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Vedere voci. Un viaggio nel mondo dei sordi
«Tre anni fa non sapevo nulla della condizione dei sordi e non avrei mai immaginato che essa potesse far luce su tanti ambiti diversi, soprattutto in quello del linguaggio. Poi, e fu una scoperta sorprendente, venni a conoscenza della loro storia e delle straordinarie sfide (linguistiche) che essi devono affrontare; scoprii anche, con meraviglia, che esisteva un linguaggio completamente visivo, i Segni, che si esprimeva in una modalità diversa dalla mia lingua, il parlato. È terribilmente facile dare per scontato il linguaggio, la propria lingua – può occorrere l’impatto con un’altra lingua o, piuttosto, con un’altra modalità di linguaggio, per ritrovare la nostra antica meraviglia».
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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About the author
Oliver Sacks
102 books9,761 followersOliver Wolf Sacks, CBE, was a British neurologist residing in the United States, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.
Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and Elsie, a surgeon. When he was six years old, he and his brother were evacuated from London to escape The Blitz, retreating to a boarding school in the Midlands, where he remained until 1943. During his youth, he was a keen amateur chemist, as recalled in his memoir Uncle Tungsten. He also learned to share his parents' enthusiasm for medicine and entered The Queen's College, Oxford University in 1951, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in physiology and biology in 1954. At the same institution, he went on to earn in 1958, a Master of Arts (MA) and an MB ChB in chemistry, thereby qualifying to practice medicine.
After converting his British qualifications to American recognition (i.e., an MD as opposed to MB ChB), Sacks moved to New York, where he has lived since 1965, and taken twice weekly therapy sessions since 1966.
Sacks began consulting at chronic care facility Beth Abraham Hospital (now Beth Abraham Health Service) in 1966. At Beth Abraham, Sacks worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness, encephalitis lethargica, who had been unable to move on their own for decades. These patients and his treatment of them were the basis of Sacks' book Awakenings.
His work at Beth Abraham helped provide the foundation on which the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF), where Sacks is currently an honorary medical advisor, is built. In 2000, IMNF honored Sacks, its founder, with its first Music Has Power Award. The IMNF again bestowed a Music Has Power Award on Sacks in 2006 to commemorate "his 40 years at Beth Abraham and honor his outstanding contributions in support of music therapy and the effect of music on the human brain and mind".
Sacks was formerly employed as a clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and at the New York University School of Medicine, serving the latter school for 42 years. On 1 July 2007, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons appointed Sacks to a position as professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry, at the same time opening to him a new position as "artist", which the university hoped will help interconnect disciplines such as medicine, law, and economics. Sacks was a consultant neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor, and maintained a practice in New York City.
Since 1996, Sacks was a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature). In 1999, Sacks became a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. Also in 1999, he became an Honorary Fellow at The Queen's College, Oxford. In 2002, he became Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Class IV—Humanities and Arts, Section 4—Literature).[38] and he was awarded the 2001 Lewis Thomas Prize by Rockefeller University. Sacks was awarded honorary doctorates from the College of Staten Island (1991), Tufts University (1991), New York Medical College (1991), Georgetown University (1992), Medical College of Pennsylvania (1992), Bard College (1992), Queen's University (Ontario) (2001), Gallaudet University (2005), University of Oxford (2005), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006). He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours. Asteroid 84928 Oliversacks, discovered in 2003 and 2 miles (3.2 km) in diameter, has been named in his honor.
Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and Elsie, a surgeon. When he was six years old, he and his brother were evacuated from London to escape The Blitz, retreating to a boarding school in the Midlands, where he remained until 1943. During his youth, he was a keen amateur chemist, as recalled in his memoir Uncle Tungsten. He also learned to share his parents' enthusiasm for medicine and entered The Queen's College, Oxford University in 1951, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in physiology and biology in 1954. At the same institution, he went on to earn in 1958, a Master of Arts (MA) and an MB ChB in chemistry, thereby qualifying to practice medicine.
After converting his British qualifications to American recognition (i.e., an MD as opposed to MB ChB), Sacks moved to New York, where he has lived since 1965, and taken twice weekly therapy sessions since 1966.
Sacks began consulting at chronic care facility Beth Abraham Hospital (now Beth Abraham Health Service) in 1966. At Beth Abraham, Sacks worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness, encephalitis lethargica, who had been unable to move on their own for decades. These patients and his treatment of them were the basis of Sacks' book Awakenings.
His work at Beth Abraham helped provide the foundation on which the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF), where Sacks is currently an honorary medical advisor, is built. In 2000, IMNF honored Sacks, its founder, with its first Music Has Power Award. The IMNF again bestowed a Music Has Power Award on Sacks in 2006 to commemorate "his 40 years at Beth Abraham and honor his outstanding contributions in support of music therapy and the effect of music on the human brain and mind".
Sacks was formerly employed as a clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and at the New York University School of Medicine, serving the latter school for 42 years. On 1 July 2007, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons appointed Sacks to a position as professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry, at the same time opening to him a new position as "artist", which the university hoped will help interconnect disciplines such as medicine, law, and economics. Sacks was a consultant neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor, and maintained a practice in New York City.
Since 1996, Sacks was a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature). In 1999, Sacks became a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. Also in 1999, he became an Honorary Fellow at The Queen's College, Oxford. In 2002, he became Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Class IV—Humanities and Arts, Section 4—Literature).[38] and he was awarded the 2001 Lewis Thomas Prize by Rockefeller University. Sacks was awarded honorary doctorates from the College of Staten Island (1991), Tufts University (1991), New York Medical College (1991), Georgetown University (1992), Medical College of Pennsylvania (1992), Bard College (1992), Queen's University (Ontario) (2001), Gallaudet University (2005), University of Oxford (2005), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006). He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours. Asteroid 84928 Oliversacks, discovered in 2003 and 2 miles (3.2 km) in diameter, has been named in his honor.
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September 4, 2024
VOCI DAL SILENZIO
Tre anni fa non sapevo nulla della condizione dei sordi e non avrei mai immaginato che essa potesse far luce in tanti ambiti diversi, soprattutto in quello del linguaggio. Poi, e fu una scoperta sorprendente, venni a conoscenza della storia dei sordi e delle straordinarie sfide (linguistiche) che essi devono affrontare; scoprii anche, con meraviglia, che esisteva un linguaggio completamente visivo, i Segni, che si esprimeva in una modalità diversa dalla mia lingua, il parlato. E terribilmente facile dare per scontato il linguaggio, la propria lingua - può occorrere l'impatto con un'altra lingua, o piuttosto con un'altra modalità di linguaggio, per ritrovare la nostra antica meraviglia.
Questo è stato il mio secondo libro di Sacks.
Adelphi cominciò a pubblicarli alla fine degli anni Ottanta - credo che il primo sia stato Risvegli nel 1987 – questo è uscito nel 1990 – ed è inutile negare che per quanto gli argomenti siano sempre interessanti, la prosa di Sacks piacevole, intelligente colta ironica e con un forte approccio empatico, è inutile negare che io sia riuscito a sottrarmi al hype.
Questa volta Sacks non si muove sul terreno dei disturbi neurologici, questa volta affronta uno spazio nuovo e diverso, che generalmente viene sottovalutato, forse perfino ignorato: l’universo della sordità. O meglio, trattandosi di Sacks, e quindi sempre l’uomo e l’umanità prima di tutto, il mondo dei sordi.
Anche la sordità è una menomazione, un limite e un handicap: ma ovviamente la curiosità e l’interesse, e l’intelligenza che spinge sempre Sacks, lo porta a scoprire che il meno può (potrebbe?) anche nascondere un più: per esempio, un’acutissima capacità di sviluppare l'esperienza visiva. La base sulla quale poggia il linguaggio dei Segni che ha consentito ai sordi di formare una comunità.
Si può essere molto duri d’orecchio e correggere il problema con qualche tipo d’apparecchio acustico.
I “sordi profondi”, invece, non riusciranno mai a udire suoni voci o rumori: per loro esiste il linguaggio dei segni, possibilmente integrato con la lettura del labiale.
Si può essere sordi dalla nascita o diventarlo più tardi per malattia o incidente. È il caso del poeta e romanziere sudafricano Wright che perse l’udito a sette anni, quando sapeva già parlare: a quel punto cominciò a sentire voci e suoni “fantasma”, che non erano reali, ma ricordi, sensazioni dovute alla conoscenza sviluppata nei primi sette anni di vita.
