Seattle Deafhood Workshop Journal 1

T'was the night before ...

When I was a child, I longed for adventure. There was excitement and wonder all about me. That first trip to the zoological park (dierentuin in Dutch meaning garden of animals) in Wasenaar (Holland) opened my eyes to life and worlds I had not even imagined. Each animal in the zoo was strange and new and captivating. It was the most beautiful journey in my life.

Throughout my early life, each day offered new adventures and new wonders to behold. Everything and everyone was special to me. Anything I could imagine was real to me, be it ghost or Sinterklaas or elves or gladiators. I could be anything I wanted, explore every nook and cranny within the world. I could be a policeman in the morning and be patroling like a police chief all day long. There were no limits, no borders. Every single day throughout my early childhood was a myriad of rainbow-hued metamorphoses.

My journey first became detoured and ugly when I went to school for the first time. My friends and I had to wear hearing aids for the first time. We got earmolds that hurt our ears and the sounds were put through these earmolds, which made our eyes move. Our minds were assaulted with strange learning priorities, and we suffered ear rings at night. We didn't understand what was forced into our ears. We eventually discovered the sounds through our eyes, not our Deaf ears, and they were hard to remember. Our oral teachers became uglier than those zoological animals in Wasenaar.

We were made to swallow some spits when our teachers tried to teach us how to say the sound th or p. Sometimes their spit got inside our eye or nose. We did not understand why we had to be polite and thank them for ... what came inside our mouth, eye or nose? That's part of our journey.

Things did change for me after my parents moved to the United States. I went to Maryland School for the Deaf where I had Miss Sarah Quinn as my first American teacher. Although she was hearing, she was fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) as her parents and brother were Deaf. She taught me how to shift sounds I learned in Holland into the English language. I fell in love with her.

Later Miss Quinn took the class to the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., where I saw the same kinds of animals I knew in Holland. It was a joy!

My ability to see the sparkle of the world as if for the first time is still within me. My life is still filled with that same wide-eyed wonder and thrill that I experienced in my youth.

I know there are still buried treasures to be found. Will tomorrow's Deafhood Workshop in Seattle be like a map ... the map to buried treasures within my mind? Will it lead me to a hidden land within my consciousness where I can find treasures and wonders to enhance and fulfill my life?

Good night, sleep tight!

My Journey to the Seattle Deafhood Workshop

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Ella Mae Lentz first suggested that I attend the Seattle Deafhood workshop with Ella herself, David Eberwein, and Genie Gertz underwritten by Sprint Relay this weekend. Let's face it: preparing myself to participate in a workshop seems an unnatural act. I don't even think I am far from the truth, but unfortunately I usually have to begin somewhere in the middle. To me, it is a bit like telling myself to cycle up a hill without a warm-up! For this vlog, I want to share my skepticism for the term Deafhood. I am also concerned about the fundamental problem within the Deaf world: the fear of being examined unworthy.

My Journey to the Seattle Deafhood Workshop

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Ella Mae Lentz first suggested that I attend the Seattle Deafhood workshop with Ella herself, David Eberwein, and Genie Gertz underwritten by Sprint Relay this weekend. Let's face it: preparing myself to participate in a workshop seems an unnatural act. I don't even think I am far from the truth, but unfortunately I usually have to begin somewhere in the middle. To me, it is a bit like telling myself to cycle up a hill without a warm-up! For this vlog, I want to share my skepticism for the term Deafhood. I am also concerned about the fundamental problem within the Deaf world: the fear of being examined unworthy.

Why No Translation for ASL Dragon?

As the creator of ASL Dragon, I've developed a ritual that emphasizes no translation for ASL Dragon stories. I would like to explain some reasons for it.

Whenever ASL Dragon is discussed, statements are tossed about such as: One can go mad watching ASL Dragon without interpreting; it is for the users of American Sign Language (ASL) only; hearing people are forbidden to understand ASL Dragon, etc.

ASL Dragon is open to all. It is for those who truly wish to talk about or discuss ASL Dragon in exclusive ASL. That is actually the only test to accomplish meta-ASL, that is ASL through ASL itself.

If you put your heart into pursuing just ASL Dragon, I am sure all doubts and confusions about ASL will disappear from the horizon and you will find they are gone. But that tiny question shall always remain: What is the point of ASL Dragon?

Anyone attracted to the myths of ASL Dragon due to this above question is welcome to study ASL. The one who reaches serious study feels this question and asks himself or herself constantly: What then is the point of using ASL?

In our "fast-food" society, people want quick cures. For example, they want to learn about hearing restoration and speech language plan associated with cochlear implants. They are not truly interest in the gift of deafness, nor in acquiring ASL. Ultimately this does not qualify as a genuine desire to watch ASL Dragon stories.

ASL is the most useful language to talk about ASL itself. And ASL Dragon, too! Anyone in search of ASL tutoring must do so with care. There are so-called ASL tutors who are not proficient in either ASL or meta-ASL. For example, it is sometimes claimed that wherever the sign MUSIC is used refers to songs. This is exactly the misconcept rendered by us the native or near-native users of ASL who enjoy what is callled inner music. How closely does this sign of music match our conception?

All Deaf people are connected to one another by the use of sign language. That is why ASL Dragon is regarded as a human experience that calls for meta-ASL. We discuss ASL Dragon in ASL, not any other language. Not even Gebarentaal, the language of my own birth.

No language other than ASL can reasonably be used to translate ASL Dragon, based on the corresponding cultural roots. It's a meta-ASL thing. No translation for ASL Dragon! Thank you!

Critics Are Wrong, ASL Dragon Is Right

Wow! As usual, most critics and negative comments found in other blogs are completely wrong about their assessment of Kalalau's Korner. They are so extremely misleading that they are socially irresponsible.

I am no savior I would like to be. A certain spiritual longing does exist deep within Kalalau's Korner so that it carefully crafts out of vivid imagery, stirking storytelling, and thoughtful arrangements. In our days, we will say what ASL Dragon will say. We offer the world American Sign Language (ASL) as we see fit, and what'd we get?

Like a stubborn child with big wide-open eyes I have, I'll see everything in the timid shade of critics. I want to write something or do a vlog that seems true in a certain way, and that's what I understand. I try to show ASL as a human language and ASL Dragon as a human experience.

For critics, I want to make these ASL Dragon stories where you could watch in one sitting and maybe pay attention to the myth and get something from that. Whatever you choose to take from ASL Dragon, it's destined to move you to take more.

Critics are wrong. They do NOT own Kalalu's Korner. ASL Dragon is right. It does NOT own critics.

Meta-ASL: The Philosophy of American Sign Language

American Sign Language, or ASL for short, its place in the world and its use have been studied by linguists and researchers for many years. Philosophers are talking about ASL nowadays. Meta-ASL is about ASL through ASL itself.

Along with logical assumptions, linguistics uses quantifiable research and data. Yet our linguists and researchers have discovered that the more they advance in their research, the more obscure and confusing they find ASL to be.

Linguistics has undoubtedly brought enormous progress into ASL, yet it is limited. Linguistic tools cannot measure the users of ASL, the major component of the language.

We have always looked for answers to the basic questions of ASL. What is ASL? What is the purpose of ASL? Why does ASL exist? Does ASL continue to exist after our physical being has passed?

The philosophy of ASL should be an accurate method of investigating and defining ASL's position in the universe. It tells us the reason why ASL exists, why ASL is used, why ASL expands, what the purpose of ASL is, where ASL comes from and where ASL is going.

The philosophy of ASL is not a theoretical study, but a very practical way of thinking and talking about ASL through ASL itself. That's why it is also called meta-ASL.

