The Deafening Silence
Last Friday I went to a deaf pub. It was a normal evening and I really enjoyed myself.
The pub was packed, everywhere you looked you could see people and movement. But, at the same time, you could hear the gentle music being played in the background. I am not used to seeing so many people make so little noise. It was weird to say the least.
I need to point out here that I do know sign language. I’m doing night class in the stuff and loving every minute of it. Everybody in the deaf community is kind and accepting to the many mistakes one makes when starting out in a new language. They are just happy that someone is making an effort to communicate with them.
I think that everyone should make an effort to learn sign language, to make deaf people a true and equal part of our society. With people from other countries we can always hide behind the lazy excuse “Well, they’re coming to England, they should learn English” or “I’m only here for a week, I’ll just find someone who speaks English”. You can’t do that for deaf people, you either learn their language or they get ignored completely and cut off from the world.
As a nation, we are willing to be accommodating (most of us) so long as it takes no effort on out part. Originally we were happy to offer jobs to immigrant workers because we were too lazy to do those jobs ourselves or we deemed them too demeaning. We accept physically disabled people because that only requires us to sign a petition for ramps to be put in at the library or for us to park slightly farther from Tesco. That, however, is where we draw the line. We, as a nation have decided that we are not going to learn sign language. We have decided that accommodating a whole sub-culture is too much effort.
It wouldn’t take much to add sign language to the curriculum. If we teach it to kids while they are young it will help to teach them acceptance. While they are young they pick up language so easily you can barely say you’re teaching them. Teaching sign language to a child also encourages it’s motor skills to develop meaning that they will be a more coordinated and collected person later in life. Knowing more than one language promotes organisation and makes learning extra languages much easier, even later in life.
I will continue to learn sign language as long as i can find someone to teach me. I will teach my kids sign language, if I’m blessed enough to have any.
What are you doing to reach out?
