130420
"I don't understand what you are saying. I cannot hear," I said to her in sign language. The lady paused. She looked at me like I was some painting by Picasso, confused, interested yet lost. Did I not make myself clear? I asked myself as she continued her words without any consideration. I thought maybe she did not understood me so I tapped my right ear twice and repeated myself hoping she will get me this time. She paused again. But this time she was rather hesitant. She only glanced at me then she continued again her explanation about an item which I do not remember. The words began to sound like I was listening from underwater.
I felt dumbfounded and insignificant. The fact that someone with an actual hearing disability might experience such hostility bothered me. The lady did not try to help me understand, instead she went on describing the item like she would to someone who could hear. Silence filled the room as she finished talking. I fixed my eyes on the description on the item, said thank you and quietly left the place.
It was on the 20th of April 2013, the day of "Persons with Disability" at City Hall when I acted this out. It was a project from my sign language class where I was told to only use sign language as means of communication on that day for three hours. After my unpleasant visit with the lady, I silently walked down the street nearby visiting booths that were offering various services and entertainments for people with disability. I stopped at a booth where I sat to create and design my own egg-shaped candle.
"It is very beautiful" a staff member said as I began working on my candle.
"Yes it is" another lady added as my lips tickled to say thank you.
As I sat there hearing the compliments these ladies were making, my heart broke down rather than feeling any sense of delight. I was around people with disabilities and imagining that there are people here who cannot listen to the compliments these ladies were making to them as well made me realize the importance of learning sign language.
The place was loud and full of joy but to them it was perhaps…quiet. I felt the need to learn sign language, now that I feel that this day helped me better understand how it is like to be in their shoes.
To Ju Hye Choi From Gui Hwan Kim Assignment First draft
ReplyDelete1. What I like about this piece of writing is that your use of similes to describe somebody’s reaction to your sign language. Also I felt your warmth from this writing. I could feel that you felt unfortunate for people with hearing disabilities. Also I like this piece of writing because it makes me think of experiences I had with the deaf.
2. Your main point seems to be that you had an experience having to communicate with sign language and you had trouble with it because not all people know how to use sign language. Another point you seemed to have is that you felt sympathy for those with hearing disability because they cannot hear the warm compliments regular people would hear.
3. “She looked at me like I was some painting by Picasso, confused, interested yet lost.” I like this line because of your use of the simile. I could see how the person was looking at you. Confused, dazed and trying to understand what you were trying to communicate. I could guess she probably had the same facial expression I would have if I was looking at a piece of Picasso.
4. ...“so I tapped my right ear twice...” I am not quite sure if this is specific sign language meaning I don't understand or if this was the gesture trying to show that you were playing deaf. Maybe if you explain the meaning of tapping your ear twice would clarify your gesture.
5. Maybe if you change the paragraph order, it would make better chronological order. Start the writing off with you were at City Hall “Persons with Disability” event would help the reader understand the first paragraph you wrote.
1. What I like about this piece of writing is the first paragraph does catch my attention to read further. I kept guessing what kind of scene is this through your conversation with the lady when reading it.
ReplyDelete2. You main point seems to be that you wonder the life of those disabled people without hearing anything could have joy, and you sympathised with them but you couldn't help a lot.
3. I like the first sentence of 2nd paragraph, I felt dumbfounded and insignificant, though the sentence isn't long and include lots of description, it's powerful enough to let me into the scene that what you were feeling and thinking.
4. The thing which isn't clear to me is the lower part of the text. Since you spent more times on describing the conversation with the woman very detail, the flow of lower part seems moving kinda fast by contrast. I expected it could be go into detail, which brings out the deep thought of your mind, I think it could strengthen your conclusion part.
5. The one change you could make that would make the biggest improvement in this piece of writing is be careful the use when switch the tenses between the conversation at the moment and your own thoughts when writing.
Tsz Ching LEE
a. It is that you did not mention you were in the event of experiencing the deafness that made the story very real. I thought as if this was written by a person with the actual disability. And the scene where you try to make the lady understand that you cannot hear her but she did not mind at all, it was very lively.
ReplyDeleteb. The confusion may be a good one, that I was confused if you were really a disabled person, if that was what you intended.
c. The beginning is the most impressive. The moment I thought that I read the first couple of sentences, I was halfway down there and finished reading it.
d. The main tense of the writing is past simple. In fact, I see past simple only. The only present tense verbs are used in quotations. That is not just appropriate but necessary for a quotation.
e. I'd like to know why there was the lady that did not know you were unable to hear was there and tried to explain you something. The happening in the beginning of the writing is very impressive, yet I think it lacks some explanations on why it happened.
Lee Jong-ho
Ju Hye Choi 201203623
ReplyDelete130420
It was on the 20th of April 2013, the day of "Persons with Disability" at City Hall when I worked on a challenging project from my sign language class. I was told to only use sign language as means of communication on that day for three hours. So, although I was little anxious since I was a beginner in sign language, I silently walked down the street nearby with excitement visiting booths that were offering various services and entertainments for people with disability.
As I was l looking around, I stopped at a booth where I slowed myself to look at some art work designed by people with disability. While I was exploring the place a lady wearing a yellow shirt approached me and began to explain to me the art piece I was looking at. She was informative. But I knew I had to tell her at some point that I could not understand her, so at the moment I thought was best to interrupt I looked at her and said in sign language, "I don't understand what you are saying. I cannot hear.”
The lady paused. She looked at me like I was some painting by Picasso, confused, interested yet lost. Did I not make myself clear? I asked myself as she continued her words without any consideration. I thought maybe she did not understand sign language so I tapped my right ear twice hoping she will get me this time. She paused again. But this time she was rather hesitant. She only glanced at me then she continued again her explanation about the item which I do not remember what it was. The words began to sound like I was listening from underwater.
I felt dumbfounded and insignificant. The fact that someone with an actual hearing disability might experience such hostility bothered me. The lady did not try to help me understand, instead she went on describing the item like she would to someone who could hear. Silence filled the room as she finished talking. I fixed my eyes on the description on the item, said thank you and quietly left the place.
As I continued walking around the street, I began to think about the people I met before the lady who actually tried to help me understand by using sign language or by asking someone else for help. These people were open and friendly I felt appreciated and less lonely around them. But what I felt from the lady was different. I felt emotional distance and coldness. It was like facing the reality of a person with hearing disability, I did not want anyone who had disability feel this way from me. So since then, I felt more compassion towards people living with disabilities and therefore more determined to learn sign language now that I feel that this experience helped me better understand what it is like to be in their shoes.