I took a local sign language class
I’m dropping some thoughts before sleeping for the night, right before my linear algebra midterm exam. I want to write down my thoughts about kelas bahasa isyarat (sign language class) that I took weeks or a month ago. It’s a 5-week program starting from a week before my fourth semester began and it became one of my joy sources that I’m grateful for.
I remember seeing the poster of the program randomly in my faculty cohort group chat, my attention fully gravitated there. I probably thought: “It’s a program to be more inclusive to disabled people? Free course about sign language? Actual free course by partnering with a local company-slash-educator who’s goal is to teach sign language? Webinar and workshop? AGAIN, it’s all for free? Take my time, I won’t waste this chance.”
And so the day I saw the poster, I submitted myself to the program within an hour or so. I was excited. There’s sure some doubt, worrying the fact that it was more likely that I’d be alone through it. However, because I know people around me won’t participate to this program, I saw it as an opportunity to learn more about issues that I care about without caring what people would think of. Because to everyone there I’m just a stranger, it can be comforting.
The first week was a webinar and I was starstruck. It was the first time for me to actually be present and up-close with people who solely communicate with sign language. At first, the confused and uncomfortable feelings emerged. Yes, I have to admit it, I was uncomfortable by the fact that someone’s deaf and can only communicate by sign language. However, that’s the shitty reality about people because they are uncomfortable by things that are unfamiliar to them. The question is how they would try to unlearn those feelings after learning that everyone is different on their own and that’s perfectly okay. I knew that the reason I was uncomfortable was because I didn’t know how to communicate with them since I hadn’t learned sign language.
However, again I was starstruck. Bang Bagja and his fun and charismatic personality were leaking through his sign language and smile. A sign language interpreter was present and became the bridge for us non-sign language user to understand him. By that day, I learned that sign language is really beautiful and can be as expressive as verbal communication (or even more). Gesture, face expression, body language combined as this expressive media that has its own charm and uniqueness.
In Indonesian, the word “bang” most commonly serves as an informal, friendly title for an older male or an older brother, similar to “bro” or “mister”. We also call our older siblings or generally any peers older than us with “kakak”. It’s a gender-neutral phrase and we shorten it as “kak”.
On the first class, which is another big webinar that teaches about the Deaf culture, I took over my fear and finally asked my questions to the educators. it would be an unforgettable experience for me because, dude… kapan lagi bisa nanya di suatu webinar publik dan nanyanya juga langsung ke teman-teman Tuli yang merupakan edukator. I don’t want to forget their answers.
QnA session pointers
- Should I write deaf or Deaf? The capitalization represents identity, while using a lowercase letter means adjective, common word used in daily conversations and even as a slur. As an identity, it’s just like an ethnicity group or language because Deaf people grew forming this identity.
- Should I use the phrase of hard-of-hearing (HoH) or Deaf? Deaf is an umbrella term and HoH is under it. HoH refers to people who wears hearing aids or has partial hearing abilities. Note that some people were born deaf and so they are the most comfortable to be identified as a Deaf person.
- In Indonesian language, should I use the word ‘disabilitas’ or ‘difabel’? Keduanya sama saja. Namun, jika melihat situasi di Indonesia, masyarakat belum bisa membedakan arti disabilitas sesungguhnya, yaitu ketika mereka memandang disabilitas sebagai kekurangan. Padahal, yang bendar adalah difabel atau fakta bahwa mereka hanya memiliki metode berbeda dengan orang umum lainnya. Disabilitas bukanlah kekurangan.
Through the rest of classes, I got to be taught by Kak Sartika. She’s great. At first she seems jutek (cold), but it turned out that she’s a great educator. She didn’t slow down her sign language because she believed we could push ourselves to follow her sign language. This prepared me to fully focus on her through the class. She’s very expressive through her face and she emphasized that to us. At the end of each class, she never failed to compliment and give appreciation to us. The cold impression disappeared immediate as I saw her cheerful face.
When I thought of her, I also remembered her class on names. Apparently, you could coin a gesture as your name. She recommended me to make use of my hood because I kept wearing a maroon hoodie in class, covering my head. That’s a fitting name indeed.
At the last day of class, I won’t forget the hard rain pouring through, becoming the prominent sound that I listened through the class. I realized the beauty of the language as I really understood that sound doesn’t matter anymore. During a heavy rain, usually common people felt disturbed while conversing. However, that day, the heavy rain was my company and I put all of my focus to observe Kak Sartika’s sign language, then I practiced hers. It was a comforting realization.
Days forward, I watched some local YouTube videos about Deaf people communicating with sign language. I was excited to see all of their body language and expression and enthusiasm. Yes, I think someone’s enthusiasm just leaks through their sign language which is unique compared to hearing communication. The thought that I could one day communicate with Deaf friends freely just brings smile to me because it is one of the easiest way to be inclusive and realizing the world where everyone can have their “voice” be heard.