EPSE 426_ Reflection #1

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University of British Columbia *

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426

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Arts Humanities

Date

Jan 9, 2024

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docx

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Uploaded by ProfessorRose3559

Learning Response #1 I've had a lot of encounters with members of the d/Dhh community ever since I was a kid. One of my closest family friends' daughter is deaf, and I've been volunteering at Eagle Ridge Hospital and attending church since I was a child, so I'm used to dealing with a lot of elderly people who are hard of hearing. As a result, I assumed I had a solid understanding of what individuals in the d/Dhh community go through in their daily lives, but boy was I mistaken. Putting myself into their shoes throughout this opportunity was a truly eye-opening experience, as it offered me a better understanding of what a person goes through when they are deaf. To fully immerse myself into the experience from the perspective of a deaf person, additionally to my ear plugs, I wore noise-cancelling headphones. It was quite difficult to understand what was being said across the table when I was trying to hold a group conversation with a couple of my friends. My friends were kind enough to do their hardest to enhance their enunciation by speaking slower and over-exaggerating their mouth movements so I could read their lips, but I was still left perplexed and frustrated. At first, everyone was laughing and smiling, as if we were all playing a viral game akin to this experiment that was actually featured on a popular Korean show, in which one person would wear noise cancelling headphones and have to figure out what their teammates were attempting to say. However, as time passed, I could tell that my friends were becoming increasingly irritated and annoyed, as evidenced by their rolling eyes or sighs when I constantly requested them to slow down or repeat particular lines. Observing such behaviour in my friends, I found myself progressively not bothering to ask to repeat what they were saying, instead acting as if I

understood what they were saying. I became increasingly hesitant to “interrupt” conversations and began to suspect that they were removing me from their conversations on purpose, even if this was not the case. I felt alienated and had to suppress my outgoing, conversational personality, remaining silent for nearly the entirety of the conversations. I can only imagine how difficult it would be in a classroom if having casual talks with a few of my friends was this difficult and had such an affect on my personality. If someone in my position were to be placed in a school scenario, I can already see them feeling anxious from the pressure to follow along with the class material, and their confidence among classmates plunging, as Tabesh's case study demonstrates (Guardino, 2018). I'd feel as if I didn't belong there and wouldn't recognize myself as one of them since I'd see a large "gap" between the peers and myself, as if they were slightly superior to me. I further carried this experiment out to the mall with my friends, this time with smaller noise cancelling Airpods with music blasting so that I couldn't hear anything that was going on around me. It was insane how many times my friends had to drag me over to their side because I was blocking someone or because I continued to walk while my friends went into particular stores. I was unable to partake in most of the conversations that were taking place because I was not facing my companions and thus could not read their lips while strolling around the mall. As a result, I remained silent for the majority of the shopping trip. I often found myself distanced from everybody during shopping and had trouble paying at the cash register. At one of the stores, I unknowingly agreed to the cashier's request for my email address, and when I didn't continue to tell her my email, she became quite confused, and my friend had to step in and speak for me. I felt uncomfortable and self-conscious about myself for a split second, and was worried about

what other people were thinking about me. The second experiment was far more difficult for me than the first since it required time to acclimatize to the new environment, especially one that was full of strangers. In the first experiment, I felt more at ease and confident compared to the mall, possibly because I was in a familiar setting, which was my dining table at home with a few of my closest friends. Therefore, it made me realize how important it is for students in the d/Dhh community to have a familiar environment, and how changes in their daily routine has great impact on the individual, as mentioned in Celeste's case study, where she felt great anxiety when her daily routine was altered (Guardino, 2018). After partaking in this experiment, I learned how essential language is and how it affects our lives, because knowing American Sign Language (ASL) would have made my experiences as a member of the d/Dhh community more easier and more inclusive. However, I believe that understanding ASL would have only been significantly helpful during my initial experience because the difficulties at the mall stemmed more from my inability to identify my new surroundings than from communication difficulties. And, in order for students in the d/Dhh community to feel included and not fall behind, I believe that deaf-specific schools are important to alleviate them of the strain and anxiety that arises at school. This is clear since many educators believe that schools play a vital role in the establishment of a deaf child's cultural minority identity (MacDougall, 2004). For students who don't feel like they belong or fit in with their "normal" peers, I believe that developing a cultural identity is critical to increasing one's self- confidence, which will have a long-term impact on their social status in the future in the real world. References

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