Wednesday September 21, 2005
United – by their ‘handicap’
By EMMELINE TAN
IF the Biblical Tower of Babel once divided mankind, maybe the lack of speech is making them ‘one’ again.
At YMCA’s 30th international deaf youth camp (HH Camp) themed ‘Be One’, the 140 deaf youths found their common so-called ‘handicap’ to unite them in the midst of the hearing majority.
The HH (Hard of Hearing) camp was first held in 1975 in Hong Kong. It was then called the YMCA Inter-national Handicapped in Hearing Camp.
The recent gathering was Malaysia’s fourth time as camp host to the participants who came from the Asia Pacific region – Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, the Philippines and Singapore.
By the time they reached Penang, their last stop after Kuala Lumpur and Cameron Highlands, the cam-pers were already well adjusted to each other despite differences in culture and surprisingly, even sign language.
A deaf Malaysian would not be able to understand the signing of a deaf Japanese because the latter’s signing would be in Japanese sign language!
A hearing Malaysian (the befuddled reporter) would need a Japanese translator to translate from Japanese sign language to Malaysian sign language and then a Malaysian translator to convert it to spoken English.
Camp director Malaysian Lee Tur Chung recalls an amusing incident.
“The Japanese were signing ‘brother’ but Malaysians thought it was a bad word because their friends were showing the middle finger!”
Lee, a 31-year-old deaf teacher at SK Pendidikan Khas Selangor, was proud to say the camp committee consisted mostly of the deaf.
The Indian team, which was joining the camp for the first time, surprised this ignorant reporter when they started speaking audibly! Not fluently, but comprehensibly, in English.
Smita Patel, 27, a deaf teacher from Mumbai, said that in India, the deaf are encouraged to lip read rather than sign.
Japanese Kie Furuya, 27 said she thought it would surely be difficult to communicate at the camp.
“But when someone smiled at me, I just smiled back and it took off from there!” said Kie, a deaf teacher.
Filipino Gian Irwin Gugol, 15 said he was excited to see people were different.
“But it’s good to see the deaf integrate and be one,” said Gian, adding he wouldn't forget Malaysia’s spicy food.
Even the hearing benefited from the camp. Interpreter Samuel Chew, 26 said volunteering for the event helped him, as a hearing person, realise what he was missing out.
“There is a bond shared by the deaf. Language and cultural barriers disappear and they just click.
“I realise that the disabled are not really disabled,” said Chew who picked up sign language during his university days.
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