ridicule they had a bit of
history of deaf education. Abbe Charles-Michel de lepee who was the teacher of the deaf
students, and one of them being acquainted with one of the main actors, it shows that the deaf
boy had never had an education because they just didnt know a method for how to teach deaf
individuals, but after Abee Charles-Michel de lepee began to teach the kids sign language we

see how they finally understood each other and finally were able to have communication with
others. Their limitation of communication was no longer limited but now the gap was filled. This
taught me it begins with some, and ends in great number of either people, awareness or growth
within someone. One person to continue the work that has been started and to fight for it all the
way through to everyone because we all deserve a right to our culture, language and beliefs.