I sordi prelinguistici, quelli che lo sono dalla nascita o lo sono diventati prima d’aver potuto imparare a parlare (come la dottoressa Lucy collega di Sacks, che perse l’udito a dodici mesi) vivono in un mondo di totale e ininterrotta assenza di suono. Una situazione difficilmente paragonabile ad altre, che spinge a definire la sordità “una tra le più disperate delle calamità umane”.
Il sordo dalla nascita corre anche il rischio di accumulare ritardo d’apprendimento, di restare per così dire ritardato, e menomato per sempre, a meno che non s’intervenga immediatamente: è proprio attraverso il linguaggio che entriamo in possesso della nostra umanità.
È per questo motivo che i sordi, e sordomuti, congeniti sono stati per secoli considerati idioti: si veda il caso del ragazzo selvaggio dell’Aveyron che a metà Settecento diventa forse il primo nel quale la comunità scientifica tenta il recupero.
Charles-Michele de L’Épée fu il primo non sordo a imparare il linguaggio dei segni adottato dai non udenti della sua epoca, a incrociarlo con immagini e parole scritte: il suo sistema di segni ‘metodici’ era una combinazione di segni appresi dai sordi con segni morfosintattici francesi. Un metodo che consentì ad alcuni sordi di imparare a leggere e scrivere. Fondò una scuola nel 1755 che nel 1791 diventò l’Istituto Nazionale per i Sordomuti, gigantesco passo avanti.
Poi si svilupparono le scuole ‘oraliste’ dove ci si impegnava a insegnare ai sordi a parlare. Poi…
Questa materia in mano a Sacks diventa occasione per rileggere la bibbia, Socrate, Platone…
Quando lessi per la prima volta dei sordi e della loro singolare modalità di linguaggio, i Segni, ne fui spronato a imbarcarmi in un'esplorazione, in un viaggio; questo viaggio mi ha portato tra i sordi e le loro famiglie; mi ha fatto approdare alle scuole per sordi, e alla Gallaudet, l'unica università per sordi che esista; mi ha portato a Martha's Vineyard, l'isola del Massachusetts dove un tempo esisteva una forma ereditaria di sordità e tutti (gli udenti non meno dei sordi) parlavano con i Segni; mi ha portato in città come Fremont e Rochester, dove esiste un'interessante interfaccia tra comunità di sordi e comunità di udenti. Questo viaggio mi ha portato a vedere il linguaggio, la natura del parlare e dell'insegnare, lo sviluppo del bambino, la crescita e il funzionamento del sistema nervoso, la formazione delle comunità, dei mondi, delle culture, in un modo del tutto nuovo, che mi ha fatto imparare tanto. È stato un viaggio che ha reso per me strano ciò che era familiare, familiare ciò che era strano.
Tre anni fa non sapevo nulla della condizione dei sordi e non avrei mai immaginato che essa potesse far luce in tanti ambiti diversi, soprattutto in quello del linguaggio. Poi, e fu una scoperta sorprendente, venni a conoscenza della storia dei sordi e delle straordinarie sfide (linguistiche) che essi devono affrontare; scoprii anche, con meraviglia, che esisteva un linguaggio completamente visivo, i Segni, che si esprimeva in una modalità diversa dalla mia lingua, il parlato. E terribilmente facile dare per scontato il linguaggio, la propria lingua - può occorrere l'impatto con un'altra lingua, o piuttosto con un'altra modalità di linguaggio, per ritrovare la nostra antica meraviglia.
Questo è stato il mio secondo libro di Sacks.
Adelphi cominciò a pubblicarli alla fine degli anni Ottanta - credo che il primo sia stato Risvegli nel 1987 – questo è uscito nel 1990 – ed è inutile negare che per quanto gli argomenti siano sempre interessanti, la prosa di Sacks piacevole, intelligente colta ironica e con un forte approccio empatico, è inutile negare che io sia riuscito a sottrarmi al hype.
Questa volta Sacks non si muove sul terreno dei disturbi neurologici, questa volta affronta uno spazio nuovo e diverso, che generalmente viene sottovalutato, forse perfino ignorato: l’universo della sordità. O meglio, trattandosi di Sacks, e quindi sempre l’uomo e l’umanità prima di tutto, il mondo dei sordi.
