For many different reasons switching to Gujarati Medium is not
going to work because even in Gujarati medium I would not be completely immersed
in the language because people can still speak a little English. I decided go
somewhere where no one can speak to me in ANY language. From now on I am going
to an experimental school for the deaf so that I can learn sign language! I am
not a student I am going there to observe and interact with the students. The
students are so amazing because even though they cannot speak they are incredibly
intelligent and capable. They are probably more intelligent than most “normal”
people are because they have had to work so much harder to get to the same place.
They are able to do everything that a “normal” person can. I went to a Key Club
convention last year and there was a motivational speaker who spoke about what
it means to be handicapped. He was born without legs and everyone’s obvious
reaction to that was “OMG I feel so sorry for you. That is horrible, I could
not imagine growing up that way, your life must be so difficult.” He said that there
is no reason to feel bad for anyone with a handicap. A handicap is anything that
makes you different. We are all
handicapped in some way. He said there are thousands of “normal” people walking
around on legs that are more handicapped than he was. I feel the same way about
the students at this school. There are all going to be perfectly fine and live
normal lives. I do not want people to think that I am a saint or anything like
that for going to a school for the deaf in my free time. I also do not want
anyone to think that the deaf students are my charity case because they are my
friends. In the end I am sure they will teach me more than I can ever teach
them. I will still do my best to learn Hindi but it is going to have to be from
the books….unfortunately. There is little hope of me even becoming semi-fluent
in Hindi because I have less than one year here and because I am never going to
be immersed in it, but I can promise that I will give it my absolute best! It will
not be the end of the world if I do not learn Hindi or Gujarati perfectly
because learning a language is not the ONLY point of exchange. There are so
many things to experience. However, learning languages is one of my passions. I
did not expect to come to India to learn sign language while speaking English,
but it works!
