Day 5 - Campus Tour

March 11, 2020

     Today we went to the ASL Starbucks in D.C.! It's only a few blocks from campus so we were able to walk there and it was so beautiful. The sign outside, although written in English, is also "written" in ASL hands. All the employees sign, I am not sure if they are all deaf or not but they only used ASL, which is super cool. There was a beautiful mural on one of the walls and a plaque beside explaining what each element of the mural symbolized. I found it very interesting because it was designed intentionally with the goal to bring Deaf and hearing culture and people together through coffee and love. As a hearing person, something I noticed was that there was no music playing in the Starbucks. Every other coffee shop I've ever been in always has music playing. Although I am not opposed to music in coffee shops it is often too loud for my taste and I don't like it because it's hard to have a conversation and hear those around you. In Ooltewah, a small town near my university, there is a monthly Starbucks get together for deaf and ASL students. Something I have really enjoyed about it is that we are never straining to hear each other but can have regular conversations without the need to hear one another. But because I am a hearing individual I found the lack of music quite peaceful. I was talking to Malachi about it and he pointed that to me, as a hearing person, it might seem peaceful because of no music, but first of all, a deaf person would not notice that, and secondly, it is probably still a "loud" place to them, only visually, like other coffee shops are to me auditorily, Why? Because there were many things in the store that were brightly colored. Not so much in the seating areas, but between the bright murals and also an array of brightly colored snack packaging by the registers there were visually loud elements in the store. I hadn't thought of it like that before but it made sense. Another interesting to think about.
     There were two women in the Starbucks that were chatting with each other in sign language, Hope asked me if I wanted to go with her, introduce ourselves and ask if we could chat with them. We did,  they were both super kind and included us right away. They were having some pretty in-depth specific conversations pertaining to state versus federal laws dealing with videophone services for the deaf I believe. There was a lot I didn't understand but if we asked for clarification they would try and help us understand. We told them we were ASL students and visiting Gallaudet which they thought was really neat. I'm really glad Hope asked me to go with her because I feel as though it was a great experience for both of us, getting to know more people and learning more signs and fully optimizing our time in D.C.
     We popped into a bookstore across the street because we had a little extra time and it was super cute. I enjoyed not having to break the quiet peace of the books with our voices and being able to sign instead.

     We went back to the Bison store briefly and as I was standing outside (I didn't wanna buy anything else) I saw that there was a deaf/blind man at the store and in order to communicate one of the women was signing into his hands, this way he could feel the shapes she made and was able to understand what she was saying. Then she would go get an item, he would feel the item to see if it was what he was looking for and she would describe what it looked like. I had never seen anyone communicate like that before and I think it is so amazing that he has the ability to understand purely by touch. I don't think I could ever do that.

     We went to Union Market again for lunch. I just ate some snacks I had brought with me this time. I'm so thankful for the kindness, patience, and willingness to help that everyone has shown me on this trip with my signing. Today at lunch JG used a sign I was unfamiliar with and I asked her to explain. But there is no direct English translation for the sign, it's more about the concept. She tried her best to explain the concept to me, and Malachi was trying to help her too and I just could not wrap my mind around it. I had part of it, but not fully. They spent at least 45 minutes explaining, again and again, giving various examples and contexts and doing everything to help me understand. JG said that it is a very important sign to understand as you will see it used many times in many contexts and situations. Although I still have a little uncertainty regarding it's meaning I do believe I have the basic concept and I think the more I see it used the more I will understand what it means, but I am so grateful that they didn't give up on me despite my trouble understanding. Good teachers right there.

