As you may or may not be aware, I’m taking a class this summer to learn ASL (it’s a lot of fun). In order to fulfill the “Deaf culture” requirement, this Sunday I want to a Deaf church.
Inter-community Church of God is a non-denominational Protestant church, which serves hearing people, Deaf people, and their families. Early morning worship is done in English, followed by ASL worship. During the English service, there is an ASL Sunday School, and during the ASL service the English Sunday School takes place.
As soon as I walked into the foyer, I was greeted by several Deaf congregants, all of whom knew right away that I was not deaf. An old lady came up to me, and signed that her name was Rosie, and asked my name, where I was from, and what had brought me to their church that day. Luckily these were questions I was prepared to answer in ASL, and doing so made her quite happy. Several other Deaf congregants expressed similar feelings. Everyone made an effort to communicate with me, signed slowly and deliberately (thank goodness), and were tolerant of my horrid “accent” (oh let’s face it - my lack of knowledge).
Walking into the chapel, I noticed that there were a lot of speakers and audio equipment around, which I (understandably) assumed was for the English services. Boy was I in for a surprise.
A woman got up on the pulpit, and began to sign very rapidly. I was thinking to myself how beautiful her signing was, and that it was probably some form of prayer, when I realized that she was signing something about a summer camp. Turns out she was reading the week’s announcements. Oops.
After she sat down, three people got onto the pulpit, and all of a sudden, bone-shatteringly loud music began to play. Needless to say, I was startled. The people on the pulpit began to sign in time with the music - they were following the rhythm of the music by feeling the vibrations (which explains why the music was so loud). With an English soundtrack to aid me, I was able to follow most of what they were signing (also due in part to some context-appropriate signs I researched before going, like “Jesus”, and “pray”).
After a few worship songs, the Pastor, who was both Deaf and also nearly blind, got up to deliver his message. He signed to the congregants, but had someone sign into his hands whenever anyone in the congregation said something since he couldn’t see them. (This is apparently more common than you would think - a friend who attended a Deaf coffee-night said he saw several people doing the same thing).
The Pastor wrapped up, and I thought the service was ending, but I had one more hurdle to jump - the Pastor’s aide was asking each person in the congregation who wasn’t an ordinary member of the church to stand up and say a few words about themselves to everyone. On my turn, I stood up, signed my name, where I was from, and that I was learning ASL in college. Since I was in one of the middle pews, the people behind me couldn’t see what I was signing. The way around this is rather clever - the person on the pulpit (who was facing into the congregation, and so could see me) mirrored what I signed, allowing everyone to see what I had said.
I must say that overall I was struck by how inviting the Deaf congregants were to a hearing outsider. I truly believe that showing interest in Deaf culture, and making an effort to communicate with them in their native language is what made the experience so positive. I’m reminded of how I was treated in Barcelona - if I made the attempt to communicate in Catalan, rather than Spanish (even if it was just to say “Que parla Castellano?” - “Do you speak Spanish”), people were so much more open and friendly to me. The moral of the story, I guess, is that it is worth it to put in a little bit of effort, and show an appreciation for a person’s culture and language.
Posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 at 8:07 pm. Categories: Linguistics, Adventures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can also leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
3 Responses to “Who knew a Deaf church would be so… loud?”
JPG Says:
July 25th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
The Pastor…had someone sign into his hands whenever anyone in the congregation said something since he couldn’t see them.
I believe that’s how Helen Keller communicated, actually…
Aaron Says:
July 25th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
@JPG: Yeah, the point of my including that detail was largely to show that it is not so uncommon a method of communication as one might think…
Marissa Says:
July 25th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
JEALOUS!!! I’ve wanted to learn ASL since the age of 11. Since I’m moving south, I plan on taking classes at Gallaudet the minute I can afford it . . . .
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