Anche la sordità è una menomazione, un limite e un handicap: ma ovviamente la curiosità e l’interesse, e l’intelligenza che spinge sempre Sacks, lo porta a scoprire che il meno può (potrebbe?) anche nascondere un più: per esempio, un’acutissima capacità di sviluppare l'esperienza visiva. La base sulla quale poggia il linguaggio dei Segni che ha consentito ai sordi di formare una comunità.
Si può essere molto duri d’orecchio e correggere il problema con qualche tipo d’apparecchio acustico.
I “sordi profondi”, invece, non riusciranno mai a udire suoni voci o rumori: per loro esiste il linguaggio dei segni, possibilmente integrato con la lettura del labiale.
Si può essere sordi dalla nascita o diventarlo più tardi per malattia o incidente. È il caso del poeta e romanziere sudafricano Wright che perse l’udito a sette anni, quando sapeva già parlare: a quel punto cominciò a sentire voci e suoni “fantasma”, che non erano reali, ma ricordi, sensazioni dovute alla conoscenza sviluppata nei primi sette anni di vita.
I sordi prelinguistici, quelli che lo sono dalla nascita o lo sono diventati prima d’aver potuto imparare a parlare (come la dottoressa Lucy collega di Sacks, che perse l’udito a dodici mesi) vivono in un mondo di totale e ininterrotta assenza di suono. Una situazione difficilmente paragonabile ad altre, che spinge a definire la sordità “una tra le più disperate delle calamità umane”.
Il sordo dalla nascita corre anche il rischio di accumulare ritardo d’apprendimento, di restare per così dire ritardato, e menomato per sempre, a meno che non s’intervenga immediatamente: è proprio attraverso il linguaggio che entriamo in possesso della nostra umanità.
È per questo motivo che i sordi, e sordomuti, congeniti sono stati per secoli considerati idioti: si veda il caso del ragazzo selvaggio dell’Aveyron che a metà Settecento diventa forse il primo nel quale la comunità scientifica tenta il recupero.
Charles-Michele de L’Épée fu il primo non sordo a imparare il linguaggio dei segni adottato dai non udenti della sua epoca, a incrociarlo con immagini e parole scritte: il suo sistema di segni ‘metodici’ era una combinazione di segni appresi dai sordi con segni morfosintattici francesi. Un metodo che consentì ad alcuni sordi di imparare a leggere e scrivere. Fondò una scuola nel 1755 che nel 1791 diventò l’Istituto Nazionale per i Sordomuti, gigantesco passo avanti.
Poi si svilupparono le scuole ‘oraliste’ dove ci si impegnava a insegnare ai sordi a parlare. Poi…
Questa materia in mano a Sacks diventa occasione per rileggere la bibbia, Socrate, Platone…
Quando lessi per la prima volta dei sordi e della loro singolare modalità di linguaggio, i Segni, ne fui spronato a imbarcarmi in un'esplorazione, in un viaggio; questo viaggio mi ha portato tra i sordi e le loro famiglie; mi ha fatto approdare alle scuole per sordi, e alla Gallaudet, l'unica università per sordi che esista; mi ha portato a Martha's Vineyard, l'isola del Massachusetts dove un tempo esisteva una forma ereditaria di sordità e tutti (gli udenti non meno dei sordi) parlavano con i Segni; mi ha portato in città come Fremont e Rochester, dove esiste un'interessante interfaccia tra comunità di sordi e comunità di udenti. Questo viaggio mi ha portato a vedere il linguaggio, la natura del parlare e dell'insegnare, lo sviluppo del bambino, la crescita e il funzionamento del sistema nervoso, la formazione delle comunità, dei mondi, delle culture, in un modo del tutto nuovo, che mi ha fatto imparare tanto. È stato un viaggio che ha reso per me strano ciò che era familiare, familiare ciò che era strano.
May 8, 2016
I have been working a fair amount the last year with software that produces signed language - so I had to read this book, where Oliver Sacks presents his take on the strange and wonderful world of Deaf culture. I don't think it's his most objective piece of work, but it's impossible to be objective in the face of the monstrous injustice that has been inflicted on Deaf society. Even today, many people I talk to are not aware that signed languages are just as much "real" languages as English or French, and that signers make up a well-defined linguistic community with its own cultural identity. For a long time, it was much worse. In the first part of the book, Sacks tells the story of how Deaf people acquired signed language during the late eighteenth century and then had it snatched from them again a hundred years later by the utterly misguided decisions of educational theorists who thought it would be better for them to learn to talk; it is hard to read this section without feeling both sad and angry. Now, as he relates in the third part, things have improved, and signers are slowly recovering their rights; but it is easy to understand why they are so suspicious and untrusting when they come into contact with hearing people. We have behaved very badly towards them, and they have reason to fear us.
