Source: (http://www.google.com/imgres)
Introduction
When I read the “Learning My Native Language” story, Stocker really wanted to share her difficulties she had faced in her childhood life in the hearing world. Her dad was not totally accepting his daughter’s disability. She was hard of hearing and she could not make the differences by producing some words by speech e.g. “Eggs and Legs”. In a mainstream school, she found hard to differ the words when she hears what other hearing students and teachers said. At Gallaudet University, she was unsure of which neither world she is belonging to (neither hearing nor deaf world).
In the “Recollections” story, Margie English is the first deaf child of Deaf parents. Her parents were so proud when they found out that they had a Deaf daughter. While at home, it was easier for her to communicate with her family, but however, she was struck with the different second language, English she learnt from schools due to the ASL as her first language. Through frustration, she had a lot of patience to learn English for long so that she could achieve her dream of becoming a student of both languages. She believed that there will not be a communication problem if she marries a Deaf guy. That means she has already fallen in love with Deaf culture. Later on at Gallaudet, she realized that she has to be careful in choosing the right words to write when she translated from ASL.
In “the Hands of My Father” article, the poet, Heuer described his reaction towards his father who is a farmer and he called his father, a “drought” because he did not like the way, his father do. But later on, when the father passed away, the connection with him became stronger which means that he showed his good reaction towards his late father. It happened to me too.
Comparison and Contrast
There are many comparisons I have seen in all stories. The main thing is that Stocker is hard of hearing and her parents are unhappy with her because both of her parents are hearing, whereas English is Deaf and her parents are overwhelmed, thrilling with her because her Deaf parents wished to have a deaf extended family.
Not like English, Stocker had to practice herself hearing all the difficult words in any area, she was up to herself whether she likes to practice or not at any circumstances. English has the strong charisma to learn more about Deaf culture and her second language, English but Stocker has not. Stocker did not really belong to the deaf community, in comparison; English was very fond of the Deaf community due to her Deaf-identified generation.
When I read the poem made by Heuer, I felt very sympathized and guilty because I sometimes used to ask my parents why they are uneducated well and got a low-paid job. After reading this emotional poem, I realized that I should have respected my parents a long time ago because they made me successfully where I am today.
Conclusion
There are many things I have learnt from these different stories; Stocker’s, English’s and Heuer’s experiences. That made me aware about the differences that a Hard of Hearing person and a Deaf person do.
Wow, your blog was very good, but one thing, I think you need to elborate more on "the Hands of My Father." Like explain why the son did not like they way his father treated him. Other than that, it's very good blog. =)
ReplyDeleteAs for what Asia said, I found "The Hands of My Father" to be pretty vague. It's hard to elaborate on something that doesn't have much there. Or maybe I just didn't look into it enough. Just my opinion on that is all. Personally, I would like for you to elaborate on the "many things" you learned from these pieces, and how they made you more aware. Overall though, it's pretty good. :)
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