Introduction
Welcome to my blog! I want to start by thanking you for starting out this journey with me, and I hope you will stick around to see where it goes!
Before we get into anything technical, I want to introduce this blog. If you're viewing this from a computer, you have probably already seen the text to the left of this post, which summarizes the purpose of this blog. If you are viewing this from a phone, you can click the menu icon in the top left corner to view that text. Please keep this statement of purpose in mind as you explore this blog.
Before we get into anything technical, I want to introduce this blog. If you're viewing this from a computer, you have probably already seen the text to the left of this post, which summarizes the purpose of this blog. If you are viewing this from a phone, you can click the menu icon in the top left corner to view that text. Please keep this statement of purpose in mind as you explore this blog.
I chose to call this blog "The Soundness of Silence" for several reasons, but the one I hope you will keep in mind as you read these posts is this:
Every person in the world has his or her own subjective experience. A resulting tendency among individuals is to look on the experiences of other people with a certain degree of judgment and misunderstanding. This is a universal problem, and one small area affected by it is the hearing/deaf dichotomy. We just don't get each other. But, as Atticus Finch of To Kill A Mockingbird wisely advises, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." As this relates to the central topic of this blog, being able to hear makes sense to hearing people. And being Deaf makes sense to Deaf people. But sometimes we have trouble understanding the opposite side. Sometimes, Deaf people feel as though hearing people are too lazy or too prideful to understand them and their culture. Hearing people, on the other hand, sometimes have no access to the information they need in order to understand Deaf culture. What follows is a massive difference in experience and perception which no one can even attempt to overcome--we don't even speak the same language.
Every person in the world has his or her own subjective experience. A resulting tendency among individuals is to look on the experiences of other people with a certain degree of judgment and misunderstanding. This is a universal problem, and one small area affected by it is the hearing/deaf dichotomy. We just don't get each other. But, as Atticus Finch of To Kill A Mockingbird wisely advises, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." As this relates to the central topic of this blog, being able to hear makes sense to hearing people. And being Deaf makes sense to Deaf people. But sometimes we have trouble understanding the opposite side. Sometimes, Deaf people feel as though hearing people are too lazy or too prideful to understand them and their culture. Hearing people, on the other hand, sometimes have no access to the information they need in order to understand Deaf culture. What follows is a massive difference in experience and perception which no one can even attempt to overcome--we don't even speak the same language.
So, "The Soundness of Silence," put simply, means when you look at people who live life a little differently than you do, it can still make sense. You can learn about it, understand it, and even participate in it to some extent. Just close your ears and listen. You'll be glad you did.
The nature of other posts on this blog will vary. Some topics you can definitely expect to see include Deaf culture and sign language, ethics of cochlear implants, hard of hearing vs. deaf vs. Deaf, types of hearing loss, and interacting appropriately with deaf and hard of hearing people. If there is another topic you want to learn more about, feel free to leave comments! Some posts will be more scientific in nature, supported by research and review. Other posts will include personal experiences from me and people around me, which I hope will contribute to a broader understanding of all experiences for all people. However, the overall goal remains the same: I hope we will all walk away knowing more about ourselves and the world around us, particularly with regards to the way we choose to speak, hear, and listen.
The nature of other posts on this blog will vary. Some topics you can definitely expect to see include Deaf culture and sign language, ethics of cochlear implants, hard of hearing vs. deaf vs. Deaf, types of hearing loss, and interacting appropriately with deaf and hard of hearing people. If there is another topic you want to learn more about, feel free to leave comments! Some posts will be more scientific in nature, supported by research and review. Other posts will include personal experiences from me and people around me, which I hope will contribute to a broader understanding of all experiences for all people. However, the overall goal remains the same: I hope we will all walk away knowing more about ourselves and the world around us, particularly with regards to the way we choose to speak, hear, and listen.
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