The middle section, which makes up about half the book, discusses sign language from the point of view of late 1980s neuroscience. Sacks quotes some fascinating neurological/psychological studies: the most striking one involved a series of experiments with a Deaf woman who had suffered damage to the right hemisphere of her brain. As a result, she was apparently unaware of half of her visual field; but, remarkably, she still signed using a "signing space" of a normal size, which included the left side she effectively couldn't see. Sacks interprets this as showing that signers "lexicalize space", processing it with their language-oriented left hemisphere when they are using it for purposes of signing. Another memorable passage is about a signed Yom Kippur service at a Deaf synagogue. Sacks, himself Jewish, describes how the Deaf worshippers together sign the words of the holy Talmud with great expansive gestures, often making the signs above their heads rather than, as would be normal, in front of them; completely logical, since the Person they are signing to is God.
I wish I knew how reliable it all is: Sacks is by his own admission no expert in sign language, and doesn't sign at all. I'll ask my signing colleagues if they are better informed. But it's a beautiful and heartfelt book, and I think that it has materially helped the Deaf community in their struggle to win back their rightful place in modern Western society. It makes me want to do more in this area.
The middle section, which makes up about half the book, discusses sign language from the point of view of late 1980s neuroscience. Sacks quotes some fascinating neurological/psychological studies: the most striking one involved a series of experiments with a Deaf woman who had suffered damage to the right hemisphere of her brain. As a result, she was apparently unaware of half of her visual field; but, remarkably, she still signed using a "signing space" of a normal size, which included the left side she effectively couldn't see. Sacks interprets this as showing that signers "lexicalize space", processing it with their language-oriented left hemisphere when they are using it for purposes of signing. Another memorable passage is about a signed Yom Kippur service at a Deaf synagogue. Sacks, himself Jewish, describes how the Deaf worshippers together sign the words of the holy Talmud with great expansive gestures, often making the signs above their heads rather than, as would be normal, in front of them; completely logical, since the Person they are signing to is God.
I wish I knew how reliable it all is: Sacks is by his own admission no expert in sign language, and doesn't sign at all. I'll ask my signing colleagues if they are better informed. But it's a beautiful and heartfelt book, and I think that it has materially helped the Deaf community in their struggle to win back their rightful place in modern Western society. It makes me want to do more in this area.
January 8, 2008
When I was a child my cousin asked me if I would rather be blind or deaf. I didn't hesitate, I would much rather be deaf, I thought - a world of perpetual darkness was to be avoided at all costs.
To be honest, I never really thought about this question again until reading this book. I had no idea what costs deafness can bring with it.
Sacks go through many of these costs and explains, in remarkably simple language, some of the 'age dependent' structures that form our minds - how certain rules of language need to be learnt at certain ages - and if they have not been they mostly will not be, ever. The need for the deaf to learn sign earlier rather than later could not be explained in a better way.
He also explains Vygotsky's Zones of Proximal Development in a remarkably clear way.
This is a wonderful book and one that deals with quite difficult topics in a way that is clear and easy to read.
To be honest, I never really thought about this question again until reading this book. I had no idea what costs deafness can bring with it.
Sacks go through many of these costs and explains, in remarkably simple language, some of the 'age dependent' structures that form our minds - how certain rules of language need to be learnt at certain ages - and if they have not been they mostly will not be, ever. The need for the deaf to learn sign earlier rather than later could not be explained in a better way.
He also explains Vygotsky's Zones of Proximal Development in a remarkably clear way.
This is a wonderful book and one that deals with quite difficult topics in a way that is clear and easy to read.
June 18, 2013
“We are remarkably ignorant about deafness…Ignorant and indifferent.” I would definitely agree that I was relatively ignorant about deafness, probably because I didn’t know any deaf people until some months ago. Making the acquaintance of a young deaf man made me really curious about deaf people in general. This book taught me so much, it was truly enlightening.I think it should be read by everyone. Some of the stories about the deaf population's struggle for acceptance were very powerful and poignant, and I was embarrassed that I had been so unaware of their struggles.
