Final Week: Thought, Feelings and Video

This past week has been one of the most emotionally rewarding weeks of service learning. On Tuesday night I got to show the leaders of HAD the video I have made for them. Watching their faces while they were watching the video was one of the most rewarding experiences ever. Thanh kept on saying “wow it’s so nicely edited”, and people’s faces would light up when they saw their interviews. The draft was not problem free of course. One of the biggest problems was that some of the interviews where in a hybrid of International Signs, ASL and VSL rather than pure VSL. Therefore the video was not an accurate reflection of deaf culture in Vietnam. I offered to redo some of the video clips, but the leaders of HAD declined saying that it would take too long. I also think that while there is a problem in using foreign signs, there is the benefit of making the video more accessible to deaf organizations in other countries.

After getting their feedback on the video and giving them my farewell present Le Van Anh did something I hadn’t expected: he invited me to his house warming party on Friday with all the members of the leaders of HAD. The party was amazing. At first all of the women and children were on the third floor while all the men were on the second. I particularly like the two-year-old hearing twins who sat next to me. They kept on signing to their mom and then looking curiously at me. When I asked one of them what his name was he was super surprised and hit his brother to show him that I could sign.

After dinner the women started to mingle with the men downstairs. I got to meet the husbands and wives of the leaders of HAD as well as their friends and families. It was really neat to learn more about the personal lives of these people I have come to care about so much. All throughout the night I kept on being introduced as “the American who was making a video to help them get funding”. As a result I had several people who I had never met before come up to me and shake my hand and thank me. The gratitude was almost overwhelming. People kept on asking if my parents were well and telling me to send them their regards. However what meant the most to me was when Le Van Anh gave me a gift and said “weather or not you are successful in finding any funding for us you have touched our hearts and you are always welcome back here.” I was so happy I almost cried.

In conclusion working with the Hanoi Association of the Deaf has been a dream come true. I have wanted to work with a foreign deaf community for a while and learn another sign language but I thought I wouldn’t have the chance until after I graduated from college. When Peggy (the head of the ASL department at UCSD) suggested that I learn Vietnamese Sign Language at the end of last year I laughed, after all how would that be possible? I’m so glad my doubts turned out to be wrong. Not only have I gotten to learn another sign language, I have also discovered that I have real valuable skills that can be an asset to a deaf community. I’m really going to miss working with HAD and spending time with all of the members of the deaf community who have become my friends. I hope to keep in contact via web cam and email but I am somewhat worried about the language barriers. However no matter what happens I will never forget the things I have learned working with HAD. I will continue to work with deaf communities in whatever way possible and hopefully return to work with HAD again someday.

Attached is a copy of the video I produced for HAD. It is very much a “heart work,” the literal translation of "volunteer work" in VSL. I hope it helps you understand a little bit more about the organization I have grown to love so much. If you are interested in supporting HAD or know any organizations that might be interested in working with HAD please let me know, I will be more than happy to pass on the message.

~Sharon

Organizational Structure of HAD: Sports club and Women’s Issues

             While making the promotional video for HAD I had the chance to learn a lot more about how HAD functions and what it does. I started off by Interviewing Le Van Anh, the head of the deaf association. I asked him what the main activities of the organization were and was shocked to realize that I had only understood about half of what the association does. It turns out there are five sub groups within HAD. There is a sports league, a youth group, a women’s group, a deaf education group and a middle aged group. I had the opportunity to interview the head of the sports league and the women’s issues today and I think these two groups really highlight what HAD cares about and the problems the deaf face.

Sports club:

The sports club is headed by Khanh and receives a small amount of funding from HAD. The rest of the money is supplied by individual members who want to participate in sports. Therefore the sports club kind of runs on an on-and-off basis. There are about 70-80 members in the HAD sports club. The main sport is soccer, but occasionally they get enough money for track and field, swimming, bowling etc. While the sports league may just seem like a fun thing historically deaf sports leagues have been crucial in forming bonds between deaf people in other regions and increasing the political clout of the deaf.

The sports league in HAD is no different. One of the major goals of the group is to set up competitions with other deaf sports teams so that they have the chance to meet and socialize. There are around 6-8 other deaf sports teams in northern Vietnam that they compete with when they have the money. The bonds with these sports teams have extended to the point where many of those deaf organizations came to visit for HAD’s 10 year anniversary. The sports club also wants to compete with deaf associations in southern Vietnam but doesn’t have the money to travel there. There was one competition in Hue in 2003 or 4 where the team won a metal but since then there haven’t been many major competitions with deaf people from throughout Vietnam. I think this sort of national deaf sports competition would be particularly beneficial because in general there are few opportunities for deaf people from southern and northern Vietnam to interact.

issues today and I think these two groups really highlight what HAD cares about and the problems the deaf face.

Sports club:

The sports club is headed by Khanh and receives a small amount of funding from HAD. The rest of the money is supplied by individual members who want to participate in sports. Therefore the sports club kind of runs on an on-and-off basis. There are about 70-80 members in the HAD sports club. The main sport is soccer, but occasionally they get enough money for track and field, swimming, bowling etc. While the sports league may just seem like a fun thing historically deaf sports leagues have been crucial in forming bonds between deaf people in other regions and increasing the political clout of the deaf.

