Translator: Denise RQ Reviewer: Robert Deliman
Hello.
I'm so thrilled to be here with all of you today.
My presentation is in fact about gestures.
Oftentimes hearing people gesture
and they think that they don't.
There are areas around Europe like Italy and Spain,
where I have to admit that hearing people,
it's almost like forgetting how to breathe.
Deaf people look at gesture, and it's innate.
I would like to show you a short clip
to show you how hearing people
use gestures in their daily lives.
(Mute video of JR, TED speaker)
So we can see the use of gesture here.
A countdown, for example.
(Mute video of Oprah Winfrey)
When he talks about loving yourself,
he points to the audience and emphasizes with his hands "you."
"You must love yourself."
(Mute video of Dalai Lama)
Dalai talked about contributing to a community
and ways in which we can contribute.
(Mute video of President Obama)
President Obama talks about job growth and growing jobs
and he uses his hands to demonstrate and illustrate how that's going to happen.
(Mute video of The Beatles)
Here we see some more gestures indicating "hmm."
Here in more of these clips,
you can see how gesture is used to get across a message.
(Mute video of Tom Hanks)
It's an interesting discussion about gestures
and how innate they really are.
And oftentimes, we don't recognize
that it is in fact a part of human language.
Hearing people use gesture in a variety of different ways
to describe direction.
Hearing people don't always necessarily say,
"You turn right," or "You turn left."
They do take advantage of the space that's in front of them
and use gestures.
Gestures are used when people are talking
about shopping and lists.
They're making their grocery lists.
And they use their hands as the different products
that they want to buy.
Also, when they're comparing, for example,
whether or not they want to buy one color car
or another type of car, like a red or a blue car.
And I've also noticed gestures used when two people
have quite a far distance between the two of them.
To gain someone's attention;
to connect with someone across the room through gesture.
It's innate through all language.
John Bulwer, in the 1600s, wrote a book.
and in that book he showed
how gestures were innate in human language.
People, at that time, thought those gestures were savage and inhuman,
but, in fact, they were hearing themselves
and didn't realize the role gesture had in their everyday language use.
They were in denial.
Again, they didn't think this was a human way of communicating.
Anthropologists have analyzed pre-historic language starts
and actually found that language started with a foundation of a gestural system.
It started with a manual modality.
National Geographic did a fabulous research study,
one that I found fascinating
when they talked about how gesture could benefit us educationally.
They looked at second, third, and fourth grade classes.
They had one class that didn't incorporate gesture in their math class,
and then another class that actually did incorporate the use of gestures,
and found that where students were exposed to gesture,
they far out-surpassed their peers
who were not exposed to the use of gesture in math.
There was one famous deaf man who performed in silent films,
and he wrote a book.
It was fascinating.
He talked about deaf individuals,
and in the end of his book he said,
"You know, hearing people should learn to sign
because that would absolutely benefit
both the hearing community and the deaf community
because that would be a way
in which we could connect with one another."
That was 100 years ago!
What forward thinking that man had.
I think the world has a lot to think about.
I love to travel the world.
And have done so.
I have been to several different countries.
One fascinating place I have visited was Japan.
Japan is well known for their reserved manner,
but they do use gestures.
One of my favorite gestures is this that I'm using here.
Again, these are hearing individuals who do not know sign language
and they would make signs such as I'm using right now.
This sign is a very serious sign.
And no one has ever taught hearing people how to use these gestures,
they just naturally occur.
We see that in the communities of Italy.
They definitely use gestures to communicate
and emote their feelings that they're feeling,
even though they're using a spoken communication,
gesture seems to play a very important role,
one they cannot disconnect themselves from.
I have been teaching American Sign Language
for quite some time
and I've noticed that sometimes my students struggle
when they try to use their hands.
They're very motivated to learn, but they just have a fear
that their hands are simply just not going to work in the appropriate ways.
I make sure that my classroom is a relaxed environment,
one that will inspire students
to be more open and comfortable with themselves.
They're so used to listening with their ears,
they have to re-train their brains and allow them to listen with their eyes,
even though they're terrified sometimes to do so.
I show them how that can create a warm and welcoming environment
and how that will allow them
to feel more comfortable using their hands to communicate.
I do have to admit, I took French here at Gallaudet
I just barely passed.
It was a requirement that I had to take a foreign language,
and I realized it would be complex, but I wondered why I struggled.
Because I've been to Denmark and to Japan,
and I've learned these languages more so than a whole semester of French.
So I've realizes, when you take any language class,
you have to re-examine what is the goal is for you to learn that language?
What is your purpose?
And without taking that self-examination,
you may in fact, just barely pass,
like my experience taking French here at the university.
I taught a classroom that had special technology, video cameras,
the use of technology that we could watch VHS video tapes.
And now we have wireless technology,
and we can communicate language through a variety of different means.
I found out that my students love to use areas where they do feel isolated,
where they can practice on their own, oftentimes in the bathroom,
so they can develop and improve their skills.
I used to work in New Zealand, in the deaf organization there.
They've recognized their languages,
New Zealand Sign Language, Mauri, and English.
In New Zealand, they host a week-long language festival
that the entire community comes out for.
And we decide to take advantage of the festival
to have a flash mob.
For those of you who don't know,
a flash mob is an organized event
that those who are not in the event are not expecting it.
So we organized a group of community members,
there was only a few of us, probably 20-30 individuals,
who in fact created this flash mob and started signing.
And in the end, so many other community members
who happened to be in the vicinity, joined in.
That shows that hearing people are in fact motivated to learn a sign language,
the sign language of the community in which they belong.
Maybe we could have a flash mob on H Street, on Capitol Hill.
It's a way to celebrate and showcase our language.
Oftentimes, we view deafness as complex and layered
because our community is so diverse.
If we do in fact value and want to preserve our heritage,
if we want to make sure that the medical model
that says deaf people need to be fixed goes away and dies off,
then we need to make sure that ASL is communicated as a language
that can be used and benefit everyone.
That is the message that could in turn become the best medicine
to fight against the medical model.
George Veditz is a man that I truly I love.
In 1913, many individuals thought ASL would in fact die out,
that it would not persevere.
George Veditz wanted to maintain ASL
through the use of video tape.
And now, 100 years past
we see that ASL is in fact not dying off, and will not.
But we need to continue to preserve our language by spreading it.
Showing our language through a variety of different uses,
including technology,
and offer our beautiful language to the world.
Thank you.