Im a little shocked and emotional about a situation. It needs to be handled with care. That is why I want to run things by you guys. Many you can provide some ideas, questions, or perspectives. I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much. (I need some educated insight and critical thinking, which is why I posted this topic here. however, if anyone feels that this topic is not relevant to this group or that it not appropriate for this kind of group, I understand if it is chosen to be deleted by the Admins.) All my Social Work courses are going beautifully, except that Im struggling a bit in one of my classes--not exactly academically, but I am becoming increasingly frustrated with my professor. Its a Skills Lab, which is all about communicating with other people and taking diversity into account, etc. One of our assignments was to interview someone and have them be a client and us be the social worker/interview. I chose a friend of mine who is also deaf. We did that video in ASL and did everything properly. However, when the assignment came to watch our video and write down comments about visual/eye contact patterns, attentive body language/movement harmonics, open and closed questions, vocal qualities, verbal tracking, and key words, I was at a loss. I was unable to write things down for vocal qualities, key words, and verbal tracking. This was because my interview was done in ASL. I feel like the professor and the book are not being inclusive. The concepts of speech and language are being used interchangeably, which is super frustrating to me. I feel that speech is a method of communication and while it can and does build off of language, it is not an indication of language. It is quite clear that you can have language without speech (American Sign Language) but this is not the perspective that is being taught in class. Many of the definitions used in the book, in class, and by people in general are concerning and bothersome from my perspective. It appears that verbal means spoken, which means oral. I dont feel that definition is always correct. Verbal means speech means communication comprised of words; this is also not always an accurate definition, in my opinion. In addition, we are being taught and it is being implied that non-verbal communication means that there is no words or speech, which means no language involved, which is also not correct. I feel that non-verbal communication is all about visual things, visual cues, the use of touch, distance, physical/environmental/appearance, proxemics, chronemics, eye contact, glances, and fixation. I also dont think non-verbal communication is the same thing as non-verbal behavior. Also the concept of non-verbal communication is being lumped with body language. Again, I dont feel that is accurate. I feel that body-language is one small aspect that could be included in non-verbal communication. Body language is posture, gestures, eye movement, and facial expressions. But body language is a part of non-verbal communication, but body language is most certainly not American Sign Language. There are no words in ASL. There are signs. And signs are the same thing as gestures. In addition, the professor mentioned talking with your hands, which is what I do (ASL--duh), is considered distracting and we should limit it. I asked her why its negative and she said that its distracting and thats all. So after class, I approached her and just mentioned that I use ASL, which is hand movements, and she agreed and said that gestures are distracting. I said that I am not gesturing, I am communicating. In turn, she said what Im doing is the same thing as gesturing--its just body language. And she said that I can communicate with my voice, therefore there is no need to use ASL. In addition, because I can communicate with my voice, there is no reason for me to sign and voice at the same time because its quite distracting. I was absolutely appalled. And even last week when I was sick, I used the interpreter to voice for my 100% of the time. This professor was taken aback and asked me what was going on, asking me to justify myself. I explained that I was still contributing and I was just inputting my opinion and whatnot. She said, But you are not talking. And I guess that irritated me. I said Yes, I am talking. And she said, No, you are not. Your interpreter is. I was just really ticked off, so t the time, I just nicely explained that I was sick and lost me voice and she said, Oh, ok. Thank god. I was worried for a second. I was not quite sure what she was worried about, but I dont feel like I should need to justify my communication style. We are always talking about different cultures and diversity, and she is being quite inconsiderate. She is respecting all cultures and all aspects of diversity except deafness and Deaf Culture. Of course, as always, I take into consideration that she is ignorant, as many people are, about Deaf Culture. But, like many people, she also makes blanket statements about how we as Americans view things in American culture and everyone agrees, but I dont. I am American, but American hearing culture is completely opposite of American Deaf Culture. And I feel like my culture, my values, my language, etc are not being recognized or appreciated, which frustrates me. Of course, it is my job to educate her, but I guess I am just surprised by whats going on. In addition, we have to do a series of video assignments (as I mentioned before) with clients (we get to choose anyone we want.) And now, she is considering saying that I should do all my videos verbally using my voice. I cant just do it in ASL and also have my client using ASL. I cant have an interpreter voicing for both myself and the client, either. She says that I can talk verbally, so thats how I should do the video because no one else is allowed to do it in another language, so I shouldnt be allowed to either. And also, my client shouldnt be using ASL either. I was stunned and appalled. I understand that not everyone sees the way that I do, and I have given some attempts to explain myself, but those little attempts have been unproductive. Therefore, I know I need to go further in addressing whats going on. Right now, Im just increasingly frustrated and I am a little shocked and emotional, too. Im not sure how to go about handling this situation. Im not sure exactly if Im being unreasonable. Am I possibly not seeing something? When I do take a more involved approach to this situation, what exactly should I say? Is there any insight that you guys can provide? Any questions you have? Any ideas? Any comments? I want to handle this situation effectively and appropriately and Im looking for multiple perspectives and interpretations of what is going on before I just jump in head first and do or say something that I will regret later.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 17:55:44 +0000
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