The sports league in HAD is no different. One of the major goals of the group is to set up competitions with other deaf sports teams so that they have the chance to meet and socialize. There are around 6-8 other deaf sports teams in northern Vietnam that they compete with when they have the money. The bonds with these sports teams have extended to the point where many of those deaf organizations came to visit for HAD’s 10 year anniversary. The sports club also wants to compete with deaf associations in southern Vietnam but doesn’t have the money to travel there. There was one competition in Hue in 2003 or 4 where the team won a metal but since then there haven’t been many major competitions with deaf people from throughout Vietnam. I think this sort of national deaf sports competition would be particularly beneficial because in general there are few opportunities for deaf people from southern and northern Vietnam to interact.

Women’s Issues:

There are currently three women on the board of HAD who are all involved in advocating for woman's issues in some way. However the person who is officially in charge of women's issues is Linh. In her interview she talked about many of the problems deaf women in vietnam face. She talked about their comparatively low pay, lack of job opportunities and mental health issues. She also talked about about some problems that are particular to Vietnam like women being expected to stay at their inlaw's houses to work and therefore not being able to actively participate in the deaf association.  One thing that was particularly interesting is that she said there are many single deaf women because many parents of deaf boys choose a hearing girl for their son to mary. While she aims to set up a women's group and a parents group she has had significant difficulties because women's participation in HAD is not consistent. Whenever there is a problem at home women are expected to take care of it, forcing them to miss HAD meetings. 

Self and Identity: Are the deaf in Vietnam “disabled”?

One debate about the deaf community is weather the deaf should be considered “disabled” or not. This discussion is both an issue of personal identity and a political discussion that has real consequences. While I’ve studied this issue in class before, this week I got to see it debated by people it actually effects.

            According to Vietnamese law people with disabilities are supposed to receive discounts on transportations costs as well as subsidies and other forms of support. However as the deaf are considered able bodied they are not included in these special provisions. This week HAD decided to discuss the merits and costs of lobbying the government to include the deaf in the definition of disabled.

            On one side of the debate various leaders of HAD talked about how they were different from the disabled. In contrast to many disabled people in Vietnam the deaf have a full body, mobility and marketable skills. The deaf can drive motorbikes, find decent work, and are part of a larger community. This puts them in a distinctly different position than many people with disabilities. For example my VSL teacher Thai Anh (also a leader of HAD) has a younger sister who is disabled and house ridden so he has to support her by teaching sign language classes.

The leaders also focused on how labeling themselves as disabled could effect their chances at getting VSL recognized and gaining proper respect.

            On the other hand Thanh and some of the other board members discussed how the deaf were cut off from information and access to education. Thanh argued “until the government provides us with proper education and the deaf can enter universities they should give us the same discounts that they give people with disabilities.” This group pointed out that the deaf received discounts in other countries like Australia and the US while still getting their sign languages recognized and respected.

            They also debated who they would send to advocate for the law to be changed if they decided to identify as “disabled”. Tuan was considered because he is considered the most well educated board member in written Vietnamese and Vietnamese law, so he would be able to argue their case well. However several of the bard members were worried that he would be perceived as too skilled and therefore would not be successful in getting discounts for the deaf. Therefore they suggested that one of the older deaf people who hadn’t gone to school should go so the government could understand some of the real problems facing the deaf. However the problem with this plan was that older deaf individuals who aren't educated would have a very hard time understanding Vietnamese law and therefore would not be able to advocate well for the deaf community.

This whole discussion really reminded me of how issues of self and identity can be manipulated to achieve political goals. The government was excluding the deaf from the category of disabled to save money on benefits and services. Likewise the board members were discussing manipulating their own group identity to try to win discounts that they saw as rightfully theirs. By identifying (or not identifying) as “disabled” and choosing which members of the community to send they were redefining themselves in a way that would fit their political goals.

Deaf Society: It’s a small world.

Today I was sitting at a DP Hanoi meeting filming the Vietnamese lesson for my video when all of a sudden a group of German deaf tourist burst through a door in the blind school and joined the meeting to huge applause. For a second I thought this might have been a planed meeting that I simply didn’t know about. However after a few seconds it was clear that this was a surprise visit.

Introductions were quickly made and Le Van Anh explained the structure of the organization in international signs (IS), which were translated to the rest of the Germans by one deaf German who knew both languages. AQ and A session spontaneously started with both sides asking questions about deaf society in the two countries. The Germans asked about laws, weather the deaf could drive in Vietnam, deaf schools etc. The Vietnamese asked about sports organizations weather Swedish and German sign language were the same as well as questions about the number of deaf organizations in Germany.

While the two groups came from completely different societies and spoke two different languages it was surprising how much they shared. Communication was far easier than it would have been between a group of hearing Germans and Hearing Vietnamese because IS and linguistic similarities facilitated communication. There was also a sense of a common bond between the two groups. I have never seen such a spontaneous welcoming of a group of complete strangers. The deaf association immediately burst into a round of applause when the Germans entered the room and another round of applause when the question “you deaf” was answered with an affirmation.

I guess this event makes the point that deaf society is not necessarily constrained by borders. While these two groups came from two different cultures they were able to bond over their deafness and quickly start asking meaningful questions about the quality of deaf life in the two countries. The Germans knew to ask about the state of deaf education, the amount of interpreters, weather or not sign language was recognized by the government, weather deaf people could drive etc. They the proceeded to suggest various resources HAD could connect with for support in changing some of these things. Obviously there were many nuances of life in Hanoi that the Germans missed in their hour-long visit. However because they shared some common background they knew where to start asking questions and therefore were able to gain information quickly. I guess it really is a small (deaf) world after all.

