Hey I was cleaning up my parents' home with my mom on New Year's day and found this term paper my dad wrote over 14 years ago. The amazing thing is that I was writing about this experience on New Year's eve. Thought you would enjoy this term paper. Love Julie
My Father's ASL Class Term Paper :
My Visit to the Deaf World
By Mike Rems
May 1992
This past weekend I went to Los Angeles to attend a graduation party celebrating my daughter's completion of her M.A. studies, along with her three roommates. All four girls are hearing impaired, and three received Master's degrees and the other a Juirs doctorate. The party was attended by some 300 people, of whom about 80 percent are deaf. The remainder are all fluent in sign language.
I went to the party with some trepidation, having has only five classes in ASL. But on Mother's Day, two weeks ago, we had a surprise visit from Julie, our daughter, so we reciprocated with the surprise new we were finally learning ASL for her. It had been a very emotional day for all of us, and she was so happy she told all her friends that her parents and her brother were learning to sign. This was her graduation gift from us.
We found without exception that everyone there was extremely patient, kind, and helpful to us as we stumbled through out first day among deaf people. (Now I know how Julie has felt at gatherings of hearing people where she was able to understand one-on-one conversations but missed all the going-ons around her. And now I also better understand the deaf culture, and their intense interest in communication. It plays such an important role in their everyday lives, that it can instantly dominate a conversation.
For that reason, this new family of students, who were there to celebrate their daughter's graduation because quite a conversation piece. And everyone was extremely supportive, encouraging us with positive reinforcement (despite what I feel must have been difficult to do with a straight face at times), and telling us how well we were signing.
These were people from across the country, New York, Chicago, Denver, and Washington. I met and signed with the President of the NAD, Roz Rosen, whose daughter is one of the graduates and rooms with Julie. I also met many sign language interpreters from the area, both from CSUN and GLAD. One woman, who has a PHD told me to be bold, just walk up to deaf people, introduce myself, and say "Hi, I', learning sign language, can we talk?" She started learning sign language as an adult with children, "Just because I'm nosy," she told me. I also met a former teacher of yours name Joyce Groode who asked me to say hello to you and Ed Copra. She is still teaching at CSUN.
All in all, it was an enormously enlightening and encouraging experience for me despite my having raised a deaf daughter and knowing many deaf young people. I felt as though I was really only now beginning to understand the deaf culture and the deaf experience. It was very humbling, yet very uplifting for me.
My Father's ASL Class Term Paper :
My Visit to the Deaf World
By Mike Rems
May 1992
This past weekend I went to Los Angeles to attend a graduation party celebrating my daughter's completion of her M.A. studies, along with her three roommates. All four girls are hearing impaired, and three received Master's degrees and the other a Juirs doctorate. The party was attended by some 300 people, of whom about 80 percent are deaf. The remainder are all fluent in sign language.
I went to the party with some trepidation, having has only five classes in ASL. But on Mother's Day, two weeks ago, we had a surprise visit from Julie, our daughter, so we reciprocated with the surprise new we were finally learning ASL for her. It had been a very emotional day for all of us, and she was so happy she told all her friends that her parents and her brother were learning to sign. This was her graduation gift from us.
We found without exception that everyone there was extremely patient, kind, and helpful to us as we stumbled through out first day among deaf people. (Now I know how Julie has felt at gatherings of hearing people where she was able to understand one-on-one conversations but missed all the going-ons around her. And now I also better understand the deaf culture, and their intense interest in communication. It plays such an important role in their everyday lives, that it can instantly dominate a conversation.
For that reason, this new family of students, who were there to celebrate their daughter's graduation because quite a conversation piece. And everyone was extremely supportive, encouraging us with positive reinforcement (despite what I feel must have been difficult to do with a straight face at times), and telling us how well we were signing.
These were people from across the country, New York, Chicago, Denver, and Washington. I met and signed with the President of the NAD, Roz Rosen, whose daughter is one of the graduates and rooms with Julie. I also met many sign language interpreters from the area, both from CSUN and GLAD. One woman, who has a PHD told me to be bold, just walk up to deaf people, introduce myself, and say "Hi, I', learning sign language, can we talk?" She started learning sign language as an adult with children, "Just because I'm nosy," she told me. I also met a former teacher of yours name Joyce Groode who asked me to say hello to you and Ed Copra. She is still teaching at CSUN.
All in all, it was an enormously enlightening and encouraging experience for me despite my having raised a deaf daughter and knowing many deaf young people. I felt as though I was really only now beginning to understand the deaf culture and the deaf experience. It was very humbling, yet very uplifting for me.
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