A great quote:
“And to be defective in language, for a human being, is one of the most desperate of calamities, for it is only through language that we enter fully into our human estate and culture, communicate freely with our fellows, acquire and share information. If we cannot do this, we will be bizarrely disabled and cut off- whatever our desires or endeavours, or native capacities.”
A great quote:
“And to be defective in language, for a human being, is one of the most desperate of calamities, for it is only through language that we enter fully into our human estate and culture, communicate freely with our fellows, acquire and share information. If we cannot do this, we will be bizarrely disabled and cut off- whatever our desires or endeavours, or native capacities.”
August 3, 2010
Seeing Voices was originally published in 1989. That was a big in-between year for the deaf. In 1988 Gallaudet students successfully pushed for a deaf president of the university. And in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act would be signed into law.
As for me, in 1989 I was three years old. I had not yet been diagnosed with my own hearing loss. I had no idea who Oliver Sacks was, what "deafness" means, where Gallaudet is, or what American Sign Language is. Two years later my worried parents and grandparents would hear that I have a progressive sensorineural hearing loss, which began as a mild loss and has since progressed to a severe loss in one ear and a profound loss in the other.
Since I was "mainstreamed" as a child - educated without special education classes in a typical public school environment - I essentially knew nothing of other deaf people except Helen Keller. It was only when I began to take American Sign Language courses from the local community college (to avoid having to take two years of a spoken foreign language, which just confused me) that I learned of a Deaf culture, a Deaf identity, and the struggle that Deaf people have faced over hundreds of years. In that class I watched videos and read books and learned about the culture from my Deaf professor. And I learned American Sign Language.
ASL is an interesting language. Although it is functionally very beautiful, with flowing hands and a rhythm all its own, it can be off-putting to people not used to it. The gestures can be forceful (depending on the meaning behind the sign). Facial expressions are exaggerated along with the signing. Deaf people can be pushy: putting themselves directly in your line of sight, smacking you on the arm to get your attention, waving their hands all up in the air. So it was kind of uncomfortable at first. But there is something about sign language that draws you in. It feels right when you sign, even if you are hearing. It feels like you are just learning another skill, not another language.
I picked up this book because I've read Oliver Sacks' books before and never realized he'd published one about Deafness and Sign. And because I have a blog, Hearing Sparks, and wanted to write about this book for it, so that people know if they ought to pick it up. I think I will publish both this review and some more in-depth blog posts about the subjects touched upon by the author there.
Sacks splits his book up into three parts, which were all written at different times.
Part 1 is a cohesive and very readable history of deaf people as well as information about deafness (both medical and cultural) and Sacks' own introduction to the world of the deaf. We learn in school about history from the point of view of American colonists (if we are American) and slaves, basically. Reading about decades passing from the viewpoint of the deaf introduces not only a third viewpoint but the idea that there are many other viewpoints from which history could be told. In this chapter, Sacks draws a line between prelingually and postlingually deaf. The postlingually deaf are relatively often the most successful deaf people, because they have the memory of spoken language, grammar, sentence structure. Prelingually deaf people face challenges distinct to them, and forcing spoken language on them can lead to unforeseen consequences.
Sacks' position on oral vs. signed education for the deaf is subtly introduced in this part. He isn't forceful or annoying with his position; he simply lays out the way Sign is beneficial for the deaf, particularly prelingually deafened individuals. He closes with a visit to Martha's Vineyard, where nearly one in every family on the island was affected by deafness and every single individual knew Sign, deaf or not. (The knowledge of Sign drifted away as Martha's Vineyard became focused on tourism.)
Part 2 is a systematic view of American Sign Language itself and the way people naturally create grammar and syntax from essentially nothing. This is the longest chapter, and unfortunately suffers from an excess of footnotes and a rather dry tone. As usual, Sacks shines when writing about individuals, and the case studies he recounts in this chapter are very interesting. He quite easily demonstrates that American Sign Language is a full-fledged language in its own right, and demonstrates how languages are developed.
Part 3 was the most interesting chapter for me. Sacks details the 1989 student revolt at Gallaudet for a deaf president. He was there, and his writing about the sense of community at the college and the fervor the students felt is very interesting. The protest culminated in the appointment of King Jordan, whose resignation in 2005 would lead to further controversy when the board tried to appoint someone who was not fluent in ASL - only this time the protests also occurred online.