VSL Lessons: Interest

This last week of service learning was my first week of Vietnamese Sign Language lessons. My class is run by the Sign Language Training Center http://ngonngukyhieu.org/ and is taught by Thai Anh.

What’s interesting is that there are roughly four different classes going on at the same time with many different types of learning in the same classroom: intermediate and advanced VSL classes and intermediate and advanced interpreting classes. Within these classes there are a huge variety of students who are interested in taking the classes for different reasons.

• Beginning hearing students-interested in improving their memory (one girl told me this), becoming interpreters, possibly other reasons…
• Intermediate hearing students-interested in becoming interpreters, polishing language skills
• Deaf students-interested in improving their Vietnamese
• Hoa’s(the interpreter who teaches some classes) boyfriend-interested in communicating with his girlfriend more/ learning more about the deaf community
• Me-interested in learning a different sign language, analyzing the differences between ASL and VSL and learning what deaf culture looks like in Vietnam

I’ve now been told by several people that my reasons for being interested in VSL are unusual. Hien, one of the girls in my class told me that I was “weird in a good way” for being interested in pursuing a career related to sign language. Likewise Hoa seemed somewhat confused that I didn’t want to become an interpreter. I think a lot of this comes from the differences between education systems in the two countries. In Vietnam VSL isn’t taught in universities, so the concept of being a sign language researcher is relatively foreign. Furthermore there is such a pressing need for interpreters that any hearing person who starts to learn VSL is automatically encouraged to take up that role. I have faced some of this attitude in the US “why are you learning ASL if you don’t want to be an interpreter?” (UCSD is somewhat unique in offering ASL classes not aimed at interpreting), but not to the same degree. The only people who really seem to understand what I want to do with sign language here are leaders of HAD. This is probably because they have learned a lot about the power of linguistic research to help sign languages gain acceptance and therefore understand what I mean by “sign language researcher”.

Furthermore there are a huge variety of learning needs in the same classroom. The majority of the students are hearing and are fluent in Vietnamese and therefore are having to adjust to the vocabulary and the grammar that is unique to sign languages. They also have to learn how to perceive language visually; how to look not just at a person’s hands but their face as well to see facial grammar and how to distinguish meaningful differences from acceptable variations of a sign.  The class is mainly catered towards this learning group. Lessons are written on the board in Vietnamese and then Thai Anh translates it into VSL and explains the grammatical differences. For deaf students he basically reverses the process signing and explaining how the signs are related to the written words.

I on the other hand already have the tools in place to learn a signed language, but don’t know Vietnamese. Therefore I get the lessons printed in advance and translate them into English so that I can understand the topic of the lesson. However this didn’t happen the first few days so Thai Anh spent most of the time explaining things to me in International Signs, classifiers or ASL. The problem is that I get confused when a sign has a different meaning in ASL and VSL… way too many false cognates! (DONT and FIANCE being a hilarious example). Overall though I’ve been able to learn a lot pretty fast, certainly faster than I’ve been learning Vietnamese, and am really enjoying the class. Despite the huge number of learning needs in one classroom it seems to be an effective learning environment and a great way to get more people interested in VSL.

HAD 10 Year Anniversary: Toleration and Acceptance

Today was the much planed for 10 year anniversary of HAD. After seeing weeks of planning, arguments, mistakes etc. I was super nervous and excited to see it actually pulled off. Yet what ensued showed me just how strong HAD actually is and how passionate/hardworking the board members are.

             The event was an all day affair. I got there at 7:15 for setup and left at about 4:45. There were speeches, performances, games, dances, presentations and a lot of time to just chill and socialize. The morning was a more formal event with over 500 people and representatives from different Deaf and disabled organizations. The national anthem was preformed in VSL, Ánh (HAD President) gave a speech about the various accomplishments of HAD and numerous gifts were given to HAD. Then there were performances and a break for lunch. After lunch there were various competitions in tug-of-war, chess, dancing etc.

            One of the things that really stuck during the day was just how strong this organization is. There are around 350 members, many of whom could talk to me passionately about what their dreams for the deaf community are. The organization has managed to get interpreting for channel 02 news, produce and publish a sign language book and DVD (coming out very soon!), provide written Vietnamese classes to it’s members, help establish VSL classes for hearing Vietnamese, coordinate with other deaf organizations and get training from international experts.

            The other thing that struck me was the significant change in the level of acceptance I felt from the general HAD members (I’ve already felt a huge amount of acceptance from certain board members, but I’ve known them longer). Last week when I went to the Sunday meeting most people simply asked me if I was American and if I was hearing or deaf and then either felt shy or got frustrated trying to communicate with me and gave up. I’m not sure what it was about today but instead of merely feeling tolerated I felt a huge degree of acceptance. I had several long 30 minute plus conversations with people. I learned about their jobs, their views on development, got taught a ton of new signs and discussed the differences between the deaf worlds in the US and Vietnam.

