I teach at Gallaudet University in the summer time. I work in the personal discovery program under Jean Berube. I am also one of the few hearing staff she has working with her. It has been both an honor and a challenge working within this program over the last 8 years. This has awarded me many wonderful opportunities both in personal development and adventures. I am going to talk a bit today about what it has been like for me being a hearing person working in the discovery program with so many deaf coworkers. I will also demonstrate how the skills I have learned working with my friends and the discovery family at Gallaudet has helped me in the programs I am teaching here in Russia.
When we teach at Gallaudet Jean will generally pair up two staff members per group. With this technique we are able to take turns teaching and help one another with various problems that arise. I am an interpreter by trade. When I first began to team teach with a deaf partner all of my groups were deaf. Everything worked out well and I was able to personally develop my leadership skills along side the other deaf staff members. It was not until about a year of working with the discovery program, that I encountered my first challenge as a hearing person. The group I was given consisted of all hearing people and they did not know sign language. My natural instinct was to provide interpreting services for the deaf person I was team teaching with. It took only about 10 minutes for me to see the obvious inequity I had created. Without meaning to, I had usurped the power from my partner. When the group had a problem or a question they would only approach me.
Needless to say my partner had a miserable day, as did I. I knew what I was doing was wrong but I was not sure how to make it better. I asked Jean if she would let me not teach for a few days so that I could observe the other deaf leaders and see how they were teaching the workshops with out the aide of an interpreter. It was over the next few days that I gained an enormous insight and a set of skills that would benefit me both in teaching in discovery and in my professional life. Of course I knew that the deaf people would not be leading by only using sign language, I knew there would be gesturing and miming involved as well. The problem was I had never taken the time to actually watch how they did it. Now I took the time to watch them work their magic. After three days I felt I was ready to participate again. I had made a decision to totally change my approach to what I was doing and how I was doing it.
We all meet early in the morning to set up the equipment and to discuss our plans for the day with our groups and partners. I talked it over with my partner and told her I was not going to use my voice at all. I felt some conflicts in this decision because I did not want to pretend I was deaf, but at the same time I felt that by doing this it would force the group to see us as equals. All day long I spent hours gesturing out what the group was to do. I borrowed skills from my fellow facilitators and came up with new solutions on the fly. I still provided some interpretation but mainly during the discussion, and only secretly so the group was not aware what I was doing. My goal at this point was to ensure my partner was fully aware of what was going on with the group dynamics. The day was a wild success. During our debriefing at the end of the day I informed Jean and the rest of the group, what I had been doing all day. There were mixed feelings on my approach to this problem. Then my partner for the day spoke up and expressed what a success the day had been and how well it had worked out for her as well. Thanks to her comments the group was sold on my solution. Over the years I have spent a lot of time revising and fine tuning my techniques. For example if my partner is hard of hearing they may prefer to lead with their voice. Sometimes I will intentionally still not use my voice which actually puts me in a lower role from the groups perspective. This is a great way for my team to develop their own skills in a safe environment. At times I will use my voice with my team member and we will lead the groups as equals. I have worked with many discovery staff members over the years and each experience is a little different but now I have a better equipped tool bag to choose the correct tool for the job from. While the task is physically exhausting the rewards are worth the work.
Today while I was working with a hearing group in the Basement theater my co teacher/interpreter had to leave the group to drive Mitch (he got sick) home. I was left with a group of early 20's female psychologists who only know Russian. I bet you will never guess what techniques I utilized to instruct them on the events. The one down side in this skill I have developed is in leading the discussions afterward. As I said the discussions are there to show the groups what they already know, unfortunately this is more challenging if I have no idea what they are saying. My solution was to hold off on the discussions until I could recruit the aide of a Russian interpreter. This seems to work out well with my group.
It is amazing that when I was developing this approach to teaching discovery I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would employ these skills in another country teaching other hearing people. I do have a translation program on my phone that I used a bit to facilitate some of the discussions without an interpreter. I think today was a wild success and I am looking forward to working with these groups one more time tomorrow.
These skills have also improved my ability to interpret. I find that when I come across a difficult concept to interpret I will utilize my skills form discovery to express the concept. This allows the deaf person to understand the topic more fully that may have been possible for them previously. This also allows me to communicate more effectively with the deaf person I am interpreting for.
On a totally separate topic. My friend with no goals read my blog and we had a long and wonderful discussion about this topic. It turns out that we have different views of what the word "goal" means. I was amazed to hear about her dreams and aspirations for life. The many wild and wonderful things she would like to accomplish fill me with inspiration. I was also deeply moved to hear of the thought and consideration she puts into each experience she has with the discovery programs. It seems that after each program she chooses to isolate herself to fully reflect on and internalize what growth she has experienced and to be ready to implement her new found skills at the next program. I find this to be a wonderful skill and one I can only hope to achieve at some time in the future. Odd how we can find little nuggets of knowledge in the most unexpected times and places.
Perhaps I am able to more clearly explain myself though writing than I am in person. It was only after reading what I had written that we continued our discussion and the misunderstandings were clarified. I love it when that happens it is like a brilliant light suddenly and expectantly illuminating a darkness that you never even realized existed.
Until next time,
Dana
Sunday, January 4, 2009
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3 comments:
Gestures are what make me feel so comfortable when conversing with Spanish/Mexican people, and alot of Italians. These people employ alot of gestures and body language and I love it! 'Feel very comfortable with them. Alot of hearing people do not gesture and are embarassed to show emotions thru body language and facial expressions, but not Mexican or Spanish people!
I too find that at times I am able to very clearly communicate with people by a simple facial expression or shift of my body. It is too bad more hearing people cannot learn from deaf people on how to be comfortable communicating with their body language.
I definitely understand you here. (Btw, just discovered your blog!) While I'm nowhere near the worldly traveler you are, I must briefly gloss over my experiences in Paris, when I was there in 1998.
I went into multiple places on my own, and I barely speak a word of French. What little Latin and Spanish I could remember, I would occasionally try to convert to French pronunciation rules. I was a complete hack -- but I tried. And when I didn't know, I would gesture, and so would the people, whether I was in a cafe, takeout place, shop, etc. I had nothing but warm receptions from everyone I encountered, which was contrary to what people had told me.
When friends found out I was going to Paris for a few days, the common theme among conversations was, "Oh, be careful... the French are so rude! They don't like Americans, blah blah blah."
So, after those few days, I ruminated a lot and came to the conclusion that my egotistical American friends must have assumed that because many Europeans are required to learn academic English in their schooling, that they could communicate with them in English. My feeling... I was in another country, and the best way to learn from the "natives" is to communicate with them, on their terms, rather than forcing my own language and culture on them. And because I did that, I was received more warmly and waited on, made sure things were going well, I was getting what I needed, etc.
That's a huge lesson for anyone to learn. And yet, I still struggle sometimes with carrying that over to the deaf community. While I try to "match" the language use of the other person, I definitely don't always force other people to "match" my preferred language or communication mode. I almost feel like I do all the work, whether I'm with someone hearing or deaf.
Ah well. I could talk about this all day. :)
~Hilary
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