Reaction Paper About Deaf Event

Improved Essays
For my second Deaf event I chose to attend the Mata Expo USA with my daughter on November 8th 2014. Furthermore, this event was held at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center in Long Beach. I would like to share some information about this event and how I felt about attending this type of Deaf event as well as, some of the experiences that I had at the event. According to the Mata Expo website the Mata Expo is a multicultural event as well as, an international social-media enterprise expo. It is somewhat like a tradeshow and allows corporations, organizations, and individuals to promote their products and services. Thousands of people attend this event and it supports expanding the Multicultural Awareness in the public society. …show more content…
I believe this event portrayed the Deaf community in a positive manner. The event seemed to provide a definitive representation of the Deaf culture. It appeared to me that probably at least 90 percent of the attendees were Deaf and almost everyone was signing. So now I want to discuss what I thought about this event. Initially I was nervous once again about going to a Deaf event event and so was my daughter. I did not know what to expect, nor did I know how I was going to strike up a conversation with a Deaf person. I had a great deal of anxiety going into this big adventure and just wanted to get it over with. When we walked into the event it was so crowded and not to mention, it was warm and stuffy, but I immediately saw friends from class and walked over to them to say hello. My daughter and I could hardly walk through the expo because it was so jammed packed with people. There were several booths for various services for the Deaf which included Sprint relay systems, and other communication devices. Additionally, there were booths selling t-shirts, books, wind chimes and other items. Moreover, there were what appeared to be international booths, but I had no idea what they were offering because once again it was very

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    In the lesson 5 American sign language video "What it like to be Deaf", a man who appears to be deaf starts to sign and says he is going to share his experience of growing up deaf with us. Afterwards, he added that this videos purpose is to educate and spread awareness to the hearing community. Thereafter he comes back on saying that he is here to help people understand deaf people and he was adopted by a family who have help him grow up but never had a real bond with him. Subsequently, he begins to talk about his personal story about growing up deaf, he adds that one day he was watching a movie with his family but he couldn’t hear what was going on, he than noticed that his family was laughing but he didn’t know why so he asked them what did…

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Even when there was socialization, I noticed that most people would quietly talk amongst themselves and not really use sign. I feel like the movie and the question and answer session with Deaf people were great and really helped us to understand the Deaf culture a little better but I feel like the purpose of us using sign with other people was lost. I felt that my ASL skills weren’t really tested at the event but I did enjoy watching the teachers and guest sign. I did see some signs that I recognized however, the speed of signing was somewhat hard to following; I am hoping that gets easier as I study sign more.…

    • 1054 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Deaf Like Me Summary

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The book “Deaf Like Me” by Thomas S. Spradley and James P. Spradley intrigued because it was about a hearing family that had a deaf daughter. I was also interested that the book was written in the perspective of the father. The statistic that vast majority of deaf children are born to hearing parents has always made me fascinated with what each hearing parent has done for their deaf child. I knew that this story would most likely have a happy ending considering the title “Deaf Like Me” I made the inference that maybe his daughter would find inclusion from being emerged in the culture of deaf individuals. “Deaf Like Me” followed the story of the parents Tom and Louise Spradley in the early 1960s.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    He also talks about the growth of American Sign Language, and it how it has evolved to be most effective when combined with the hearing community. Moving onto Deaf literature, Holcomb shows how Deaf literature has moved from consumption by only Deaf individuals to being more accessible for all people interested in the Deaf community. In the Deaf art chapter, the author talks about the importance of art for the history of Deaf culture, as well as the way Deaf art aids in the understanding of Deaf people’s lives by people not in the Deaf…

    • 1599 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Through Deaf Eyes Summary

    • 1422 Words
    • 6 Pages

    They presented these statements: All deaf people use Sign Language; Sign Language is universal; Deaf people live in a silent world; having a deaf child is tragic; all deaf people would like to be cured. All these statements are false and the documentary clearly breaks this all down with the history of Deaf life in America. It was once thought deafness…

    • 1422 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    I never really thought about all the different challenges Deaf people and the Deaf community had gone through. I am still dumbfounded that the Deaf community was expected to learn a verbal language, instead of a visual one. When I saw that scene where they mentioned oral language schools, I was shaking my head and I said to myself “what kind of bullshit is that?”. I also reflected on my own life.…