     We went to the welcome center shortly after and were getting set up to go on a campus tour. But first Tanya pulled aside about eight of us who are interested in being interpreters and we met with a man involved in admissions. He explained how the entrance process to Gallaudet works if we were interested in going to school there for interpreting. Students are tested and graded on their signing skills and that helps determine if they entered just into the general department or if they a reeligible to go directly into the interpreting program. In addition to scoring high enough, another factor needed to go directly into the interpreting program is having several specific classes already completed. Later on, in our tour, we learned that the campus will provide an English interpreter during class for incoming hearing students for up to a year because they want to make sure that you're able to excel in studies and want to be accommodating. However, it is important to immerse yourself in signing so you can truly learn and become a part of the school. I asked about homework and how that works and our guide informed me that usually, it's about half writing-related assignments and half of signing related assignments. I had never thought about going to Gallaudet before but I was grateful for the opportunity to learn more about what that might look like and the steps I would need to take if I decide I want too.
     We then began the tour of Gallaudet. It was really interesting because, this time, our tour was signed in ASL and interpreted into English, (whereas, on Sunday our tour was in English and interpreted into ASL). I thought it was a really awesome opportunity, to be able to see both sides of the interpreting job and how they work. It's interesting to see how things adapt from ASL to English and from English to ASL. I honestly liked having it begin in ASL and then interpreted into English better. It was a great experience. We went through most of the buildings and talked about what happens in each, different classroom buildings, dorms, and the like. We got to go inside a classroom, (that was not currently in session), they are set up in a half-circle shape so that all the students can see the professor and each other, allowing students to see questions and comments made by others and to facilitate group discussion. Their newest building, The James Lee Sorenson Language and Communication Center, was designed specifically with deaf space in mind. This design incorporates many windows, natural lighting, specific paint colors, wood surfaces, glass elevators and railways, ramps instead of stairs, and other similar elements. It is very interesting because one might not originally think these things would make a difference but it is obvious how much of an impact it really makes. Some of the older brick buildings are not very friendly to signing and visual communication.

     We got to have a tour of the Archives at Gallaudet which stores all of the historical documents relating to the school. One really neat thing about Gallaudet is that, since it's first year as a school, the president of the United States has always signed the diplomas of the graduating students. So we got to see several diplomas signed by previous presidents which was really neat. They have a lot of artifacts and documents they have kept safe including lots of art created by deaf artists and students. The Archives are located in the Library which was beautiful. They have a lot of books and it seems like it would be a nice space to go when needing some quiet and book therapy.
     During our tour we had not been able to go look at the interpreting department, however, one of our chaperone's friends who is a student there has access to that department and he was kind enough to bring a group of us who are interested in interpreting into that area. He told us about the different classrooms and what kind of class would be in each and we just spent some time talking to him about what the school is like and what he likes about it. We also went and looked at some of the science lab areas and it was really neat. It was fun to get a little deeper, inside look at the departments.
     While we were talking He told us that Gallaudet University made the decision to close the campus and switch to online school beginning that weekend due to Corona Virus. He was explaining that this is very hard for many students as Gallaudet is where they have found community and communication. At many of their homes, there is no one who knows their language, no one communciate with, and it was all very sudden, a big shock for the whole student body. Everyone was very upset and emotional about it all. My heart really goes out to them. I can't imagine what that would be like to have your school close down, especially when the home you're going back to is not meeting your needs. Or, in some of their cases, not even having a home to go back too. Its a really hard, stressful, sad situation.

     At the cafeteria, Hope and I were trying to find a place to sit but there was a sparseness of students because of the recent news of campus closing. So we ended up sitting alone, but we were sharing the different signs we had learned throughout the week with each other. It was really helpful and fun. We also clarified quite a few signs we were confused about with the chaperones at our nightly meeting.

     One of my friends from Southern (my university) called me tonight. I talked to him briefly and he informed me that Southern has canceled all convocations and vespers till mid-April. I have not been checking my phone and staying up to date with what all is going on at school so it was a big surprise for me. I'm glad he told me though because it was good to be up to date with everything and work on processing that. My personality is one that always wants to restore the peace to a situation and I easily feel other people's feelings and take them on as my own, I want to fix the situation and when I can't it leaves me in emotional distress. Because of everything happening at Gallaudet I was just feeling very emotional for them, I wished there was something I could do to help. But there isn't anything. It's a lot to process.

Today was a good day, I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. It was nice to be around campus again, I enjoyed it. I wish the campus wasn't closing and the students didn't have to go home.



Notes:

1.   Something I have been noticing while signing this week is that, if I am holding something I often have to set it down or hand it to someone else in order to be able to talk. Depending on the situation if it is something small I can hold it in one hand and just sign with the other. But if I have anything bulky or if someone is having trouble understanding my half signing, I often need to set things down or hand them to the person I'm talking with and then sign what I'm trying to say. Then they will hand it back to me and they'll say their response. It's different than with spoken word where we can say whatever we want without having to worry about if our hands are occupied or if someone can see us properly. It's a different kind of awareness. If you can't free your hands, then you can't communicate. If your hands aren't visible, you can't communicate. I do not recall how this came up today, but at one point, I believe it was in the museum, someone was telling us that during the DPN movement several students were put into handcuffs without good cause but it was an even bigger deal because the security was taking away their ability to talk and communicate. That disturbed me. That's not okay.


Until tomorrow,

Gabriella