Overall, although parts of Sacks' books are now quite dated, it's still a very interesting read. Sacks does a good job of bringing together a lot of viewpoints, a lot of individuals, and a lot of ideas, and making them all fit together.
As for me, in 1989 I was three years old. I had not yet been diagnosed with my own hearing loss. I had no idea who Oliver Sacks was, what "deafness" means, where Gallaudet is, or what American Sign Language is. Two years later my worried parents and grandparents would hear that I have a progressive sensorineural hearing loss, which began as a mild loss and has since progressed to a severe loss in one ear and a profound loss in the other.
Since I was "mainstreamed" as a child - educated without special education classes in a typical public school environment - I essentially knew nothing of other deaf people except Helen Keller. It was only when I began to take American Sign Language courses from the local community college (to avoid having to take two years of a spoken foreign language, which just confused me) that I learned of a Deaf culture, a Deaf identity, and the struggle that Deaf people have faced over hundreds of years. In that class I watched videos and read books and learned about the culture from my Deaf professor. And I learned American Sign Language.
ASL is an interesting language. Although it is functionally very beautiful, with flowing hands and a rhythm all its own, it can be off-putting to people not used to it. The gestures can be forceful (depending on the meaning behind the sign). Facial expressions are exaggerated along with the signing. Deaf people can be pushy: putting themselves directly in your line of sight, smacking you on the arm to get your attention, waving their hands all up in the air. So it was kind of uncomfortable at first. But there is something about sign language that draws you in. It feels right when you sign, even if you are hearing. It feels like you are just learning another skill, not another language.
I picked up this book because I've read Oliver Sacks' books before and never realized he'd published one about Deafness and Sign. And because I have a blog, Hearing Sparks, and wanted to write about this book for it, so that people know if they ought to pick it up. I think I will publish both this review and some more in-depth blog posts about the subjects touched upon by the author there.
Sacks splits his book up into three parts, which were all written at different times.
Part 1 is a cohesive and very readable history of deaf people as well as information about deafness (both medical and cultural) and Sacks' own introduction to the world of the deaf. We learn in school about history from the point of view of American colonists (if we are American) and slaves, basically. Reading about decades passing from the viewpoint of the deaf introduces not only a third viewpoint but the idea that there are many other viewpoints from which history could be told. In this chapter, Sacks draws a line between prelingually and postlingually deaf. The postlingually deaf are relatively often the most successful deaf people, because they have the memory of spoken language, grammar, sentence structure. Prelingually deaf people face challenges distinct to them, and forcing spoken language on them can lead to unforeseen consequences.
Sacks' position on oral vs. signed education for the deaf is subtly introduced in this part. He isn't forceful or annoying with his position; he simply lays out the way Sign is beneficial for the deaf, particularly prelingually deafened individuals. He closes with a visit to Martha's Vineyard, where nearly one in every family on the island was affected by deafness and every single individual knew Sign, deaf or not. (The knowledge of Sign drifted away as Martha's Vineyard became focused on tourism.)
Part 2 is a systematic view of American Sign Language itself and the way people naturally create grammar and syntax from essentially nothing. This is the longest chapter, and unfortunately suffers from an excess of footnotes and a rather dry tone. As usual, Sacks shines when writing about individuals, and the case studies he recounts in this chapter are very interesting. He quite easily demonstrates that American Sign Language is a full-fledged language in its own right, and demonstrates how languages are developed.
Part 3 was the most interesting chapter for me. Sacks details the 1989 student revolt at Gallaudet for a deaf president. He was there, and his writing about the sense of community at the college and the fervor the students felt is very interesting. The protest culminated in the appointment of King Jordan, whose resignation in 2005 would lead to further controversy when the board tried to appoint someone who was not fluent in ASL - only this time the protests also occurred online.
Overall, although parts of Sacks' books are now quite dated, it's still a very interesting read. Sacks does a good job of bringing together a lot of viewpoints, a lot of individuals, and a lot of ideas, and making them all fit together.
