I just learned (yes, a couple days too late) that Marcel Marceau passed away at a ripe age of 84. His obituary is very interesting, full of fascinating life story. Being Jewish, his father changed the family name (last name) to protect them from Germany during WWII.
I remember seeing him at a play many years ago and seeing the documentary film about him. Even saw him making cameo appearance in Mel Brooke's film saying one french word, "Non!" His mime acting skills seem so effortless, as if it was a natural part of him. It is amazing.
Soon after that, I have met one student who did mime acting at our school. He talked about Marcel and how this gentleman started a trend. I even did a little bit of a skit of my own during a talent show. No one has to know any language to understand him. It was all action, facial expressions, humor, and heart-tugging in the style of mime. A storytelling if you will.
It was the only play that I actually understood! A musical sounded good but I couldn't possibly understand the words they were singing - no matter how slow and clearly they sing, I needed to read along the lyrics on a piece of paper just to understand. A play like "The Color Purple", "Wicked" or even "Sweeney Todd" would fly over my head unless it is done in ASL, captioned, or interpreted.
I hear the words but there are times when I couldn't understand what I'm hearing. It is like being in a room full of Japanese speaking people. You hear them all, every words, every vowels, pronounciations, expressions, tone in their speech, but you have absolutely no idea what they said. None. Or being in a room full of Spanish speaking people, you may have learned a couple of Spanish words but still, no chance of understanding them but hearing bits and pieces of simple words.
That's me. But enough about me, I posted two links on to your right side of this blog - one was Titled Amy Cohen Enfron. She talked about her experience seeing Marcel perform in New York, the other is French Documentary on Marcel. Even though this is completely in FRENCH - a language that I did not learn nor understand, there were couple of clips from his performance.
I remember the steak skit that he was to cut a steak and had trouble cutting. I remember seeing him do that and laughed!
Marcel broke the language barrier in a simple but profound way - MIME. Marcel, may your legend lives on and Rest in Peace!
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Deaf Hidden from View?
I am curious as to what kind of comment you will leave! Please view this video and let me know what you think of it. Share with us on the why's! I know I said "listen", my error! haha... but I'm sure you know what I meant!
My comment on "Amy is furious!"
This is a video message for her to share that I had forgotten about Gallaudet's postcard that they had mailed out, asking for our financial support in building a Speech and Hearing building.That publish got me very confused.
I had a couple of questions concerning that topic at the end. Does anyone have the answer to that?
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Story
I'll never forget a really sad story. My older son went to Chicago to visit Museum of Science and Industry for a school field trip. After the visit, he was walking back and overheard a conversation between two hearing men. This is what one man said to another:
"Deafness does not exists. It is like Polio. It has been wiped out."
Ok, that was a shocker coming from my son. I told him that he could've turned to the man and say:
"Hahahahahaha... Deafness does not exists? Oh PUH-LEAZ! My mom and dad are DEAF!"
That comment would've thrown that man off kilter.
I am sad to hear that so many Hearing people actually believed that there is no such thing as "Deafness". As long as there are high fever, childhood illness, hereditary traits, medication overdose (in order to save a young child's life - it can happen), etc. - there will always be "Deafness" coming up in every child's life.
Deafness is NOT a disease. It NOT like Polio. That man is dreaming.
Even my son has encountered so many problems with other children his age. Deaf children, even CODA childrens seem to "hate" him for reasons still a mystery. He would approach them to say "hi" in sign language and they would cut them off, flip a finger at him, or even worse - yell at him for the fact that he is hearing. They treated him cruelly. Had I known about this situations, I would've gone up to them and get this circumstances under control.
This is something I do not want for my son to experience - EXCLUSIONS. Come on, Deaf and CODA! Be kind for he was trying to be kind to you! Remember, we were left out in the Hearing world, let's not do this to the hearing children who wants to be friends with us!
I talked to him and learned that he is okay with Deaf adults.. but NOT okay with Deaf children and CODAs. Thanks to their negative attitudes to him, the relationship is damaged. He does not trust any one of them anymore. And he may not trust any Deaf / CODA children in the future.
I asked him, "Suppose, you became a leader of this youth group. And suddenly, one of the hearing teen brought a Deaf teen with him/her. What would you do?"
He said that he would make sure that this Deaf teen would be included in the activity and when he speaks, he would use ASL at the same time so that both the Hearing and Deaf teens would get the message simultaneously.
Now, that's what I call a PERFECT world. A world where more than one opposite Cultures combine together in harmony. And I do mean "working together"!
"Deafness does not exists. It is like Polio. It has been wiped out."
Ok, that was a shocker coming from my son. I told him that he could've turned to the man and say:
"Hahahahahaha... Deafness does not exists? Oh PUH-LEAZ! My mom and dad are DEAF!"
That comment would've thrown that man off kilter.
I am sad to hear that so many Hearing people actually believed that there is no such thing as "Deafness". As long as there are high fever, childhood illness, hereditary traits, medication overdose (in order to save a young child's life - it can happen), etc. - there will always be "Deafness" coming up in every child's life.
Deafness is NOT a disease. It NOT like Polio. That man is dreaming.
Even my son has encountered so many problems with other children his age. Deaf children, even CODA childrens seem to "hate" him for reasons still a mystery. He would approach them to say "hi" in sign language and they would cut them off, flip a finger at him, or even worse - yell at him for the fact that he is hearing. They treated him cruelly. Had I known about this situations, I would've gone up to them and get this circumstances under control.
This is something I do not want for my son to experience - EXCLUSIONS. Come on, Deaf and CODA! Be kind for he was trying to be kind to you! Remember, we were left out in the Hearing world, let's not do this to the hearing children who wants to be friends with us!
I talked to him and learned that he is okay with Deaf adults.. but NOT okay with Deaf children and CODAs. Thanks to their negative attitudes to him, the relationship is damaged. He does not trust any one of them anymore. And he may not trust any Deaf / CODA children in the future.
I asked him, "Suppose, you became a leader of this youth group. And suddenly, one of the hearing teen brought a Deaf teen with him/her. What would you do?"
He said that he would make sure that this Deaf teen would be included in the activity and when he speaks, he would use ASL at the same time so that both the Hearing and Deaf teens would get the message simultaneously.
Now, that's what I call a PERFECT world. A world where more than one opposite Cultures combine together in harmony. And I do mean "working together"!
Utopia?
What is going on here? I went and applied for a job that was absolutely PERFECT for me. No phone work required, just pure data entry and yet they found someone else? How about when this company said, "When was your last job? I am looking for someone who has been currently working." Good excuse.
Seems to me that most company prefer to hire only hearing people not disabled people. That is MY impression.
Years ago, we used to have a government program called "TJTC" which stands for Targeted Job Tax Credit. The company would get $2,000 Tax Credit for every Disabled person hired for 2 years limit.
One such company hired a whole bunch of Deaf people and got those credits, kept us Deaf working for two years and then fire them all at the same time... well, actually I was there for 2 1/2 years when the company decides to fire all six of us in the same week for several different insignificant reasons.
Out of those six, I knew of two. One worked there for six years without a problem - she was pregnant with her first child in that year. Took 8 weeks maternity leave, by the time she was to return to her place of employment, the boss already filled that position without ever telling her! That boss repeatedly promised job security for her upon returning to work!
Another guy was working there for quite some time and got fired for an unknown reason and here's the doozie: he never once took a sick day off! Perfect attendance record and yet he lost his job.
That company was investigated and later folded. It no longer exists today. Not as far as I know.
Also, TJTC program no longer exists. It was replaced with a new arsenal called ADA - Americans with Disability Act. It was supposed to help us get accomodations for anything / anyplace we need in order to function in this world - public places, employment, etc. I remember cheering when this guy (I'm sorry but I can't seem to remember his name! Something Italian...) signed the words in silence. It was awesome to see him do it and to hear the screams of joy.
Well, I am sad to say that this ADA isn't strongly enforced. What does the company want? A perfect world? A world where they have someone who can multi-task as if they were born with eight arms? A world where the disability are not seen anywhere in the office - no wheelchairs, no white cane, no seeing-eye or hearing dog in sight? Come ON! That's a fantasy world - an Utopia of workplace.
No such thing. We have different color skin, different language, different culture. Why not different disability? We've got those, right? Well, since there are so many of us who happens to have a disability of some sort, we are bound to be seen at a local store, video rental place, resturants, etc.
In other word, "We are EVERYWHERE."
Seems to me that most company prefer to hire only hearing people not disabled people. That is MY impression.
Years ago, we used to have a government program called "TJTC" which stands for Targeted Job Tax Credit. The company would get $2,000 Tax Credit for every Disabled person hired for 2 years limit.
One such company hired a whole bunch of Deaf people and got those credits, kept us Deaf working for two years and then fire them all at the same time... well, actually I was there for 2 1/2 years when the company decides to fire all six of us in the same week for several different insignificant reasons.
Out of those six, I knew of two. One worked there for six years without a problem - she was pregnant with her first child in that year. Took 8 weeks maternity leave, by the time she was to return to her place of employment, the boss already filled that position without ever telling her! That boss repeatedly promised job security for her upon returning to work!
Another guy was working there for quite some time and got fired for an unknown reason and here's the doozie: he never once took a sick day off! Perfect attendance record and yet he lost his job.
That company was investigated and later folded. It no longer exists today. Not as far as I know.
Also, TJTC program no longer exists. It was replaced with a new arsenal called ADA - Americans with Disability Act. It was supposed to help us get accomodations for anything / anyplace we need in order to function in this world - public places, employment, etc. I remember cheering when this guy (I'm sorry but I can't seem to remember his name! Something Italian...) signed the words in silence. It was awesome to see him do it and to hear the screams of joy.
Well, I am sad to say that this ADA isn't strongly enforced. What does the company want? A perfect world? A world where they have someone who can multi-task as if they were born with eight arms? A world where the disability are not seen anywhere in the office - no wheelchairs, no white cane, no seeing-eye or hearing dog in sight? Come ON! That's a fantasy world - an Utopia of workplace.
No such thing. We have different color skin, different language, different culture. Why not different disability? We've got those, right? Well, since there are so many of us who happens to have a disability of some sort, we are bound to be seen at a local store, video rental place, resturants, etc.
In other word, "We are EVERYWHERE."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
