Deaf Experience Essay

Going to a deaf event has helped me in my understanding of Deaf culture and language. It has also helped me to realize the importance of what we learn in class. Observing and interacting with people who are deaf was for me an amazing experience, which I believe greatly benefited my learning of American Sign Language (ASL). This experience was a great addition to my learning and helped me to better understand what I was being taught. As many believe it the best way to learn is to do. I learned a lot from my experience and thoroughly enjoyed it. For my deaf immersion assignment, I attended a deaf gathering at Mount Aloysius college. This one happened to be a deaf movie night. I drove to Cresson with Sabrina and my sister. Once we got to the …show more content…
Then, two girls came in and sat down with us. A little later we found out that they were both college students from St. Francis who were minoring in ASL. They were both very nice girls and helped to calm some of our nerves. We thought about going to another table to have a conversation with some other people, but we thought that would be rude to leave them and we were still a little nervous about having conservations with other people. However, their tutor, who is deaf, came over and sat with us, so we got have a conversation with him. Also, there were other people who came up to us and so we had several conversations throughout the night. Then, the movie started. It was fascinating trying to match the subtitles with the signs. I was a little unsure of what a signed movie would be like, but I enjoyed it and thought it was very funny. The movies not only had humor that the deaf understood, but there were also many jokes that the hearing could understand as well. I guess, I …show more content…
First off, the deaf people were willing to engage anyone, including strangers. I know from experience, that hearing people never talk to people they don’t know at events. The deaf however, were having conversations with us and at the end saying goodbye to everyone, which is also something hearing people don’t usually do at events. The second major difference I saw was starring and watching others conversations. I had forgotten that it was appropriate in Deaf culture, because it is looked down on in hearing culture. However, I quickly remembered, because as my table was having a conversation I happened to look over and see a woman looking at us, it was a little weird at first then I remembered that it a part of their culture. This is helpful for students who are trying to learn and observe without hugely interrupting their normal flow of communication and interaction. Additionally, when I was thinking about this later I realized that everyone can see what you’re having a conversation about. This I think is really a good thing because it makes you a lot more aware of what you converse about knowing anyone could be respectfully watching. It makes you feel a little more vulnerable, because when talking you can whisper, but when signing there isn’t really anything you can do. Additionally, the deaf were very helpful when we didn’t understand or messed up, which is completely