Transcripts of Deaf Korean Graduate Student

 My parents originally were not in agreement with me going to America. Because they said: "How are you going to communicate, who's going to help? You can't speak English." My parents knew how hard it was for me to learn, and that how much, you know, I had been practicing so much. But I explained to them, that I can't call you, but we can use a tool that's called MSN. And we can use a web camera on our computers, we can see each other. We can type back and forth and we can see each other to communicate. And I showed them about the ASL program, and that I would learn Sign Language  I told them I would enroll in a class and... I would watch and I would learn American Sign Language. So I was... I explained that to them. At first my parents didn't like that I was learning Korean Sign Language, and my feelings changed as I became more independent. And I had more, oh, and I had my confidence increased. Before I felt really down, and sometimes depressed, and I wasn't very happy in my life. I was very frustrated with the world and communication, there was a lot of communication breakdown. And I myself could speak clearly but I couldn't understand always what other people were saying, so that made me nervous as I was learning Sign Language, I realized I can't hear but I can watch. And so I learned to become more comfortable that way. How did you learn, how and where did you, tell us a story about how and where you learned to sign, and how difficult or easy it was for you.   

My first exposure to Sign Language was in Korea, It was called Signed Korean, that was what I first learned. Then I had a Deaf friend that I met, her signing and my signing was very different, we had a lot of communication breakdowns and I thought :"What's the problem? I wonder why this is?" So then I went to a Deaf Church I learned more Sign Language, and I realized that there was a difference. There is Korean Sign Language, and Signed Korean, and those are different signing methods. There's different language, there's different cognitive processes. So I learned about the differences. That led me... That led me to what I wanted to study in Grad in my graduate school. My question is, I realized that Signed Korean isn't good, Korean Sign Language is better. And so I wanted to study, what is the difference? Wondering, you know, I wanted to learn more about the differences, and go into that in my graduate study in Deaf Education. 

Can you explain for us, in your own words, what you see as the difference? Between those two systems?  

First, they're very different grammatically. I can't explain... Let me think, how they're different, but I know that there is a difference. I know that a difference exists. Let me think about how I can explain the difference. I'm sorry. Let me offer something to see if it's the same in American Sign Language. American Sign Language is it's own language, with all of it's own grammar and systems. But signed English, exact English, is based on English, so it follows the word order and grammar of English. Yes that's the same as in Korea. Yes, thank you. (Laughing). Yeah thank you for your help, that's really helped clarify. Can you tell us, how long you've been in graduate school, now? And I guess I'm specifically interested in stories again about technology and literacy, reading and writing in graduate school, and also your use of technologies in graduate school. And how those have helped your literacy or not helped your literacy.  Do you mean how long have I been in my graduate school here in America? This is my third year. 

In Korea I could speak, and it was a lot easier for me to communicate with other hearing people. And then when I moved to America, I couldn't speak the language. I felt like there was a larger gap between me and other people. I couldn't access, I couldn't access the information, and I couldn't communicate with people in the graduate school. I'm a PHD student and there's, there's a lot of information that's circling around, and I couldn't gain access to that. So that really made me feel isolated sometimes. Most of the time I use e-mail for communication purposes. I use the internet as well, for information, off... I'll select information from magazines or articles, My English is not good and I have a lot of errors related to grammar. And the reason is that I never really practiced speaking the language. I always first read English. I learned how to read English and then I learned how to write it. And then the search engine, Google, I would check my English, is my grammar right or incorrect? And so I would check, using that, and so it would let me know about my grammar errors. So that's what I used. Sometimes I consider the internet my English teacher. I'll use it for communication and the internet has... They'll have a dialogue such as "Person A, Person B", and how do they communicate? And so I'll look at that as an example I'll memorize that. 

You know, one of the things that we have found in listening to the stories of the people we've interviewed, is that they have strategies that they employ in order to do these same things, that students who can hear do. But they end up working four times harder. That, like you, memorizing your books, and Jane Fernandez said she would study four different books, and collate them. And Brenda said that she would also do those kinds of things where you prepare, you have to prepare so much more diligently, than hearing students. Is that the case in your life? Can you tell us a story, about that?  

I was skilled in writing Korean, I was skilled at that, for a short time at English I would think... in Korean it would take me a short time, and if I think of English, a hearing person, it might take them ten minutes, it might take me an hour, sometimes it might take me an hour. To create those sentences, whereas it would not take as long for hearing students. So that's very hard, and I remember in Korea, I was skilled in the Korean language  I wouldn't get to bed until two in the morning sometimes because I would be working so hard, and then I would have to wake up again at seven. That's mostly the case in my life, I have a lot of... I've had to work really hard, sometimes it's really not fair, I really work hard. And hearing students, it's easy for them, they'll work for a short time and then it's over. And so, we might get the same grade, or I might even get a lesser grade, but I feel that that's not fair, I'm working so hard. Did they have schools for the deaf in Korea? And have you ever visited or attended any of those schools? Can you tell a story about that? Yes they have deaf schools, I have visited them before, I've visited those deaf schools. They have deaf schools, they have oral schools, and I have visited all of them, in Korea. At one of the deaf schools there was a teacher, I think, I think most of the teachers don't know sign. Mostly they're oral instruction. What do you mean by oral instruction? The teachers are speaking themselves. In Korea, most of the teachers will speak without signing. That's their own method of teaching. And so the students, it's very hard for them. 

And so students read lips? And they have hearing aids? 

Yeah, it's very hard for them to do that. a lot of the students told me, they really complained about that. They said when the teacher is speaking they don't understand, what she's saying. Can you tell us, about some of your favorite kinds of technology that you have used? Either now or in the past, that you liked to use, that you felt it really helped you communicate, whether it's video, or e-mail, or the internet in general? What's the name of the device that you used when you first came here you came to my office, remember? And we typed back and forth? So I'm just interested in what kinds of technologies you've used before, that you liked, that you found really helpful with communication and for learning. And what were some of the problems of each of those?  Before I used a device called AlphaSmart, but was it a large help? I don't know, it didn't really help a lot. You know I'd be face to face with someone and it would be better for me to be face to face communicating with somebody, I wasn't very comfortable looking down at a keyboard. But at home... At home if I'm on the keyboard and there's not an opportunity to be face to face that's fine, but here I've noticed that hearing people are not comfortable with that technology. You know we feel like we're not very related, we're not relating as we're communicating. There's no kind of connection there. I think I used that for two months and then I stopped using it. I would write back and forth, that seems better, or I would sign. That method seemed more beneficial than the AlphaSmart.