My Video-Blog Examined in Classroom

Merle Baldridge of Clackamas Community College informed me that our colleague American Sign Language (ASL) Professor Deb Joussi was showing my vlog From Hawai'ian Myth: Bowl of Light in the classroom.

This short Hawai'ian story offers a simple understanding of what life is and how it is lived. Bowl of Light provides practical methods so that the energies and forces within ourselves can be experienced in a manner that enhances growth.

Above the portals of all myths is but one commandment: "Know Thyself." Within each of us are all the energies and forces of the universe. Within each of us is the capability of releasing that potential to manifest greater understanding.

One of the saddest things I read as the Kalalau's Korner owner is that some comment-makers are generally hostile toward not only ASL but also Deaf people. They represent low energies and bad forces. I encourage them to start with a myth that teaches us ways to live.

If you tell us a myth, it heals us. An examined myth is worth commenting.

Baby Hearing Test: Profiling for Language Segregation?

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: What then is baby hearing test for? How can Deaf parents benefit from it? Is baby hearing test pro-ASL or is it for language segregation?

If We Find Deaf Life on Other Planets ...

Philosophically, if it were the case that the galaxy is full of habitable planets, and perhaps even other civilizations, I'll want to know whether the use of sign language is universal. Sign language is not universal but is the use of ANY sign language so? I also assume that Deaf people would think themselves quite differently.

When I was young in Holland, there weren't sign languages around the world--they were there, of course, but nobody had ever examined them or explained them. At age 10, I began to acquire American Sign Language (ASL) after my parents made a new home in the United States.

Well, I think there's certainly a very clear answer to the question about whether we're learning about ourselves as we look at these distant planets. If we find Deaf life on other planets, I would begin to wonder about how sign language is used there. I would want to learn a new sign language from another planet and to wonder about how sign language started on Earth.

Look back through history and you can find Plato's book Cratylus that talks about sign language in ancient Greece. There also exist writings from the Greeks that talk about life on planets orbiting other stars. I think there's been this abiding human question about whether sign language strikes at the very soul of humanity -- of how we view our deafness.

And I also think that everybody is willing to put a little bit of money to actually acquire sign language and to get at the answer to that universal question.

I don't know the answer yet. I don't have any clue about terrestrial planets in the galaxy because no one has yet found them. What I have learned is that the diversity of sign languages (Gebarentaal and American Sign Language) is so immense I'm very biased by having grown up here on Earth. There's a huge challenge in asking myself the question, "What different form and function might it take in another sign language?"

When we talk about Deaf life on other planets, we're talking about sign languages as we know them on Earth.

Photos from Holland: Sinterklaas and Zwart Pieten

After arriving in Holland by the boat Spanje,

Sinterklaas rides on a white horse to greet Dutch people.

Sinterklaas wears purple gloves.

Sinterklaas has the book of names, checking twice!

Sinterklaas has a staff, too.

Sinterklaas has helpers who climb down the chimneys

to leave goodies and presents for the children.

"De zak van Sinterklaas" = "The bag of Sinterklaas"

Sinterklaas visit every classroom in the school.

Sinterklaas carries the book of names.


By now you're probably aware of
how I'm influenced by
this Renaissance Saint Nicholas
in developing ASL Dragon stories.

Gebarentaal: Sinterklaas en Zwart Pieten

A vlog by Carl Schroeder in Gebarentaal (Dutch System of Signing): In Holland, Sinterklaas arrives by the boat Spanje. He is from Spain, and he's accompanied by his helpers, Zwart Pieten, who are the Moors. Sinterklaas rides on a white horse and visit different places: hospitals and schools for one week. The children put their shoes by the fireplace or the door. The shoes are usually filled with food for the white horse. Sinterklaas warns that Zwart Pieten would bag any bad boy or girl and ship them to Spain. On December 5th in the evening, Sinterklaas visits every household and bring presents. On December 6th, Sinterklaas and Zwart Pieten return to Spain by the boat Spanje. (Carl's note: Although I suffer some language decay wherein my Gebarentaal is rather underivative, I always love Sinterklaas and Zwart Pieten. By the end of the video, I wish you a Merry Christmas: Vrolijk Kerstfeest. It is usually expressed on December 25 and 26, two days of Christmas celebration.)

Let Me Say No Again: For Political and Economical Reasons

A discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder: Each vlog I created in ASL offers new adventures and new wonders to behold. They all aren't captioned for political and economical reasons.

The Debate Conclusion: Compromise Be Damned?

I think it's a mistake to respond

to people like MM and ..., because

what they really want is attention,

and really they don't have a message

that makes sense. Basically,

they are just instigators.

--from my close hearing friend

and also a debate coach.

Is Kalalau's Korner a blog for ASL users only? My actions as the owner of Kalalau's Korner will determine the answer.

Relative to today's "Refuting Carl's Response" blog published in DeafRead, I'm reminded of three very different periods in Deaf history. First, Paris Deaf School -- whereby a deliberately educated populace of Deaf people demonstrated the language interdependence in public and eventually in London where the Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet saw how signs were replaced by words.

The second is America of 1864 -- when President Abraham Lincoln and Congress received enough reports about the Civil War soldiers suffering hearing losses, and they became humanitarian. The National Deaf-Mute College, also known as Gallaudet University, was thereby chartered.

A third and perhaps even more hopeful sign for me is the popular uprising that brought down the hearing supremacy at Gallaudet University not so long ago. "Signing and speaking" days were over.

Yes, there remain many dark portents of language oppression in today's "listening and spoken language" propaganda, but our job is to find the positive actions like these blogs and vlogs to inspire us amidst the excitement of rising American Sign Language (ASL) as a fully-fledged language within academe. Deaf community has risen against great adversity on numerous occasions: The 1880 Milan Resolution, the simultaneous communication method, and even the hideous Sorenson Language and Communication Center (SLCC) master plan. We even put a Deaf user of ASL, Bob Davila, as Gallaudet University's 9th president. And if we could but rise above the deliberate and dishonest distractions of hearing supremacy, then we could do it again.

We need to step up again or we shall be damned. As a blogger/vlogger, I'm fully capable of refuting the slide into pseudo-intellectualism and restoring our pride, with academic freedom and freedom of speech.

For starters, we need to ignore comments that attack people. It's okay to debate ideas; it's not okay to compare anybody Deaf (uppercase) with someone deaf (lowercase). It's so unAmerican it might be British!

Above all, as the owner of Kalalau's Korner, I must remember that in each and every one of us lies the power to create change in the world. Let us all bring forth bold new visions and ideas. Deaf people are people, too, and Kalalau's Korner belongs to the future of all the Deaf (both uppercase and lowercase).

The New ASL Dragon Bridge

An ASL Dragon vlog by Carl Schroeder: Sooket discusses building a new bridge, The ASL Dragon Bridge.

Some Phrases for the Indiana Deaf Bilingual Coalition Picket

"Stop Hearing Supremacy!"

"Sign Language 4 All Babies!"

"No Sign = No Speech!"

"Stop Language Bigotry!"

"Listening with Eyes!"

"Deafness is Beautiful!"

"Let Deaf Babies Be!"

"Language Segregation Hurts!"

"Gross Motor Development = Signs/Fine Motor Development = Speechreading"

"Deaf Babies Are People, Too!"

"American Sign Language is Here to Stay!"

"ASL is marvelously complex!"

"Deafness Will Not Go Away!"

"Support American Sign Language!"

"Stop Sign Language Dispossession!"

"Why Imitate the Hearing People?"

"Is 'Spoken Language' the Only Way?"

"Stop the Capitalistic Economic System for Deaf Babies!"