            There could have been several factors for why I felt more accepted. Maybe it was the relaxed happy atmosphere and the huge amount of time to kill while the competitions were going on that made people more open and willing to talk. Maybe it was the fact that I was wearing a HAD t-shirt and was clearly involved in helping out and therefore wasn’t viewed as such an outsider. Maybe it was the fact that more people recognized me from the week before and started talking to me. Or maybe it was the huge influx of new faces from other deaf organizations that made people more comfortable around outsiders.

Whatever the cause there was a distinctive change in the way I was treated. There were several conversations where the person didn’t ask until about 15 minutes in weather I was deaf or hearing, and then it seemed more out of surprise that one of their friends had suggested that I was hearing, rather then trying to establish what I was doing there. People also seemed much more willing to teach me new signs. I learned the sign for EDUCATION, SEMASTRESS, HARICUTTER, NAIL-POLISHER, HOW-OLD? vs. AGE, OLDER, YOUNGER etc. It was a really great feeling. And I’m sure that if it keeps up I will be able to learn way more about the Vietnamese Deaf community and VSL.

Another interesting note is how such a strong vibrant community still faces significant barriers to acceptance in Vietnam. VSL is not recognized as an official language, HAD receives no government funding, there is no national interpreters union, and as far as I know there aren't any laws protecting Deaf workers. Most Vietnamese that I meet don’t seem to really understand what a sign language is or why I would be interested in working with the Deaf. This isn’t from lack of trying on the part of the organization either. HAD makes significant nods to patriotism, which I suspect are at least somewhat aimed at gaining governmental support/acceptance. The sign name of the organization is related to the communist hammer and sickle. The meeting was opened with a beautiful signed version of the national anthem. The club t-shirts all have numerous symbols related to Vietnam and Hanoi. The board members also latched onto the Australian lecture’s idea of using research to prove that VSL is an inherently Vietnamese language with strong roots in Vietnamese culture and then bringing that information to the government.

In conclusion the organization has made huge progress but it still has a long ways to go before it reaches anything that could be called acceptance. I wish that the organization that has moved so quickly towards accepting me could be in turn accepted by the society that it is so inherently part of.

Week 7, Tuesday: The Problems and Ethics of Interpreting

Tuesday. Day two of all day training for the deaf association. Topic: Interpreting.

Seems pretty simple right? When I first walked in I thought “how could they spend an entire day on interpreting?”. I mean I know interpreting is hard work, and something I probably wouldn’t want to do because I don’t like switching between languages quickly, but  even as an ASL minor I didn’t think there was that much to discuss about interpreting. I quickly learned how wrong I was.

Take this one real life example we discussed at length:

Two Deaf Vietnamese want to get a divorce, but they need an interpreter to do so. To get permission to have an interpreter at court the need to get the head of the deaf association to write a letter requesting an interpreter, which then has to be approved both by the government and the judge. Then both parties are represented by one interpreter, who they didn’t necessarily pick. Granted she’s considered the best interpreter in Hanoi, but when there are only 6 interpreters your pickings are slim. Furthermore she’s the younger sister of one of the board members, and is heavily involved in the deaf community. She’s heard all the gossip: the rumors that he cheated, the accusations that she wasn’t a good enough wife. She probably has some pretty strong opinions about the situation herself. And to top it all off she has never received any professional training in interpreting or legal language and is less the 30 years old.

There are a huge number of problems here. First the two deaf individuals should have the right to pick their own interpreters. It’s extremely important that they have a high degree of trust in their interpreter because having a good  working relationship with their interpreter could make or break their case… which means they should be able to pick the interpreter who they trust most. However if there are only 6 interpreters to chose from, and three other people have to approve your choice, then this right is heavily violated.

Second there should be two interpreters involved in the case. Having one interpreter for both defendants is like having one lawyer working on both sides of the case. There is bound to be some sort of conflict of interests. Furthermore the interpreters shouldn’t have a relationships with the other party. If they are pre disposed to the other parties interest then their interpreting might be effected.

Third the interpreters should be professionally trained; both in Vietnamese sign language and in legal Vietnamese so that they understand the rules of the court and can accurately explain the process to their client. They should be certified by a national board that has a common code of ethics, including the requirement that they maintain the confidentiality of their clients.

Finally the interpreters should have some kind of professional training to deal with difficult situations. Because interpreters are required to maintain confidentiality they need to learn ways of dealing with the stress of work without venting to another person.

While the problems seem huge, there are many examples of countries that have managed to overcome them. The Register of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) in the US was only set up in 1964 and as of 2009 had 2,484 members. However, perhaps more pertinent to the case of Vietnam, the lecturer discussed in detail how Kosovo was able to go from no interpreters to enough interpreters for deaf individuals to enter universities in only 5 years. I think the board members learned a lot form that presentation (I certainly did), and I was very happy when “O” asked me if I could help explain it to the rest of the club at a later date. 

Week 7, Monday: Exclusion and Inclusion

One again service learning this week has managed to amaze me. I walked into the DP Hanoi office on Monday expecting to do translation work and instead discovered that the training session for the deaf association was taking place. And so with great glee I joined an amazing lesson on deaf hood. taught by an Australian Deaf woman in International Signs (which I didn’t know existed until that day).

Most of the lesson focused on what exactly inclusion/exclusion means and turning traditional notions of inclusion/exclusion on their head. Traditionally the Deaf are viewed as excluded from society, faced with a large lists of can’ts. They are viewed as being part of the huge number of people labeled as “disabled” who share in common the fact that they are excluded from society for some reason or another. However the lecturer was presenting the idea that the deaf are just as able as any other group of people… rather what separates them is that they are a linguistic minority. From here notions of inclusion and exclusion become blurred. Is a Deaf person excluded because they are “hearing impaired” or is a hearing person excluded from Deaf society because they are “signing impaired”? The conversation also turned to what it means to be actively rather than passively excluded. The concept of “audism” was introduced, or suppression of the Deaf. It’s another one of those ism’s… Racism Sexism etc. except this one is based on the belief that hearing is central and the Deaf are inferior.

While the topic of discussion was familiar (it summed up much of what I have learned in my ASL minor) it was amazing to see the effect they had on the HAD board members. Here was a group of well educated Deaf individuals who had never been exposed to some of these concepts before, despite having much personal experience with them. Stories started flying around the room and light bulbs stared to go off in people’s heads. Questions like “wait why aren't we disabled?” eventually gave way to laughing at the concept of being “signing impaired” and a real sense of empowerment. While many of the topics discussed were abstract “deafhood” isn’t something you can really put your finger on, I think they went a long way towards making the deaf members feel more empowered and included in a worldwide community.

HAD board members. From left to right "O", "G", Thang, "L" (President), board member who's name i forget and "T" (vice president).

The Australian instructor and Linh or Lan (the other VP). Her younger sister is the interpreter who has the other L name.

Thanh Xuân Disabled Class/ Organizational Structure/ Mute Student

This week had the most amazing experience in service learning. We went to a class for disabled students hosted by the Thanh Xuân branch of DP Hanoi. The class was and was aimed at teaching individuals with learning disabilities how to read and write. In terms of structure There were about 11 students in the class from ages 12-35 with a huge range of physical and mental disabilities. The class was headed by a retired elementary teacher who seemed incredibly passionate about her job, but used extremely mechanical methods of teaching. The organizational structure of the class was fairly basic. She spent most of the class reading the lesson out methodically in a call and repeat format. For example the word trấm  ̣(100) would be read as:

teacher: â m âm

students: â m âm

teacher:  tr âm sắc (the name of the tone) trâm trấm

students: tr âm sắc trâm trấm

This process would be repeated for each word in the paragraph. The whole thing sounded almost like a song. While this structure is useful in that it emphasizes the vowel and then builds the word phonetically around the vowel I have to question using it with this class. Considering that with only a minor learning disability I find this structure nearly impossible to follow it seemed weird to be using it with students with such sever disabilities. Indeed only about 3-4 of the students seemed able to fully follow the call and repeat structure. About four other students attempted to follow it while three students stayed completely unengaged (I will get to why in a second). Of the students who were attempting to follow but couldn’t several seemed to have difficulties with the speed of the process. This may because they had some type of speech delay, which is common to a bunch of learning disabilities. Others could pronounce the full word but like me were unable to follow the complex process required to break down the word.

As there was such a wide range of learning disabilities I think this class would have greatly benefited from a different organizational structure. First I think introducing more variation in the teaching methods would have allowed more of the students to engage with the material. Pictures to help the students understand the meaning of the words or games to keep the students engaged would have been really useful. Even changing from the complex phonetic system they were using to a simpler version of sounding things out in order might have helped several of the students (me included) follow the lesson. Furthermore more individual time with the teacher or small group work would have been useful seeing as there were a huge host of learning disabilities in the room.

One of the best examples of the way that class wasn’t meeting the needs of its students was one of the boys sitting in the back row. The boy was 16 years old and while he could hear was completely mute. While the rest of the class repeated the lesson out loud he sat quietly in the back waiting attentively. When the teacher called on him he proceeded to repeat the lesson in almost flawless Vietnamese finger spelling. I got to signing with him after a bit and realized just how much he didn’t belong in that class.

The boy was brilliant. He is the first real live example of someone creating a home sign system I have seen (i.e. he had invented his own sign language for communication). We were going through the first grade Vietnamese reader and I was asking him what his signs were for the different pictures. He had signs for all of the animals, verbs etc. in the book. He could explain his family structure to me (although the grammar of his language here was a bit too complex for me to follow) and tell me which members of his family could speak. He had his own word for age, could give me directions to his house, and could even explain how the shape of a birds beak determines what food it can eat. He asked me if I had arrived by airplane and prompted me to describe which country I was from and show him signs for the different continents in the world. All in all he was totally out of place in a verbally based class where students had a hard time remembering if the time of the class had been switched.

I do understand however that to an outsider this probably seemed like the most logical place to put him. Clearly a regular class room wouldn’t work and because he lives in the Thanh Xuân he was placed where the organizational structure of DP Hanoi dictates he should go: the Thanh Xuân special education class. However, I think he would benefit greatly by joining the Hanoi Association for the Deaf instead. While he is not technically deaf, he shares the need for non-verbal communication. He would benefit greatly from learning a signed language that is shared by a large group of peers and not just himself (even though his own sign language is really cool!). He could also attend the workshops they have that use sign language to teach people written Vietnamese. Joining the deaf community would open up job opportunities and help increase his sense of self worth. I’m hoping to talk to Ang Thai and Gerard in the upcoming weeks to see if there is a way to suggest this that is culturally sensitive and appropriate. In the meantime I’m thinking of getting him an Oxford English Picture dictionary with Vietnamese translations. While the book is limited in that it reflects American daily life rather then Vietnamese daily life I think it would really help him seeing as he is a visual learner. I think he has the self-motivation to take that book and teach himself the Vietnamese words for things to better communicate with his family and strangers.

Overall this was an amazing experience and I look forward to going back to the class again.

Public Private and Physical Space

One of the interesting things about private space in the context of HAD is that it becomes an all deaf space.  Despite the fact that there were four hearing people in the room this Tuesday (three interpreters and me), we were all considered part of the deaf cultural world because we knew various sign languages and were supportive of deaf rights. This effectively made the room a safe space. It’s only in this sort of safe space that you start to see an interesting sort of dialogue regarding hearing people. For example when the group was discussing the new website, one of the vice presidents “L” (his sign name is an L on his chin) stood up and passionately argued that they should not delegate the task of designing the website to a hearing person because they wouldn’t put their heart into it and therefore wouldn’t do a good job. There are several interesting things about this comment. First is the word “hearing”. Most people who can hear wouldn’t think of themselves as “hearing” but rather as “normal” or “not deaf”. However in both ASL and VSL “hearing” doesn’t carry the connotation of normal, it’s simply the opposite of deaf. Second, the comment appears to be somewhat anti-hearing. However what’s interesting was that it was automatically understood that the four hearing people in the room were excluded from that comment. In fact there was considerable discussion about the importance of the interpreters in making the website. Thus L’s comment was not a blanket statement about all hearing people. Rather “hearing” was used to refer solely to those outside of the deaf cultural world -- hearing people who don’t understand deaf rights or know sign language. While L’s comment was not reflection of hatred of hearing people, it’s unlikely that he would have made it outside of a deaf space because the nuances of the word hearing are easily misinterpreted. It is hard to distinguish “hearing” as in “can hear” and “hearing” as in “not part of the deaf cultural world” because they are exactly the same sign and can only be distinguished by context. (note: that is not to say that anti hearing biases don’t exist, but rather that some things that could be interpreted as anti hearing are not and have to be understood in the cultural context of the deaf world).

In terms of physical space the most obvious thing is that the DP Hanoi office is significantly bigger then HAD’s office. Over double the size. I’m guessing this is for three different reasons. First DP Hanoi receives funding from the government while HAD does not. This could be a reflection of the stronger lobbing power of DP Hanoi, it’s size, the difficulties of deaf membership of HAD in communicating in Vietnamese or a whole host of different factors. Second the DP Hanoi office is used on a full time basis- it has permanent interns and officials who work on increasing publicity and drafting project proposals. In contrast Phoung told me that many days there is nobody in the HAD office. Regardless of the reasons behind HAD not having permanent office workers this means that having a huge office for HAD would be a waste of resources. Third DP Hanoi’s office has to serve as a meeting room with foreign NGO’s that help support the organization. When HAD needs to host foreigners they simply have them met in the DP Hanoi office which means that their actual office doesn’t have to be as big.

Another interesting thing about physical space is the way it relates to signing. Because the HAD office is a long thin rectangle it’s often hard for all of the board members to have a clear view of each other. Therefore a lot of time is spent shifting people’s attention to the right person either through waving, taping or asking somebody else to wave/tap for you. Sometimes there are three or more people who have something important to say so the room is filled with waving hands and people signing “look at me!”. My ASL classrooms back home are always arranged in a large circle to avoid this problem, however here the space prevents us from doing that. If the space were set up differently the meetings would probably be somewhat more efficient (although taping would still be necessary to break people away from side conversations). I’ll be curious to see how the space for their large Sunday meeting is set up and weather they have any creative ways of dealing with the problem of sight lines. In the US when there is a large group of deaf people one person will stand in the front and act as a mirror, copying what people say so that everyone can see. This can be disconcerting at first (it’s weird to talk and see someone else say the same thing while you are speaking) but it is an efficient way to deal with the problem physical spaces present. I’m interested to see if this technique will be used or some other innovative approach will be used instead.

Hanoi Deaf Association, Vietnamese Sign Language and Ethics

This week was by far my favorite week of service learning. I finally got to met the board of the Hanoi Deaf Association Monday night. Several of the board members know some ASL so I was able to communicate to them and have them explain parts of VSL to me in ASL. I learned so much in 1 night. There are also enough similarities between the two languages that I was able to reach a basic level of communication with the other board members. OH-I-SEE and UNDERSTAND are the same, and the VSL sign for SAME is like the old ASL version. That gave me the tools to ask questions and pick up new vocabulary. 

They invited me to their board meeting Tuesday night from 8:00-10:00 and one of the interpreters, Phoung took me there on her motorbike. Phoung's english is fairly limited but I still managed to learn a ton from her on the two motorbike rides. She said that the first deaf school in Vietnam was founded by a french man... which explains the similarities to ASL (the closest language to ASL is FSL). She is self taught in sign language; she learned by going to the board meetings just like I am doing now. Currently she teaches at a university about special education. She has two classes, one teaching sign language and one teaching oral methods of communication for the deaf. This is wild to me because in the US those two things are never taught in the same school... there is a deep ideological divide between the two.

The meting itself on Tuesday was fascinating. With only minimal help from Phoung I was able to understand the basic concept of the meeting. I got that they were discussing how to prioritize what to do with a new grant... if they managed to get one. They were debating spending the money on designing a website (they don't currently have one), funding more classes to teach VSL, buying a small laptop and something else I couldn't understand. It was so cool because the grammatical structure was similar enough that I could tell when they were talking about money, when they were ordering/prioritizing things and when they were asking questions/ debating things. I also really liked watching just how intense the conversation was... the same way conversations with large numbers of people signing can get at home. Only one person can really be "heard" at a time so a lot of time was spent shifting people's attention to new speakers in the conversation. I almost laughed when one guy was saying "LOOK-AT-ME, LOOK-AT-ME because it felt so similar to some of my deaf friends back home. 

On the other hand there was a ton I couldn't understand and a ton of signs that have different meanings in the two languages. My head was spinning by the end of the conversation because I kept on getting strings of gibberish of what the signs would mean if they were in ASL. DIALOGUE... ASK... SAME ...DIMINISH... RAIN... L,L,L etc. kept on going through my head. Later I found out that the sign I was seeing as DIALOGUE meant LEADER and the sign I was seeing as ASK was club, RAIN was GRANT, LLL was STREETS and so on. I feel like as I learn more my headaches will decrease and I will cease getting such strings of gibberish running through my head.

I'm so excited. I'll also get to attend their weekly general body meetings which are intended to serve as a social group and a way to teach the deaf new vocabulary. It sounds like many of the deaf people in Hanoi only find out about VSL later in their lives so one of the main goals of the organization is improving language skills of its members.

The one thing I'm a little uncomfortable with ethically is that the Vice-President of the association asked me to teach him some ASL in exchange for help learning VSL. I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of teaching ASL because I'm not a native speaker, and in some ways it feels like cultural imperialism. Furthermore there have been alot of problems in the US with people who don't really know sign language teaching it and mangling the language. However I like the idea of being able to contribute something, especially given just how welcoming and accommodating the organization has been to me. I also really respected the reasons the Vice President wanted to learn ASL. First he often runs into deaf people from the states and would like to be able to communicate with them and show them around Ha Noi. Second he wants to be able to access the wealth of information about deaf rights in ASL. Deaf rights here (and rights for disabled people in general) are very different then in the states and he would like to be able to learn from the experience of the deaf community in the US.

I'm got to thinking however after the Tuesday meeting that there could be another less ethically uncomfortable way for me to give back to HDA. When they were discussing creating a website their major concern was that hiring a website designer would use up all of their money. I was thinking that maybe I could use blogger to at least create a rudimentary website for them. I could create two interlinked blogs, one in VSL/Vietnamese and one in ASL/English. I could video them signing the information they wanted on their website and then translate it into ASL/English for the other blog. The blog would give them a way to increase awareness of Deaf issues both here and in the US and allow new members to find them. Then when they start an actual website they could simply borrow the material from the blog and place it on their new website.

One other thing that I realized during the week was the stark difference between Disabled People of Hanoi and the Hanoi Deaf Association. DP Hanoi has a nice fancy office and while it claims to receive little government funding, it still receives some. HDA on the other hand has a tiny office that could barley fit the board members and me. DP Hanoi had three permanent computers and laptop. HAD had one computer and the Vice President brought his own laptop to the meeting. DP Hanoi had a website and wifi... HAD didn't etc. etc. Really interesting contrast... I'll be curious to learn more about why in the weeks to come.

Week two: Relationship

             I must confess I’m not sure quite what to write for this blog. So far I have only worked with two people within the DP Hanoi organization, and only for one day each so I have not had much time to establish any meaningful relationships. The day I worked with the vice president DP Hanoi I didn’t have much of a chance to establish a strong relationship for two reasons: the first was the business atmosphere of the organization and the second was the strong language barrier between the two of us. The first two hours I worked with the VP were spent editing translations (see my last post) and very little was said other then what was necessary for the extremely difficult work we were doing. After we finished the editing we did get to talk a little but because of my inability to speak Vietnamese and the VP’s limited English skills we had a hard time getting past basic questions like what I studied and where I came from. However Tina and Vi later told me that she didn’t even quite understand what I studied because her Vietnamese translation of my major to her colleagues had more to do with economics (which I don’t study) then political science. Perhaps the strongest indicator of a lack of a real relationship between the two of us is that I don’t even remember her name.  I did get to learn that she got into the field of disabled rights through working with the government agency concerning construction. It was there that she learned about bout making physical spaces more accessible. She even went on a trip to Washington D.C. to study accessibility right in the US.

            The second day I worked with the head of the Teng Sung association learning how to make mosaics. Bac Ky, the head of the Teng Sung association seemed like a really nice guy. He spent the first part of our visit telling us about his involvement in the war and how he became disabled by a landmine. I found his relationship to his country to be quite interesting. While he seemed to quite proud of his participation in the war (he made a point of telling us why the Vietnamese won against the Americans), he seemed critical of the lack of disability compensation for veterans like himself. He told a story of how he met an American soldier after the war with similar disabilities to him and explained how the American soldier received a monthly salary form the government while he did not. One interesting aspect of my relationship with Bac Ky was the way he viewed my ethnicity. After he went around asking the ethnicities of all the other UC students in the room he turned to me and made some comment, which Anh Thai translated as “Oh, a true American”. This disconcerted me somewhat as all the other UC students were born in the US as well, and while they may have lived in other countries before are as much American as I am.  He also spent most of the time he was talking looking directly at me rather then at Vi or Tina who could actually understand what he was saying. This was particularly pronounced every time he said the word Mỹ. As Mỹ was one of the only words he said that I could understand this was particularly noticeable to me.

As weird as this experience made me feel it didn’t stop me from really enjoying learning how to make mosaics. Bac Ky showed us how he lined up the tiles and coordinated colors to make a frame. We then arranged and glued down the tiles on two pictures. Later he showed us how to cut tiles in half—a difficult process done entirely by hand. He was extremely friendly and helpful the whole time. It was clear he was passionate about his artwork and that he really enjoyed showing us how to do things. I was quite surprised that he let us each cut a tile seeing as we each wrecked a tile and they cost 1000 dong a piece. I do wonder where he gets the money to buy his supplies and what percent of the money he earns from them go back to the organization. I tried to ask him how long it took him to do a mosaic but he said that he mainly just does them in his free time between DP Hanoi meetings so he didn’t really know.

Bac Ky

Making the Moasics

Day Two: Editing Translations

Have you ever looked at something translated from another language like a chip bag or a website and thought that with a little editing it could be so much better? I've certainly thought that given a few minutes I could easily fix the minor grammatical errors that occur in translation. In some cases this is the case. Take for example the following excerpt from the DP Hanoi website:

"Hanoi Disabled People Association (DP Hanoi) was established by the decision No. 266/QĐ-UB dated 16th January 2006 of the chairman of Hanoi People's Committee. The officially first General Assembly in order to establish DP Hanoi was organized on April, 12th 2006 and the second was on April, 12th 2009. DP Hanoi is a social organization of the disabled in Hanoi City area, who come from any background, ethnicity, religion, gender, social status, causes of disabilities, and who are voluntarily willing to participate in any activities of the disabled and for the disabled."


It took Mary and me only a few minutes to correct it to roughly the following: (I had to reproduce our edits from memory because they were saved on one of the organizations computers... Mary and I did a better job originally)


The Hanoi Disabled People Association (DP Hanoi) was established by decision No. 266/QĐ-UB on January 16th, 2006 by the chairman of Hanoi People's Committee. The first general assembly to establish DP Hanoi was held on April, 12th 2006, with the the second on April, 12th 2009. DP Hanoi is a social organization for the disabled in Hanoi City area, which welcomes individuals from any background, ethnicity, religion, gender, social status or causes of disability, who are voluntarily willing to participate in any activities by and for the disabled.


However, once we launched into the real editing work with the Vice President of DP Hanoi I realized that tons of work had already been put into these few sentences. Over the next two hours or so Mary and I worked in close collaboration with the VP of DP Hanoi to translate and edit 3 short paragraph news articles -- roughly 12 sentences. Yes, that's a rate of 6 sentences per hour. 


So what took so long? Turns out translating things into english requires a really complex knowledge both of English grammar and of the actual situation your writing about. We spent approximately 20 minutes establishing the relationship between 4 organizations to determine where to place the organizations in the sentence. Was the Me Linh Disabled People's Association established with permission from the Ha Noi People's Committee or the Me Linh People's Committee? What organization was the mobilizing board associated with? Eventually we produced the following sentence:


With assistance from the Hanoi Disabled People's Association and the Me Linh People's Committee, the Mobilizing Board for the Establishment of the Me Linh Disabled People's Association received permission from the Hanoi People's Committee to establish the association. 


Basically my point in telling you all of this is editing translations is hard work with real genuine challenges. Afterwords my head felt like it had been through a nước mía machine (sugarcane juicer). I really hope that the work we did today goes to real use and that someone who reads it feels motivated to learn more about the association and the life of disabled people in Hanoi. 

Week 1

This first week of service learning was a rather frustrating experience. Even though I knew I wasn’t going to be able to work with the deaf association I at least hoped that I would be able to contribute in some form. Maybe edit English translations or clean the office or something. Instead it turned out to be a meeting discussing what the other four UC students who are volunteering would be doing over the next few months. The whole experience was a true exercise in patience and an introduction into just how difficult communication could be with this organization.

I spent most of the time sitting while Anh Thai spoke to the head of the Teng Sung association in Vietnamese. Occasionally bits of information were translated, but I felt like much more was discussed then was translated. It makes me a bit nervous for when I actually start working with the deaf association. I learn signed languages easily enough, but before then communication could be pretty rocky. I guess in some ways my experience was like that of a deaf person having one of their family members or friends translate for them. Without a professional translator you just feel like you are missing so much information.

However I did learn some interesting things from the meeting. The organization was founded with help from a Danish organization. While the brochures and website all talk about equal access and disabled right, the main goals of the organization seem to be rebuilding the esteem of the disabled people and giving them some way to contribute to their family. For example one of the main programs is that members produce handicrafts, which are then sold to bring income to the disabled people and their families. However when I asked about making homes more accessible for disabled people they didn’t seem to understand. This seemed odd considering that many of their members were bedridden (whereas I’m guessing that people in the US with similar disabilities would not be). I have a feeling that this disconnect comes from language in their brochures being borrowed from the Danish association.

I don’t know much yet about what the deaf association does, but hopefully I will find out Monday. I’m hoping that next week I will be able to actually be useful or at least learn more about how the organization is run and what it does.