Cultural Artifacts
- Kelly Greer’s version on Jar of Hearts in American Sign Language:
This YouTube video is Kelly translating Jar of Hearts in ASL. She not only has very descriptive facial expressions in the video but it also teaches the watcher about how to sign a song. Showing that sometimes you have to just act out the exactly what you are trying to say but also that you do not have to remain in your “sign circle”, the box from the top of your head to mid stomach that when you are signing is where you should keep the signs. In signing a song, you can be all over the place to act out the song. But this song she is doing, even a hearing person can see the pain she is expressing and the emotion she wants to convey. This is one characteristic of a really good song in ASL.
- A Paper Gloss in ASL.
In sign language, when a hearing person wants to sign a song in the correct grammar in asl, what they would do is gloss it. An example from the song humans by Christina Perry looks like this:
I can hold my breath
BREATH STOP CAN
I can bite my tongue
TALK STOP CAN
I can stay awake for days
DAY++ AWAKE CAN ME
If that’s what you want
IF WANT YOU
English and Sign Language don’t have the same amount of words, so a gloss allows a hearing person to interpret what the song is saying and convey that in ASL. A gloss allows you to talk about the direction a sign should go, the facial expression that should be paired and say if listing somethings, it allows you to say how long of a list you have. Any song can be glossed but from signer to signer the gloss may look different. It truly just depends on how the song is being interpreted.
- Cochlear Implant.
This is a small device that takes a wire and replaces the cochlear nerve to the brain causing artificial hearing. Some of the issues that come with this device is if a Deaf or hard of hearing person had any hearing before, that would be destroyed in the process of the procedure. The implant can also not function correctly, causing the person to have spent around $ 10,000 for nothing. However, there is an argument circling the implant because of the idea that it takes away your Deaf identity. There are some Deaf communities that won’t even accept a person after they have had the procedure because they are rejecting something that causes them to be a true Deafee. Another problem that comes with the procedure is that for it be as successful as possible, it really should be done before the age of 2 or even 1. This means that the parents of the Deaf child need to make this not only physical but a cultural decision for the child, before the child can have any input. This causes the community to be very split on the topic.
If you had to write a paper/essay about this topic, I would definitely be interested in reading it. My only exposure to sign language is my deaf cousin who I see every couple of years when I decide to visit my hometown and the sign language course I signed up for at Broward. I wish I had the time to pursue it more because it is an interesting language to learn. I was unaware of how many sign language videos were out there until I saw one in my class. For my final I attempted to do one but it was way above my level though I had fun thinking about it. Their means of communication is what I like to call the simplified version of English but at the same time advanced since you have to include facial expressions (as you mentioned) with the signs. its like learning how to act while talking. Is gloss harder to learn if you know English relatively well?