"Cochlear Implants Needs Batteries!"

"Are Hearing Babies Better than Deaf Babies?"


Irony may be great but hearing supremacists suffer cross-cultural blindness and are completely oblivious about American Sign Language (ASL). Expose "phrases" to them. Make roadside signs for them to read and reflect! The world needs to see them!

35% of the U.S. Deaf Population: Substance Abuse

A news vlog by Carl Schroeder: Frank Lala, Ph.D. writes in his book, "Counseling the Deaf Substance Abuser" that substance abuse is pervasive in the Deaf community and counseling services for Deaf abusers are minimal. Deaf people suffer stigma and shame to speak up and speak out about substance abuse.

Philosophy on the Way to ASL: IKC (Reposted)

A philosophy vlog by Carl Schroeder: Information, knowledge and communication are sequential respectively. Deaf Babies need American Sign Language (ASL) because it requires gross motor development. Listening and lipreading require fine motor development and no children, Deaf and hearing alike, can master them till the age of 7, according to psychology.

Culture versus Awareness: Refuting MM

A debate vlog by Carl Schroeder: American Sign ... (more)
Added: November 27, 2007
A debate vlog by Carl Schroeder: American Sign Language (ASL) and Deaf people are always in danger of being described by people from another language in awareness programs and workshops. We need to use ASL to talk about ASL and ourselves.

CCB vs. Cultural Shock

A response vlog by Carl Schroeder: My fellow vlogger Oscar Serna asked whether cross-cultural blindness is the same as cultural shock. They are different in that blindness is like oblivion whereas shock is like awareness. Carl discusses some examples for CCB and cultural shock.

Philosophy on the Way to ASL: CCB

A philosophy vlog by Carl Schroeder: The cross-cultural blindness (CCB) is about people who are unaware of language and culture through various topics as history, literature, values, social relationship, and ideas and beliefs. Many people suffer CCB when it comes to American Sign Language (ASL) and Deaf people.

Debunk Old Habits at Gallaudet University

The purpose of this blog is to debunk old habits and to install new conventional wisdoms that need to develop around the mission statement that matters most at Gallaudet University.

I would like to explain why almost everything we think we know about the language interdependence between American Sign Language (ASL) and English is necessary. When it comes to communication at Gallaudet University, however, no addiction may be more pernicious. But if ASL is involved somehow in instances of communication confusion at Gallaudet, the least we can do is understand how and why.

Not only is it easy to bastardize ASL, but, according to ASL Professor Jane Keheller Fernandes (JKF), English, not ASL, means gainfully employed. In fact, ASL-English bilingual politics is nothing to fear, and your Deaf friend's skills in the English language is not going to save the world of the Deaf. It's a far more refined look at Gallaudet University's old habits than you'll find anywhere else.

Sometimes, however, it takes a newsflash to wake us up to old habits we may be forming at Gallaudet. So it was in 2006 when headlines announced that JKF was selected as the university's next president. Of course, who actually tops the charts as the university president is relatively inconsequential. But, we realize, JKF is one of a growing tide of oppressors who represents a new wave of hearing supremacy. (JKF's pet project, Sorenson "Listening and Communicate" Center, is a classical example here.)

But the most insidious habits are born with the times when we the Deaf fail to be honest with ourselves and our language, ASL. That is the case, I'm hereby arguing, with how Gallaudet University chose to oppress ASL and Deaf people in the past. It may be easy to blame the oppression on someone like JKF or the former Administration. But that would be a fiction if we say that Gallaudet University is merely responding to the political cues that the Deaf community has sent. (The NAD became the chief distributor of the Signed Exact English books.) Gallaudet University is deeply implicated in the Administration & Operations Manual--campus bible-- which is handled and translated by the office of Vice President for Administration and Finance than Gallaudet University is comfortable enough to admit.

If we were to navigate Gallaudet University, then must we be first to realize that the higher education is not like an automatic airplane, flying without piloting?

I think Gallaudet University needs to invest $20 million in scholarships during the next five years to train a new generatuion of ASL-English bilinguals. Substantially increasing the funding for scholarships targeting new recruits is vital if Gallaudet University hopes to nurture the development of ASL-English bilinguals who understand the language, history, and culture of the Deaf.

Let's debunk old habits at Gallaudet.

In ASL We Speak Up and Speak Out!

We the Deaf use American Sign Language (ASL) to speak up and speak out.

Today we are not content to simply sit back and watch as the world passes us by. We have opinions and ideas, and increasingly, the outlets to express them.

Along with the surging interest in ASL poems and storytelling in ASLas means of expression, vlogging has rapidly progressed. While the ASL literary art is the heartbeat of the genre, this medium needs to enhance and expand. ASL poems and stories are peppered with commentaries on the political and social issues that affect all the Deaf.

Speak up and speak out! We need to discover that we are poets or storytelling artists. We are all coming from such different backgrounds, with our own styles and ideas. Each of us brings our real self to the circle and our presence has a real impact on the energy of that circle. We all contribute because without us, it would be s different energy.

We need this form of art--ASL poems and ASL storytelling--because we need to get all that we are thinking and feeling out of our system, either by composing a poem or telling a story. It is going to be amazingly cathartic, it can bring us out as creators of social change.

In ASL, we speak up and speak out! Any subject is up for grabs, as long as it deals with an issue important to ASL. Our poems and stories usually have some kind of political or social observations. The world needs to know about us and our language, ASL.

Hearing Supremacy at Purdue University

It was never really up for debate: We must stop hearing supremacy anywhere.

This week we need to be bold in accusing Purdue University for promoting hearing supremacy by sponsoring the Indiana Conference on Listening and Spoken Language. The debate will not happen, but there is no ignoring two fundamental realities. One, deafness is a biological condition. And two, we must not be silent about American Sign Language (ASL). On Friday, November 30th, our volunteer corps--Deaf Bilingual Coalition--will be there to stage a protest and to stop hearing supremacy.

"Listening and spoken language" is a buzz phrase that discriminates against "raison d'etre" of not only deafness but also ASL. This dual discrimination is so deeply and implicitly ingrained within the philosophy of hearing supremacy that it promotes social isolation and language segregation among Deaf children.

This is the conversation we the Deaf should be having right now, but instead we are wholly concerned with our own rights to begin with, as if the dark arts of hearing supremacy will make deafness and ASL fade away by modern technology.

In politics, as in marketing, it's trendy to claim that "listening and spoken language" is now in vogue. The practitioners of hearing supremacy have no conception of the damage they've inflcted on Deaf children. To sponsor a conference on "listening and spoken language" to bolster the fear of deafness and the language bigotry is stomach turning.

Stop hearing supremacy now!

Silence Speaks!

When I give too much information,
I only create new confrontation.

Not just any silence is conversation;
It raises consciousness and reverberation.

In silence I work on another reflection;
The silence of my mind is my action.

Messages of silence remain in my negotiation,
As they develop and validate a self-instruction.

(Carl's note: In west civilization, silence is not helpful because everyone is expected to participate, to contribute, to evaluate, and to negotiate. In east civilization, however, silence is the wellspring for wisdom ... a context for knowing what to do.)

Bilingual Approach to Higher Learning: Going Back to Plato's Cave

The familiar saying "Don't forget where you have come from" was constantly on my mind over the accreditation probation at Gallaudet University, my alma mater. Since blogging and vlogging about American Sign Language (ASL), I have felt that my soul is fractured and my heart somewhat stained. I often find myself writing in my Sidekick.

The thoughts I write are rigid and spontaneous. There is no structure to the writing, and there's no throwing it away - like I usually do with my paper and my pencil at home. As I have written before, I often feel like I am an alien in the world that I live. I struggle with that habitually and find myself constantly believing that maybe through my vlog or just my blog people will come where I am.

