Happy Birthday, America! And ASL, Too!

Culture is many things. Ask ten people to define culture and you will likely get ten different answers; it's also likely they will all include a language.

According to Merriam-Webster, there are six ways to define culture. For my purposes here, I'm going to focus on the following:

"...the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations ..." in other words, thise things that we cherish as defining who we are and where we come from and pass on to children, our heritage.

Learning about our customs and tradition, as well as those of others, is often done through sign language, storytelling and the arts. In my situation, I grew up with American Sign Language (ASL), stories told by Deaf people, and the Gallaudet University community (I lived about 10 miles from Gally) where I went to see plays and some campus activities and lectures. Another way to learn about language and culture of the Deaf is to travel to other Deaf schools or communities.

On personal level, my ancestory is predominantely Dutch, my father half Dutch and half Indonesian. While a senior at Gallaudet University (then Gallaudet College), I was selected as a Thomas J. Watson Fellow to travel throughout Europe for one year. I had a wonderful opportunity to sample different food, so I have a fairly good understanding of the international food.

These travels in Europe were wonderful opportunities to meet and observe Deaf people and have shaped my appreciation for sign languages. I have learned about their struggles, art and traditions without ever having to be sound-oriented. I saw exactly what was there. They are as highly sophisticated as we Americans or Canadians are.

We all have different stories and traditions to share with our world near and far. I would encourage any one who even remotely thinks s/he might like to analyze language and culture of the Deaf to visit a university or community college. There are also a number of "advisory" councils for Deaf people who want to share their stories and talents in ASL.

As we are celebrating America's birthday, we should consider ourselves and our language and culture as birthday presents to universities and community colleges.

Happy birthday! Happy ASL Day!