REI you yay I just asked you how you are
in a BW Esperanto and pig line opw comes
from English and was popularized by the
children’s TV show zoom Esperanto was
created in 1887 by dr. ll zamenhof it’s
mostly spoken as a second language and
is very popular in South America pig
line also comes from English but it’s
sort of lost its popularity do you
consider these languages you’re probably
thinking no well all of these languages
are really just language games so what
makes something a real language today
Google defines language as a system of
communication used by a particular
community or country well what about
American Sign Language is it a real
language if we don’t consider American
Sign Language a real language does not
means we don’t believe the deaf
community is a real population let me
explain what I mean what defines a
language as legitimate is that a company
as a culture and is assigned to people
in a community in order to have a real
language you must have culture some
people believe sign language isn’t a
real language because it has no culture
this is completely wrong I know this
because of my own family my grandmother
had three kids my mom my aunt and my
uncle there was no history of deafness
in our family so when my aunt was born
deaf it was a mystery growing up I did
not only learn sign language but I
learned about the Deaf culture according
to pardon culture in general is defined
as people sharing of language values
traditions norms and identity to prove
that sign language has a distinct
culture of its own it has its own rules
and practices some of these allow you
should always try to sign no matter what
it is also said that deaf people are
excluded or outsiders of the hearing
world this isn’t always true my family
is part of both the Deaf and hearing
community they also have their own jokes
some of the jokes are only funny one
sign and others can be making fun of
their deafness for example a deaf man
and his wife for staying at a hotel the
man was in the parking lot and forgot
which room his wife was in he decided to
honk the horn he honked the horn and all
Sir Alex up for one he said bingo that’s
our room all of these things are
examples of deaf culture so why is this
even a debate culture equals language in
order to have a real language you must
have culture clearly standing which is a
real language because it has so much
culture when my aunt was younger her
parents would give her hearing aids she
got frustrated that people thought there
was something wrong with her I’m going
to flush them down the toilet she
learned to speak by putting her hand in
between my grandmother’s throat and chin
feeling the vibrations of her voice she
did not learn sign language until she
was 13 years old because dr. solace was
the best thing to do a cochlear implant
is a medical device that is surgically
implanted into a deaf person’s head to
help them here the movie the sound and
the fury is about a family with two deaf
children the children are eligible for
cochlear implants but the family is
hesitant they believe that if the kids
get the implants they’ll have no
relationship with the deaf community
they also believe that if they don’t get
the cochlear implants they’ll have no
relationship with their family because
they are hearing my aunt cousin to our
deaf do not want cochlear implants
because they are proud of their deafness
getting a cochlear implant to my aunt
means that something is wrong with her
that she needs surgery to fix she feels
she’s perfect the way she is and doesn’t
need to be fixed the pathological or
medical view of deafness focuses on
correcting deafness to deaf people can
look or be as normal as possible
implying that hearing people are normal
but who’s to say what’s normal and
what’s not no one is really normal the
cultural view of deafness is that
deafness is okay and you should embrace
it instead of focusing on the disability
aspect you should be proud of your
sadly which is real the deaf community
is real and deaf culture is real being
deaf should not considered a disability
and won’t be if you don’t let it my
cousin Bailey who is 10 is just like me
when I was 10 although she is very like
me she’s also very different she scored
an amazing scorner fcat so she goes to
hearing school with an interpreter she
reads at the same level I do today and
is a very talented writer
an artist clearly being deaf to her is
not a disability but an advantage I am
proud to be involved in both communities
and wouldn’t change my family thank you [Applause]