I am by no means better than those bloggers and vloggers, but I have a very hard time understanding people around me. I am a very complex individual, but with an everyday simpleton disposition. How did I become this way? What separates me from the strangles of society? I am not perfect by any means, and sometimes being so different is counter to what may be right in one's mindset.

Having blogged and vlogged all of this seemingly in some kind of cryptic literature, I take you to bilingualism at Gallaudet University, where I believe wholeheartedly that I slowly made my modification out of this indifferent campus that I came from.

I've got some questions to ask here. What does it mean if ASL has the equal status with the English language at Gallaudet University? Are ALL professors, especially those who are tenured, actually bilingual in ASL and English? Are they honestly proficient in receptive and expressive ASL?

As I wrote this blog, it felt like I was dreaming and everything was just unfolding as I went. I thought: "If I were in a dark kitchen, I would want to turn on the lights. If I were in Plato's Cave, I would want a bright fire. Sometimes we don't know what we want till someone else in our room or cave tells us where to get out and see the sun."

Remembering My First Thanksgiving in America

On September 21, 1963, my parents, sisters, brothers and I came to live in the United States. It was two months before our first Thanksgiving in America.

I could still remember what I learned about Mayflower, pilgrims, and Native Americans for the first time. I became fascinated by how the pilgrims learned to plant corn with some fish from the Native Americans. I also found out that pumpkins make good pies.

Miss Sarah Quinn, my first American teacher who had already noticed my love for books, collected something for me to read about the pilgrims who arrived in America. They escaped from England and lived in Holland for about 20 years before coming to America. They didn't like freethinking in Holland.

I had my first Thanksgiving dinner at Maryland School for the Deaf. Turkey, sweet potato, cream of corn, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, and pumpkin pie were all new to me. They were delicious!

Today I am with family friends in the state of Washington for Thanksgiving. We first met and became friends on Maui in Hawai'i, and they invited me to join them for the weekend. I'm going to bake acorn squash with home-made cranberry sauce that I created a few weeks ago.

Happy Turkey Day!

Philosophy on the Way to ASL: Cervical Bones

A philosophy vlog by Carl Schroeder: Cervical bones are considered as "language bones" or "language matters" within the world of medicine. Since ASL is used through these cervical bones, then we have the best yet argument that ASL is a natural language.

Philosophy on the Way to ASL: MMP

A philosophy vlog by Carl Schroeder discussing Mutual Monitoring Possibilities. MMP is like a mental checklist for meeting someone or a group of people.

I Have A Confession to Make ...

A confession vlog by Carl Schroeder. Reading comics is great!

American Sign Language and its Sustainability

American Sign Language (ASL) is so important, but understanding the concept of the parts of signs is even more so. Lately, it's become obvious that many Deaf people are understanding more and more about ASL.

Some people, Deaf and hearing alike, are born with a greater sensitivity and propensity for ASL than others. These gifted people have hold of an advantage for sure, but they bear an increased load of criticism as well.

How might we the users of ASL prepare ourselves to help create the future of all the Deaf? There are many different contributions that can be made to help build the sustainable community of ASL users.

First, I challenge all users of ASL to sign up for classes in ASL at various community colleges and universities. The ability to feed hearing classmates sustainably will be the bottom line of ASL's survival in the future.

Second, I challenge all users of ASL to offer tutoring services for hearing students of ASL. ASL depends on them, to an extent that ASL is preserved. Today's users of ASL can take an active role in sustaining the damage hearing supremacy has done to the families of Cochlear Implants and can help shape healthy linguistics of ASL.

Third, I challenge all users of ASL to include hearing people, be they teachers, interpreters or social workers, in various meetings of their organizations. One interpreter friend of mine once told me how much she benefit from attending the California Association of the Deaf meetings. It helped her do a good job as an interpreter who is thoroughly familiar with issues of the Deaf.

Of course there are many other things worth mentioning, within and beyond ASL. The three branches of knowledge I've proposed here represent a core curriculum that can be built upon in many ways. ASL must remain sustainable for the future of all the Deaf.

With aloha always from Kalalau

Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

I'm Back Here!

A vlog explanation by Carl Schroeder. He decided to return to his old blogsphere.

Peter Pan Had The Right Idea!

If Peter Pan had the right idea,
Then I shall never grow up
For adulthood is a bore.

In life, language and leisure
I'd like to be adventurous
I like to do them all.

I am very comfortable
With American Sign Language
With all people I am with.

No, I don't like to read lips,
But I need to read between lines
And never say never to all possibilities.

Just Moved

Just a quick note to let you know that I've just moved to a new blogsphere in DeafRead.

www.blog.deafread.com/kalalau

Which Comes First: Deaf Mind or Deaf Culture?

An open discussion vlog by Carl Schroeder. How about hearing aids and cochlear implants?

The ASL Dragon Island

A special Thanksgiving vlog by Carl Schroeder. The Purple Glove Warning: Linguist General Has Determined That Language Translation May Be Hazardous To ASL Dragon.

Prologue

The Oval Office

The Lift Off

Lost in the Air

A Rough Landing

The Island

A New Discovery

The Password

The Feast

The Dragon

By Bread Alone? We Serve Wine with Bread

American Sign Language (ASL) at Gallaudet University has in recent years been at odd with diversity and inclusion practices such as various modes of communication or any device such as cochlear implant that could be deemed as "hearing." As a born-Deaf individual, I have always had an interest in language and communication, but I had never seen these things as out of alignment with the oral method.

I decided to investigate the reasons behind hearing supremacy's discomfort with ASL. A well known hearing supremacist, Professor Jane Fernandes of Gallaudet University, for example, suggests that English, not ASL, means gainfully employed. I wanted to understand the root of it, not to create conflict, but as a way to replace divisiveness and fear with unification and understanding.

What I found was that many diversity and inclusion practices have been widely accepted within Gallaudet University throughout its history. This knowledge is buried within the university rituals, and is even visually evident in the films and videos of Gallaudet University: from the films of Edward Miner Gallaudet to the vlogs of Robert Davila.

Gallaudet University makes me understand a lifelong rivalry between hearing supremacy and the existence of ASL. For example, there was a royal battle between Edward Miner Gallaudet, the first president of Gallaudet, and Alexander Graham Bell, the first practitioner of hearing supremacy. Although Gallaudet University continues to be responsible in addressing the language interdependence between ASL and English, the camp of hearing supremacy continues to view deafness as hearing deficiency and to justify oral training. Sorenson Language and Communication Center (SLCC) at Gallaudet University is an excellent example of irreversible language and communication hegemony of auditory/oral training (2 and 1/2 floors) over visual/gestural training (1/2 floor).

A hearing supremacist would question whether auditory sense establishes parameters for memories to be stored and recalled. Without auditory, for example, would a Deaf child be able to capture a greater sense of his surroundings without expected perceptions of what sounds should be attached to an experience? Any good mother would want that her Deaf child hears and experiences the sounds she makes to create a bond. What a quilt a hearing supremacist loves to create.

An user of ASL, on the other hand, understands that we do not live "by bread alone." The importance of sight as the channel through which information, knowledge and communication are conveyed has helped mothers who use ASL with their child, Deaf and Cochlear-Implanted alike, discover a direct communication and connectedness. What a joy we the users of ASL have to offer.

As Carl Jung, the psychologist, said regarding our lifetime: "We are born at a given moment in a given place, and like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the year and of the season in which we are born." Today we can say that we were born in a right time to offer new meanings to Gallaudet University's prototypical leadership in ASL-English bilingualism. In the other words, we serve wine with bread.

With aloha always from Kalalau
Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

ASL Poem: The Battle and the Banner

A poem vlog by Carl Schroeder

No One Is Going to Buy My Story: It's Illogical!

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder presents a story that represents yet another level of craziness regarding some language killing and destroying. Neither ASL nor English kills and destroys; it's people who do!

Question: Out - Accreditation; In - Fernandes' Tenure

A vlog by a loyal Gallaudet alumnus and an avid academician. We MUST question whether the procedure of awarding a tenure to Jane Keheller Fernandes was conducted properly and professionally, and those who were involved in this procedure must face consequences. Academic dishonesty is awful! We need academic integrity back!

Deafness Feminizes the Male and Masculinizes the Female

In this vlog report, Carl Schroeder reveals what the pscyhologist Helmer Mycklebust said in his book, "The Psychology of Deafness," which was widely read and studied in graduate schools since 1957. This level of craziness must be stopped NOW!

ASL Dragon Shall Never Perish!

In this vlog, Sooket and Gisbatzed explains that ASL Dragon shall never perish from the human heart.

ASL Poem: The Day the Sun Dies

A poem vlog by Carl Schroeder

Philosophy on the Way to ASL: The Nature of ASL

Let's us now examine the phenomenon of American Sign Language (ASL) to find whether it throws light on the high degree of specificity to be found in this language. ASL appears to be a coded system for expressing thoughts and ideas at increasing levels of specificity whose ultimate is Truth.

Consider the following hand shapes:

High Entroy and Low Specificity

As thus shown they are meaningless, and all we can recognize is that there are four pairs of hand shapes which are the same. The mathematics of possible arrangement of these handshapes is in numerous ways, and so we can state that they represent a system of high entropy (measure of the loss of information in a transmitted message) and low specificity (condition of being specific).

But now linguists of ASL show us that these hand shapes can be used in a more meaningful pattern:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXg9ZTDaduo

Medium Entroy and Medium Specificity

It is not a very meaningful statement, but we begin to recognize the appearance of signs. So both entropy and specificity of these hand shapes become medium in this situation where we realize that the hand shapes would become meaningful if they are used correctly and linguistically with their specific palm positions, signing locations, non-manual expressions, and modifier movements.

Eureka! These above medium hand shapes can be expressed grammatically here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDwR2kUAE28

Low Entroy and High Specificity

So in this above video we recognize that these hand shapes are moved into a situation of low entropy and high specificity. Out of those hand shapes we can have specific statement of meaning which we can all understand.

Examining the nature and truth of ASL can be fun! In my conclusion, as an avid user of ASL, I follow Plato's idea of having fun. When Plato posed the question, "What then is life?" his reply was, "Life should be lived as play." I play with ASL ... and with its language counterpart, English.

Philosophy on the Way to ASL: ASL and Mathematics

If all this is so, then American Sign Language (ASL) can be best pictured as consisting of pure thought, we must then refer ourselves as a mathematical thinker. It is loosely translated from Sir James Jeans who asserted:

"The essential fact is that all the pictures which science now draws of nature, and which alone seem capable of according with observational fact, are mathematical pictures."

This above statement is of great interest and significance related to ASL and Mathematics. George Boole, a mathematician, presented a very simple sort of equivalent algebra for data with true or false thinking. I shall cite the Boolean Algebra:

Let True take the cipher 1.
Let False take the cipher 0.

Then here is a Truth table:

1 x 1 = 1 (True data with True thinking) True
1 x 0 = 0 (True data with False thinking) False
0 x 1 = 0 (False data with True thinking) False
0 x 0 = 0 (False data with False thinking) False

A little scrutiny shows that the statements given on the left in mathematical terms are the same as the statements in parentheses on the right in logical terms. From this very simple mathematical-logical equivalence the application can be developed for ASL. I shall translate the Boolean Algebra into the ASL-Signed Exact English (SEE) equivalence.

Let ASL take the cipher 1.
Let SEE take the cipher 0.

ASL data with ASL thinking (1 x 1 = 1) True
ASL data with SEE thinking (1 x 0 = 0) False
SEE data with ASL thinking (0 x 1 = 0) False
SEE data with SEE thinking (0 x 0 = 0) False

You think you have the picture. (ASL is language; SEE is null and logically false.) The winner is ... the envelope please ... American Sign Language! It's all in mathematics!

Is ASL Really Fading Away?

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder recalls Plato's book Cratylus written in 360 B.C., some 2367 years ago, about Socrates who questions whether spoken words be replaced by signs of the Deaf. Sign language undergoes change; it doesn't fade away. It never will!

A Tale of Two Languages: Gally in the Year 2057

Yes, that's right. This is the year 2057. The investigation of American Sign Language (ASL) and English bilingualism at Gallaudet University does more than call into question the application of the university's bilingualism mission statement. The interviews conducted jointly by Kalalau’s Korner and the Commission on ASL in Higher Education (CAHE), an independent watchdog group, and included in its draft report provide a revealing contrast in the crisis-management skills of two top university administrators, President and Vice President for Administration and Finance.

The allegations that President is Deaf but Vice President is by tradition a hearing, non-native user of ASL depend heavily upon the claims made by another top university administrator, Provost. For 50 years Kalalau's Korner broke the story about Vice President, the Provost has said--and now passed a bilingual proficiency test bolstering his account-- that she told both President and Vice President about the rejection of ASL-English bilingualism as an inclination for a "more monolingual context" that began in 2007.

"This problem is not unique to Gallaudet University," Provost said in the press conference in the Kellog building. In the span of 50 years, Gallaudet University administration's newly beefed-up language assault detail makes headlines by investigating two of its own.

For many Deaf people, the case begs the question whether President and the Board of Trustees is doing enough to weed out potential language bullies of the campus.

Many Deaf professors are asking that question, too. In fact, the Faculty Senate last year pushed proposal with the support from Student Body Government to beef up the screening process with ASL-English Bilingual Proficiency (AEBP)--only to run smack into what Provost calls "an unlikely alliance" between President and Vice President.

The AEBP proposal is sure to come up again as it has for the past 50 years. In fact, when it gets stalled every year, Deaf professors and student leaders continue to keep pushing the issue.

"AEBP is very heavily opposed by not only Vice President but also the Board of Trustees," Provost says. "But I am so committed to ASL and English that I would continue to use them on campus. I'm still interested in seeing if we can stop campus language bullies." Several attempts are made to contact President but his office says he's still focusing on accreditation problems.

The office of Vice President, on the other hand, issues Vice President's only statement that he makes a four-page response by refuting AEBP. The summary of his response is that the ASL part of the campus bilingualism doesn't make money the university needs to build its endowment and that communication has to be "monolingual" at Gallaudet University.

Despite a recent comment in Kalalau's Korner arguing "it's time to move on" from what Provost and President know, language bullying is not going to stop. AEBP is banned in Human Resources, the department under the auspices of Vice President. Provost explains that Vice President won't allow AEBP because it is not really "a mode of communication."

The year 2058 will be just another year.

With aloha always from Kalalau
Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

The Kelly Agenda: From NWC to SLCC

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder criticizes Paul Kelly as Vice President for Administration and Finance at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. The closure of the School of Preparatory Studies, commonly called as NWC, was a big, huge, enormous mistake. In the past, when the students arrived in NWC, they were NOT counted as Freshmen because they needed extra academic training for the Freshman placement. Today all incoming students, ill-prepared and well-prepared alike, are counted as Freshmen, which is UNREALISTIC. Those ill-prepared students either drop out or "postpone" their graduation for a later date, which make the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) folks raise their eyebrows, wondering whether Gallaudet University is operating properly and decently.
The Kelly Agenda also include transferring some equipment from NWC to the Kelly residency through internal and secretive bidding and bankrupting the intellectual life of the Deaf through JKF's hideous effort in centralizing the accrediation-troubled university into SLCC.

A Story from Deafhood Five: Dennise Scott

In this Deafhood vlog, Carl Schroeder tells about how he first learned about the Junior National Association of the Deaf (Jr.NAD) and Youth Leadership Camp (YLC) from his schoolmate/classmate Dennise Scott in the fall of 1969.

ASL Dragon Soldiers: Sooket vs. Gisbatzed

In this entertainment vlog, Gisbatzed contradicts with Sooket's explanation about ASL Dragon's soldiers.

A Story from Deafhood: MSD Superintendent Lloyd Ambrosen

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder explains his first impression of Maryland School for the Deaf Superintendent Lloyd Ambrosen. My grandmother met with Mr. Ambrosen before my family moved to the U.S. Mr. Ambrosen and my father became good friends, and they discussed Mr. Ambrosen's involvement in developing the Model Secondary School for the Deaf at Gallaudet University

ASL Dragon Soldiers

In this entertainment vlog, Sooket testifies that ASL Dragon's only weapon is sign languages from all over the world. The annual ASL Dragon Soldiers March will take place on last Saturday in the ninth month of every year.

A Story from Deafhood Three: ASL Dragon

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder discusses a fictio... (more)
In this vlog, Carl Schroeder discusses a fictional character that ASL entertains. And also his reasons for creating ASL Dragon.

JKF's Tenure + Academic Dishonesty & Student Apathy

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder discusses that many faculty and students at Gallaudet University do not understand fully how JKF was awarded a tenure. It was academic dishonesty that serves as the campus philosophy which counts on selfishness as a master motive of oppression. As for now, at Gallaudet University, academic dishonesty and student apathy reign.
A small correction: It was not a "Faculty Senate" but a "University Faculty" meeting with an astounding number of 145 faculty members participating.

A Story from Deafhood Two: Pax McCarthy

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder shares his happy memories with a schoolmate/classmate, Pax McCarthy, who taught him new languages, Am In this vlog, Carl Schroeder shares his happy memories with a schoolmate/classmate, Pax McCarthy, who taught him new languages, American Sign Language and English after he arrived in the United States in 1963. Pax was a great storyteller and told him about Ray Bradbury's book, The Illustrated Man.

A Story from Deafhood One: Robert Lakenau

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder recalls when he first met the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) President Robert Lakenau and got inspired by him.

American Sign Language Debate Eight

Idiocy is bred when emotion conquers intellect. It's important to have a balance of both, sure, but at the end of the tunnel, it is more important to think about ASL rationally than to gossip about it. With that being said, you should know that as you read this blog, Hearing Supremacists are promoting the "Listen and Talk" slogan. Though they are but people, the very act of their language segregation is precisely what makes them "moral criminals."

While considering the idea of Hearing Supremacy it is important to remember a few key facts. First, no matter what spineless Hearing Supremacists who are pandering to the parents of Deaf babies, it is illegal; thus the label. This label is due to their support for language oppression and segregation.

Second, allow me to be very clear: I could not care less about one's residual hearing. I care about the truimph of reason over emotion. That being said, there is no plausible explanation as to why Americans in general should accept that Hearing Supremacists are bypassing human rights of the Deaf of all ages. I understand that in years passed we allowed for oral method into education. However, America used to make decent Deaf schools and Gallaudet University before and during the Civil War. What can I say, these schools are still for the Deaf; roll with it.

Let's approach this by looking at language segregation standpoint. Think of American Sign Language as a life raft. Sure, it can support some. However, as many Deaf children try to climb into the raft, it will surely buckle under when Hearing Supremacy surpasses. Therefore, doesn't it make sense to support Hearing Supremacy for banning the use of ASL? The communication in ASL is based around the concept of deafness, whether total or only partial.

Is our government unable to lift a finger to stop this serious language segregation generated by Hearing Supremacy? Are we all too afraid of offending Hearing Supremacists? We shouldn't be.

I know some may think, "But we need to give Deaf babies options for a mode of communication." To these puppets of SLCC (Sorenson Language and Communication Center) at Gallaudet University, I say "Bull!" That is the classic argument by those who refuse to think for themselves, but instead recycle trite, and incorrect, ideas. So let me get this straight: We should support the use of ASL for all the Deaf.

I know, it sounds heartless. That may be. But I value reason over emotion. Though it sounds nice to them to say, "You can speak" or"You can hear," it is a different story. Notwithstanding cochlear implants, most of Deaf people could barely hear or speak well enough to understand or make sound jokes. Hearing Supremacists need to be more honest about ASL than they are about cochlear implants. Feel free to continue screwing these Hearing Supremacists up and leave ASL alone.

With aloha always from Kalalau

Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

Philosophy on the Way to ASL: Living Language

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder discusses ASL as a living language which requires both interpreting and translating. How is interpreting different from translating? Greek Historian and Philosopher Xenophone writes, "Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything."

ABC of Academic Freedom at Gallaudet University

Academic Freedom is not just for tenured professors, the students long for it, as well. Every single day, somewhere in the academe across the nation, Academic Freedom comes to life. I believe that as it lives and breathes, Academic Freedom defines the epitome of honest and intuitively responsible commitment from one academia to another.

It is a phenomenon that university professors must proactively begin to sustain and perpetuate in a manner designed to help the students thrive academically. They have to take personal responsibility for the determining what takes to secure their tenure and then delivering upon it, giving the students what they need.

Ultimately, it has not been the case at Gallaudet University. Academic Freedom for Professors Jordan, Kimmel and Fernandes, for example, equates this following:

Academic Absurdity
Academic Baloney
Academic Cheating
Academic Dishonesty
Academic Embezzlement
Academic Fraud
Academic Grab
Academic Hypocrisy
Academic Insanity
Academic Jester
Academic Kink
Academic Looting
Academic Mugging
Academic Nonsense
Academic Obliquity
Academic Piracy
Academic Quirk
Academic Ridiculousness
Academic Slyness
Academic Theft
Academic Unreasonableness
Academic Vice
Academic Witlessness
Academic X (Crooked)
Academic Yellow
Academic Zoo

The students are NOT at Gallaudet University for the professors; The professors need also to realize that they are at Gallaudet University for the students.

DISCUSS = TALK ABOUT

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder recalls his visit to Guyot Institute for the Deaf in Groningen. The Guyot school was influenced by Paris Deaf School, and there were some signs that Carl realized were probably changed in America.
DISCUSS means TALK ABOUT. Do not sign ABOUT after signing DISCUSS.

Philosophy on the Way to ASL: Why Gally Doesn't End

More than a simple place of higher learning,
Gallaudet University is an eternal drama,
A story told from beginning to end,
And end to beginning, again and again,
With new university presidents.
Gallaudet University cannot end
Unless it runs out of stories.
When "the end of the IKJ Administration" was apparent,
It became the mythic sense, the eternal truths,
And creative imagination, that were missing.
In "the end of the IKJ Administration" there was no end,
As each ending shaped a crossing place
Where some things concluded
While something else continued.
The problem wasn't that
Gallaudet University might end completely,
Rather, the issue was how to act
When it seemed that way.
What was missing was the imagination
Necessary to hold end and beginning together.
Jane K. Fernandes was unable
To articulate a new imagination
Behind the "language crisis"
And the "war of hearing supremacy,"
There was a crisis of meaning
And a loss of the sense of the sacred
In the immediate pulse of the Deafhood.
The blind exploitation of the language segregation
Followed upon lost connections
To the realm of ASL,
As if humanity had broken a secret bond
With the language and culture of the Deaf
And became estranged from ASL and Deaf people.
When "the end of the IKJ Administration" seemed near,
How Deaf people imagined the world
Became more important,
How Deaf people imagined humanity
Became of the utmost importance.
Despite pressing concerns,
The issue wasn't so much "saving ASL"
As rescuing humanity from itself again.
In "dark times" the issue became
Living an authentic life.
Being fully alive means suffering
The exact story trying to live
Through one's oppressed life
And lending one's true identity
To the drama of Deaf existence --
To become a wick burning with the flame
Of one's life-long story
That Deafhood does not begin and end easily.

Aunty Jane, That Was Not Aloha!

In this vlog, Carl Schroeder reacts to Ricky Taylor's mentioning of Dr. Jane Fernandes seen cheering upon the announcement of Joseph Mesa's arrest as a primary suspect of two campus murders in his blog published on November 4, 2007 in DeafRead Extra. Joseph Mesa did call her Aunty Jane, the honor only Hawai'ians can give, because she brought him from Hawaii Center for the Deaf and the Blind to MSSD when Gallaudet University hired her to spearhead both MSSD and the Kendall Demonstration Elementary School, both of which were reduced into the Laurent Clerc Center.

American Sign Language Debate Seven

Without you American Sign Language (ASL) wouldn't exist! Because who would be there to teach the importance of ASL and the beauty in the Deaf way? Or how to write about ASL, and why writing about it matters? Without ASL instructors, ASL would get lost, sign by sign, classifier by classifier, until it completely disappeared.

That's why Kalalau's Korner is debating ASL. Not to prove what Deaf people can do but rather to prove what ASL is capable of.

ASL-English bilingualism that Gallaudet University's mission statement has been provided for academic discourse and discussion makes only minor tweaks in the divisive policy that the previous administration had been saddled with these past two decades when ASL was viewed as "signing and speaking." If the students did nothing last year about the selection of Jane K. Fernandes as the 9th president, a major opportunity for ASL-English bilignualism in higher education would have been missed.

Chief among deep concerns with the ASL-English bilingualism debate is the continued focus on teaching and learning in both languages. If it is not debated, equally important concerns would be left out of the debate altogether. These would include initiatives to increase the training and retention of highly qualified professors, expand language access to Deaf Education, and provide adequate mentoring for non-ASL users.

The ASL-English bilingualism may also make an assault on labor. If this bilingualism mission statement should become fully enforced, then Gallaudet University should be allowed to impose evaluations on both tenure and ASL-English skills among the professors.

I'm gravely disappointed that the ASL-English bilingualism may be slightly impaired by the return of the Triple K's (King Jordan, Karen Kimmel and Kelleher-Fernandes) which undermines academic integrity. These former administrators practiced academic dishonesty in abetting and awarding a tenure to Professor Kelleher-Fernandes. This is offensive and disrespectful to the academe within the Deaf world.

The English language is primarily euphemistic, but ASL is generally blunt. We need both languages to debate head on.

With aloha always from Kalalau

Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

American Sign Language Debate Six

What difference does American Sign Language (ASL) make? These days it seems we always are hearing that it's time to act. Because we hear it over and over, it begins to feel less urgent ... almost like a constant blog or email about ASL that you want to ignore or block out. Does it make it any less true? Does that make our actions any less important?

Do you ever wonder what difference it makes when you become enculturated in ASL? Try Gallaudet University. Let me tell you that ASL does make a huge difference.

As a Gallaudetian, I know it makes a difference. We are working very hard with our pro-ASL-English-bilingualism university president and provost. Last accreditation cycle, Gallaudet University made a huge difference for mission statement by positing ASL in an equal status with its language counterpart, English. Now the students, faculty, and world community are seeing the benefits.

Now is our chance to make our "voices" heard about how this ASL-English bilingualism is affecting the students. The more of us who debate ASL, the more effective we become. Now is our chance to tell the world that we have high expectations.

This is our time to act. Will we make a difference? Yes we will, but not if we sit back and think someone else will do it.

Yes, we do make a difference, but only if we work around the co-existence of and language interdependence between ASL and English. Alone, each language cannot address the truth of all the Deaf, but together, both ASL and English can change history of the Deaf. Be proactive!

With aloha always from Kalalau

Sent from my T-Mobile Sidekick®

American Sign Language Debate Five

Is American Sign Language (ASL) in danger of being described and discussed in another language? When I said “another language,” am I talking about Gebarentaal (the language of my birth), British Sign Language (BSL), or any other signed language? Or am I talking about spoken languages? What about writing? Writing about ASL?

If writing about ASL is a technical skill that must be learned as early a stage as possible, then why are many students of ASL unable to write about it? Why are they writing about the onset of deafness or the way of Deaf people? Can an interpreter write a good essay to explain why there is always a time lag in interpreting?

I agree that the ultimate and primary goal is to be a good user of ASL. So why have I written a debate recommending that you write your essays about ASL the way some people eat cold cuts on a plate? Because no matter how deep is their love of ASL, most students of ASL who are interested in pursuing ASL-related careers have to support themselves by teaching or interpreting. And whatever anyone says to the contrary, the criterion used overwhelmingly to determine whether or not you get credibility is professional publication. Publishing alone is not even enough. Your work has to be good and honest. But you do have to write about ASL and publish them. Soon.

But what about commenting? That’s another book. I hope you are and want to be an excellent critic, but in almost all blogs and vlogs I published, good commenting alone is not enough. Well, criticizing is better than insulting. (For your information, all insulting comments were rejected.)

This is not a guide for debating in blogs and vlogs. It is a guide to writing and publishing about ASL, which, as I stress above, are essential if you are to enter the community of scholars and participate in the conversation and discussions that constitute ASL. But also, to the extent that publication is the crucial factor in accepting the fact that deafness is NOT curable or fixable. Let’s suppose the batteries for cochlear implants run out, then deafness merges, no?

I refuse to be embarrassed about writing about, I repeat about, ASL. And it would be wrong to be intimidated by snobbish critics who tell us that ASL is beneath a scholar’s dignity. That conceit is an affection deriving from hearing supremacy.

I debate for those who do love ASL, for those who can be very good users of ASL, for those who can enrich their own lives and the lives of others in the Deaf world.

American Sign Language Debate Four

A note on myths about (a) ASL-English bilingualism, (b) Hearing Supremacy, and (c) self-hate.

(a) Is ASL-English bilingualism a myth? A misconception? What are the "dangers" of ASL-English biligualism? The 1962 study by Peal and Lambert noted that bilinguals performed significantly higher than monolinguals.

Some "English Only" advocates, on the other hand, argue that even if ASL-English bilingualism is effective – which they doubt – it's still a bad idea for the Deaf because ASL-English bilingualism threatens to sap the sense of higher education. They fear that any government recognition of ASL-English bilingualism (the co-existence of signed-spoken languages) "sends the wrong message" to parents, encouraging them to use ASL to communicate with their Deaf children without learning English. They also agrue that English means "gainfully employed."

(b) Is it considered uncivil and nasty to call Hearing Supremacy a bigotry even if it includes language bigoted propaganda to segregate children with cochlear implants from ASL users? Is this bigotry racially motivated? If racism is defined by internal character, not exernal action, then what should we call Alexander Graham Bell (AGB) Association folks who refuse to see the reality of social injustice?

