March 7, 2019

Becky Sargis

Process & Reflection

Journal Entry II

There has been a lot of information to process from the readings, videos, and

my own research in EDCI 274. The one subject that sticks out for me the most is

the video we watched, Deaf Jam. The movie let me see a wonderful side to some

amazing kids’ lives and how happy they were. But, the one thing that brought me

to a halt was when the main character, Aneta Brodski, said she was worried about

getting a job after she graduated.(Zeitlin & Lieff 2011) This bothered me because

a friend of mine, Joy Sargis, lost her hearing due to a car accident and ultimately

lost her engineering job because there was no way to communicate with her

coworkers. I thought engineers would be on top of this and make accommodations

for Joy to assimilate back into her job but that’s not what happened. Joy is doing

great because she is a fighter, and unstoppable, but is it only because of the support

from her enormously large, and wealthy family?

Throughout Deaf Jam, the characters were talking a lot about accepting

themselves, constantly reminding themselves of who they are. In the beginning of

the film the characters are watching each other on a television performing their

poetry jam when one young man says that Aneta looks like she is a hearing person
because of the way she is chewing gum in the video. After that I notice that Aneta

has gum in her mouth in almost every shot of her, and most importantly during an

interview, where a college student is wanting Aneta to do poetry jam live with her.

Even though Aneta was aware the interviewer knew she was deaf it seemed she

still felt the need to “fit in.” (Zeitlin & Lieff 2011)

Another aspect I learned of the deaf community, which astonished me, was

how many different types of sign languages there are. Here in America we have

three main languages: American Sign, Pidgin Signed English, and Signed Exact

English. There are somewhere between 138 and 300 different types of sign

language used throughout the world today and new languages are being developed

every day in areas where there are large groups of the hearing impaired. (Brooks

p1) This can be difficult because this past year I was learning a British sign

language by the mother of a new student who was not deaf but had a speaking

difficulty. When a person from the public school came to discuss how I could

integrate sign language into my classroom, so everyone could community with this

new student, we found we were both talking in two different sign languages; the

British Sign Language (BSL) and American Sign Language (ASL). Personally, I

enjoyed the BSL because it was easier and I found it fun. ASL was more

complicated and I found it difficult to keep focused when I was learning on my

own. That is another aspect of working for a private school; there is never any
funding to either educate teachers in other languages or to hire a person who

speaks or signs the language. The National Institute of Deafness points out there

are 2 to 3 out of every 1000 chidden born with a level of hearing loss. These

numbers do not include people who have hearing loss due to illness, genetics,

accidents and age. (Quick Statistics About Hearing 2016)

In going forward, I would like to better understand the culture of sign

language and how to effectively communicate with someone when there are so

many different signs. I understand wanting to create your own unique language but

in doing so doesn’t that still keep the barrier of non-communication with the rest of

the world?

Steve Zeitlin (Producer) & Judy Lieff (Producer & Director) (2011). Deaf Jam.
United States. Made-By-Hand, LLC and the Independent Television Service
(ITVS).

Brooks, Richard. (2008 May 10) A Guide to the Different Types of Sign Language
Around the World. Retrieved from https://www.k-international.com/blog/different-
types-of-sign-language-around-the-world/

Quick Statistics About Hearing. (2016 December 15) Retrieved from

https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing