Deaf Mixer

Here come some few posts about my new situation here in the DC metro area! I have some notes about the interesting stuff from Graduate Student Orientation last week- we were given a bunch of presentations geared towards ignorant and then not-so-ignorant audiences. But first, some fun happened here last night, and I would love to share!

I am now living in MD with two Deafies and another Hearing girl. (If Deaf is a culture and should therefore be capitalized, then why not Hearing? ...when referred to as such) This weekend we have a full house with two boyfriends visiting from home. On top of that, one of my roommates' buddy from Gallaudet came for dinner along with three others. The food was fantastic! In any event, 4 Hearing kids (2 with ASL knowledge) + 6 Deaf kids = good time. And Kevin proved ever so impressive when he tried his best to communicate with his hands as best he could.

I'm gonna say that the home court advantage definitely helped me open up. Within the first hour of chatting, I learned that the professor I will be working with was actually someone's speech therapist! What a small world. Smaller than the Jewish world, I bet. ;-) Everyone was nice, though it proved to be pretty awkward at first. You could see us falling into our deaf and hearing cliques quickly. Eventually (with help from the brews and foosball) there was some intermingling. We attempted a round of Apples to Apples (with my poor interpreting), but that fell apart before long.

Something that stood out between the two hearing statuses in the room- our relation to the television. It was on most of the time- low volume with closed captions on. It seemed that two of the hearing kids were consistently distracted by it, while the signers didn't really think twice about its presence. It was brought up, and it seems to be a trend that hearing people are just easily distracted by a TV on in the background, while the signers are aware of it, but do not need to look at it if they aren't interested. The hearing sense is so weird. We talked a lot this week at orientation about the sense and what it means to hearing people- how it impacts our lives and culture, even in ways that we are unaware of. It's a powerful sense, I say. And it's almost passive. (I say "almost" because there is definitely a distinction between hearing and listening). You don't need to point your ears at anything or need to be too close to anything to hear it. Sound just finds it's way into your outer, middle, and inner ear and right to your brain. So weird. And awesome.

Hopefully I will be at loads of social deaf events, and my signing and awareness will only increase. The kids offered good advice to keep in touch with the Deaf community around here, and I will do my best to network on campus and find more buddies to increase my competency and coolness 8-).

Receptionist Tip of the Day:

“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!”

- Ann Frank

...if you could only see my face...

It takes two

So I got hired for Vector Marketing for 15 hours a week for $8 an hour (see also workforstudents). They are the company that sells the sweet cutlery products of Cutco. In ANY event, I am still looking for more work (possibly the Springfield Township Library!), but in my first week working for Vector, I have learned a bit about American Business.

I got a packet- like a script I should say when I call unsuspecting people to work for us. In addition, I got tips to create a sense of urgency (more than "call us in the next ten minutes", but similar). Apparently, and I believe it, if you feel like this is a limited offer, in need of "act now!", you will be more likely to come in for an interview. And if they are signed up for an interview the day that I call them, they are more likely to SHOW UP to the interview... hence my need to create urgency. In any event, my reflections started when I read the words on our "Fundamentals" sheet: Believing that creating urgency is normal, not manipulative.

Which brings me to "what is manipulative." I'm thinking, though this is probably too simplistic, deliberately acting in some specific way with the intention of creating a specific desired reaction from an audience. How does that sound? Dictionary.com says "1. to manage or influence skillfully, esp. in an unfair manner: to manipulate people's feelings." I guess it is the "unfair" in there that makes it very different.

So regardless of how manipulative or not creating urgency is, I think it is incredible how people's actions (reactions), behaviors, decisions, moods, etc., are really just in response to other people's word choice (actions, behaviors, decisions, moods, etc.). I mean, think about this. One day this week, we have two kids calling people who had been accepted to work for Vector, but for some reason missed the training session(s). Basically they are trying to get these people to sign up for training again. We are tallying the numbers these two callers are rescheduling. By the end of the day, one had 22 and the other around 10.

Now, granted, these numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt (how did that expression start?) because this is only one day's worth of data for you, but consider this: there is no real reason why one caller's numbers should have been double the other callers'. They are essentially calling from the same pool of people who missed their training. Therefore, the difference comes from their approach. Maybe one is more calm, maybe one is more enticing, maybe one is more personable, maybe one is more creepy, maybe one is more urgent... and the list can go on. In any event, the people who are rescheduling with one caller are reacting differently than those rescheduling with the other caller for some other reason than because they want the job. Otherwise, why wouldn't their numbers be more similar (unless it is just perchance that one called a lot more people who were "currently seeking employment," as we say in the biz).

So I'm gonna start thinking about how many actions, decisions, behaviors... I do every day that are merely reactions from my environment. How many decisions do I make daily that are my own? How many can I say I decided on because that is how I truly felt and that is what I truly want. And not because someone else influenced me with their calmness, enticements, impressionability, etc...

I think you should do the same.

And I think you will be surprised to learn that the answer is not many. If I learned anything from studying anthropology, I learned that we as individuals are pretty meaningless. It takes at least two, my friend, it is true. Almost everything we do is because of someone else. Think about that.

I'M GOING TO GALLAUDET NEXT YEAR!

Months later...

So it seems I have been motivated to turn this into a working blog again. Though with a higher ratio of text to videos...

These days don't include much- I am waiting to hear from Gallaudet about my acceptance or rejection (EEP!). I am going there for an interview this Friday, actually. FUCKIN NERVOUS AS HELL! We'll see how that goes.

These days I am trying to read about ASL and SLP and have been observing some SLPs in action. I should be doing more with my time, though. I have become lazy and unmotivated and am starting to feel guilty (except on weekends).

Today's plan: finish up skimming Great Deaf Americans before I return it to the library (along with Clueless and The Wedding Singer), watch some more Weeds, sew a patch onto my jeans, start Sophie's World, uh... Kevin might be coming over later, though it is still snowing, so who knows if trains are running right. If not tonight, I will see him in the AM.

I might start volunteering a day a week at the Abramson Center in North Wales... close and it's SOMETHING to do. Though when Andrew volunteered there in high school, he didn't particularly enjoy it.. nor did he feel a certain "I did some good here" feeling... we'll see.

updates?

this is me attempting to sign about
1) broad st. after the phillies game
2) halloween
3) i need to watch risky business and other shitty work

it's like 1am and i think the camera quality is too bad to follow the signs without blurring. i'll try harder next time?

other updates