The answer is "racist." A language bigotry is an action generated by racist thinking which results in the AGB Association. Why does it seem easy to fingerpoint AGB folks for internalized oppression, for colonized consciousness among the Deaf? Early on, while trying to make sense of this strange configuration of oral method, I offer my analysis: ASL is the last uncontested arena of AGB shame.

(c) Like some Jews, who hate their Jewishness more than the Arabs might have, why do some Deaf people evidently hate to call themselves Deaf even more than the Hearing Supremacists might do? I recall the misguided but totally convincing character of our pianist enthusiast Mike O'Connell in "My 20 Clarification." Although he has unquestionably been enculturated at Gallaudet University, he refuses to acknowledge it. Maybe Mike understands self-hate better than I do. To put it mildly, Deaf who hate Deaf, like Hearing Supremacists who hate Deaf, seem to be working on inner psychological problems, not on linguistic research.

Through these aforementioned myths, we must fight language oppression together. We must be proud to be Deaf. We do not want any Deaf child to suffer from feelings of self-hate and language segregation and loss of the love for both ASL and English.

American Sign Language Debate Three

Debating American Sign Language (ASL) is like asking whether comes first: the chicken or the egg.

One of the reasons many people cannot answer the question about ASL is because they tend to look at today's language power, which happens to be English, and the problems that would be expressed in English, and not in ASL.

People try to interpret ASL from the English language rather than understand the truth of ASL. Because they are not building their view on ASL but taking a secular way of thinking to ASL, they are blinded to the simple linguistic claims of ASL.

People, Deaf and hearing alike, who use both ASL and English are very intelligent people. Because of intense linguistic knowledge, many people today have the idea that ASL users who also master English are the most advanced that has ever been on this planet. The same truth goes to all other countries where people are bilingual in signed and spoken languages.

Just because we have ASL per se doesn't necessarily mean we are the most intelligent or advanced. We have to be bilingual. ASL-English bilingualism is really a result of the accumulation of knowledge passed on from previous generations of ASL users who were also proficient in the English language.

We must always remember that we have suffered from hearing supremacy, the ongoing practice of language segregation. We have been greatly degenerated compared to people who first went to Deaf schools and Gallaudet University before the 1880 Milan Resolution banning the use of sign language.

When we use linguistics of ASL as a basis for understanding the English language, we can make sense of everything which would otherwise be a real mystery. You see, if linguistics of ASL is true, we have an even bigger challenge than "the chicken or the egg" to answer.

The mere fact that we are bilingual in ASL and English is a testimony to human language, not oral education which is purely a social bias.

ASL Dragon and Purple Gloves

An entertainment vlog about ASL Dragon told with purple gloves. Gisbatzed paid me a surprise visit and took me to visit ASL Dragon. I was given a pair of purple gloves to be used for ASL Dragon stories.

American Sign Language Debate Two

What is Deaf language? What is American Sign Language (ASL)? What is ASL for?

The features of the language of the Deaf have been described and discussed for decades. While in recent years the appellations it has gained some popularity, the term most prevalently used for it is ASL, short for American Sign Language. There had been furious debate over whether ASL is really a language. Where do you and I stand on that? What criteria qualify ASL as language? As my fellow linguist colleague pointed out: "Really, there are no serious linguists who doubt that ASL is a language."

Between the 1960s and 1990s, several books appeared on the linguistics of ASL. Conspicuously, in none of these books is ASL philosophized. By using the word Sign, these works inherently posit that the language of the Deaf is Sign, a noun term to be implicated in a one-to-one representation. And they also tacitly postulate that there is a genetic kinship between the signs with the English glosses also to be coming from the English language.

However, from a historical linguistic perspective, in terms of the truth from which the grammatical features of ASL derive, nothing could further “Signed English” from the truth. As a number of scholars have argued nowadays, ASL is a visual-gestural system--the linguistic claim that is totally independent from the auditory-vocal group of languages.

On the other hand, hearing supremacy is a discriminatory practice that creates a block to ASL because it advocates communication segregation by not bridging the gap between deafness and communication through ASL. Instead they promote and propagate “listen and talk” strategies. Hearing supremacy is a “doctrine” that supplies and supports segregation between ASL and oral communication.

I realized that the English language itself is in a bad way to describe what hearing supremacy means and to discuss its "listen and talk" strategies that ban the use of ASL. Is hearing supremacy awakened from this dream where the illusory nature of oral education is an only instrument for learning and communication? If a Deaf child doesn't already know how to speak, what then is the problem? Speaking is just functioning, not knowledge. It is not necessary, but it exists.

ASL is common to all the Deaf as it offers the capacity to associate, to hold meaning, to notice difference, to assimilate similarities, to hold signs through meanings, and to recognize how signs are being used. How can we deny that ASL is an attribute, a functional power, of the mind? Or is Deaf language an attribute of signs only? I think otherwise!

With aloha always from Kalalau

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Philosophy on the Way to ASL: Poetic Aspects

A vlog discussion: Carl Schroeder recalls his visit with a Deaf family in Canada where he witnessed poetic aspects of scolding the father made to his daughter for disturbing her brother's things. It was expressed with emotional freedom. Poetic aspects of ASL is not language but the content of the language that could be experienced by anyone who uses ASL.

American Sign Language Debate One

Toni Morrison addressed on her receipt of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature: “We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”

Perhaps more than any other debate in Deaf education, the use of American Sign Language (ASL) grapples with questions of Deaf identity. If ASL is not a language, and then tell us what it might be, for we need to know it. I believe it is especially important that we take the lead in defining the discussion around ASL.

To say that Deaf children are not achieving in schools would have been an understatement. Most Deaf children enrolled in schools for the Deaf or mainstreaming programs within the public schools are required to take standard tests written in exclusive English. Although their average grade level in those tests is far below, these Deaf children are never, ever tested in ASL officially. Fair?

One of the most common arguments against ASL in education is that if parents are allowed to choose which mode of communication they want their children to have, then they would find a school or program that teaches a specific mode of communication, which would be a segregation that is implicitly supported by hearing supremacy. How unAmerican!

The discussion against ASL goes something like this: Parents know more about their Deaf child than about larger societal issues of diversity and inclusion, so they will make their child learn to look like all the family members and friends who are hearing. Affluent parents will seek out schools or programs where other deaf children come from a similar economic status as their own child. Our state and federal governments have broader goals than specific interest of individual Deaf children, and they would not stop unfettered parent choice to create an inequitable communication segregation.

Understanding that most parents and teachers have little, if any, accurate knowledge about ASL and are likely to harbor negative attitudes about ASL and its users, primarily because of their sociolinguistic, sociopolitical, and socioeconomic position, and understanding also the relationship of literacy skills to educational achievement, we need to call for the implementation of a program for these parents and teachers that would focus on the nature and history of ASL.

By acquiring ASL, both parents and teachers would soon discover the deep meaning of George Veditz's argument that ASL is, to borrow Toni Morrison, measured as "the noblest gift" ever bestowed upon us all.

With aloha always from Kalalau
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Philosophy on the Way to ASL: Second Language Error

A vlog discussion: Carl Schroeder discusses some examples of "second language" signs that are erratic. Wrong hand shape or non-manual expression or modifier movement is an example of SLE, short for second language error.

Philosophy on the Way to ASL: Language Transfer Error

A vlog discussion: "I NO YOUR BAD BOYS" was written on the blackboard by Carl Schroeder's colleague in a dormitory at Georgia Scho A vlog discussion: "I NO YOUR BAD BOYS" was written on the blackboard by Carl Schroeder's colleague in a dormitory at Georgia School for the Deaf in Cave Springs. Schroeder explains it was an example of language transfer error (LTE). In ASL, signing in the English word order IS another example of LTE.