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Deaf Culture Subcultures

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages

    This was through an inclusion program, which was meant to ensure the deaf culture stands mainstreamed to learn together with “normal” learners in the residential schools. As of now, some of the learners within the deaf culture became prominent persons in the larger society. The prominence is to the extent of holding big positions in office such as lawyers, psychiatrists, therapists among others, (Carroll and Mather, 1997). It therefore plainly proofs that deaf culture is not any distinct from the larger society and if there is anything they need most is acceptance into the mainstream, into the larger society so that every individual can be shaped with the…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    #HearingPrivilege There is a hashtag going around social media raising awareness for deaf people. People don’t think about deaf people when they go to a movie or a concert, they don’t think about how they can’t enjoy the simple things in life. There are many privileges that hearing people don’t realize they have because the public isn’t educated about deaf or hard of hearing people. Hearing privilege is when a deaf person has to wait months for a movie to have screencaps when everyone else got to watch the movie when it came out.…

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Chicano Park day was eventful because of the community getting together to celebrate the culture and park. It was impressive to see the amount of people that attended the event and how diverse, especially because of the community it is located in I expected it to be particularly the neighbors. In association to the news and the elections, it is important to see the amount of support that the Mexican culture is receiving and together they can withstand anything. On my walk to the park I noticed that it was going to be crowded because of there not being any parking so we had to park down at the trolley station. This is my first time down there for this event, it was impressive because I would have never thought that due to the amount of people…

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Train Go Sorry Analysis

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages

    As we discuss communication disorders, it is important to discuss hearing disorders as well; it is essential to include hearing loss and deafness in the conversation in this course, seeing as these two things influence the ability to speak and communicate orally, seeing that hearing helps with acquiring and producing speech and language. A deaf person is a minority in the hearing world and often struggles to exchange information, ideas, feelings with those who are hearing. Thus, it is important to be informed about auditory issues and deaf culture. And the book is another resource to assist in gathering the knowledge on these issues and on the community to best serve individuals who are deaf, to remain cognizant of culturally diverse children and adults and to remain culturally competent. Train Go Sorry is also a reminder that deaf people are people first, just an everyone else who do not fit within the norm.…

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Picture your favorite movie or song do you know what that director or artist is trying to get across to the audience? Movies, television, shows, plays, music, and art are all an exhibit of entertainment of some sort. All these things have a meaning that they want to convey you. In deaf culture this is no different, the teller of these stories, or movies, or means of entertainment is conveying some sort of message to the audience. Marlee Matlin a famous deaf actress is a teller not only to the deaf community, but to hearing as well.…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Deaf Heart Reflection

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages

    From my own perspective, I have never seemed so displaced in my mind about this topic. Right from the beginning, I was challenged with the first of many problems the deaf community faces on a regular basis. While at school, Max would miss the morning announcements. There rarely was any visual aids or handouts that summarized the morning’s important announcements. It was worse, even in this case, that Max could not lip-read any one person either.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Deaf Schoolgirl Analysis

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The photo descriptions (writing task) mock-writing Deaf girl For many people, the thought of living their lives in complete or partial silence is an unimaginable hell. But seems not that true! This photo shows a deaf schoolgirl, was sharing her experiences of coping with difficulties and hurdles. That was the most memorable lesson in my life.…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Prior to the comprehensive works and visionary thinking of William Stokoe, the American Deaf community remained deprived of recognition as a culture and community that shared a complex and intricate language rich in structure and system. Shortly after Stokoe began his twenty-nine year exploration of Sign Language at Gallaudet University in 1955, the Deaf Community’s future as an acknowledged independent community became immeasurably brighter. Through almost three decades of research, observations, learning, and writing, English Professor William Stokoe Ph.D. brought validation to the Deaf Community through by publishing his findings, which not only earned him the title of “Father of American Sign Language” but also legitimized American Sign…

    • 1065 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I was glad that I attended this Deaf event and had the opportunity to get to know more about Deaf…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays