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.