April 8, 2012
Oliver Sacks is a fantastic writer; thus, this book is a fascinating read. The reason it got only 3 stars from me is because he did not write this book yesterday... he wrote it more than 20 years ago. I'm a speech therapist, and I work with many children who are deaf or hard of hearing in a school setting. So much of this book is now dated - the technology, the ideas, the arguments about deaf culture - even the words he uses to describe people who are deaf are outdated. Cochlear implants didn't exist 20 years ago. Mainstreaming special education didn't exist, people were still discovering that ASL was a self-contained language, ideas about agency and self-determination among populations of people who have disabilities have completely changed. The Americans with Disabilities Act didn't even exist when he wrote this book, for pete's sake!
Oliver Sacks is a good author and he wrote a good book, but developments in the field have shown his book to be time-bound. It's time for an update. I'd love to read the book he would write now!
Oliver Sacks is a good author and he wrote a good book, but developments in the field have shown his book to be time-bound. It's time for an update. I'd love to read the book he would write now!
June 20, 2016
I'm glad a friend of mine recommended me this book, because before reading it, I knew almost nothing about deafness. As a matter of fact, I hadn't really given much thought about it in my life, since speech is something so natural in our lives.
In its first two parts, The Deaf World and Thinking in Sign, Oliver Sacks talks about Sign, explaining in an accessible way, its origins and some of its neurophysiological characteristics - neuroplasticity and language development are also recurrent themes in Seeing Voices. After that, the author tells us about The Revolution of Deaf, which took place at Gallaudet University in 1988, when Gallaudet's students fought for a deaf university president.
What really got to me in this book was discovering all the complexity hidden in Sign, in which the deaf build their culture and their own ethnicity. Not just people with a common language and some similar characteristics, but a people, with its own social and cultural identity.
In its first two parts, The Deaf World and Thinking in Sign, Oliver Sacks talks about Sign, explaining in an accessible way, its origins and some of its neurophysiological characteristics - neuroplasticity and language development are also recurrent themes in Seeing Voices. After that, the author tells us about The Revolution of Deaf, which took place at Gallaudet University in 1988, when Gallaudet's students fought for a deaf university president.
What really got to me in this book was discovering all the complexity hidden in Sign, in which the deaf build their culture and their own ethnicity. Not just people with a common language and some similar characteristics, but a people, with its own social and cultural identity.
April 9, 2018
Цю книгу я завантажила абсолютно випадково аудіокнигою на телефон. Книга про глухих - та невже? Але я опинилась в ситуації, коли не було інтернету, але було 6 годин монотонної роботи попереду. Що ж, про глухих так про глухих - подумала я. І знаєте що? Це афігєнна книга!
По-перше, автор у ній робить головний акцент на питаннях мови - усної і жестової, як мова сприймається і генерується мозком, мова як інструмент мислення. Про зміщення з аудіо на візуальне і як це впливає на життя і сприйняття світу. Питання мовної свідомості.
По-друге, в книзі міститься захоплююча розповідь про спільноти глухих упродовж історії, про освіту для людей, що не чують.
По-третє, це примусило мене задуматися, як так, що я дожила до 27-ми років, 10 з яких я вчилася в школі по сусідству з інтернатом для дітей з порушенням слуху і НІКОЛИ в житті не спілкувалася з людиною, що не чує. Про різницю наших культур і про важливі питання інклюзивності. Це спонукало мене вивчити абетку жестів для початку. Може з цього вийде ще щось.
Невелика і захоплююча книга, раджу всім!
По-перше, автор у ній робить головний акцент на питаннях мови - усної і жестової, як мова сприймається і генерується мозком, мова як інструмент мислення. Про зміщення з аудіо на візуальне і як це впливає на життя і сприйняття світу. Питання мовної свідомості.
По-друге, в книзі міститься захоплююча розповідь про спільноти глухих упродовж історії, про освіту для людей, що не чують.
По-третє, це примусило мене задуматися, як так, що я дожила до 27-ми років, 10 з яких я вчилася в школі по сусідству з інтернатом для дітей з порушенням слуху і НІКОЛИ в житті не спілкувалася з людиною, що не чує. Про різницю наших культур і про важливі питання інклюзивності. Це спонукало мене вивчити абетку жестів для початку. Може з цього вийде ще щось.
Невелика і захоплююча книга, раджу всім!
July 16, 2020
Another of Sacks’s interesting forays, this time into the world of the profoundly deaf. Sacks is a great guide because he leaps into any previously unknown topic (it was to him, too) with such enthusiasm, insight and lack of bias.
I had no idea that Sign languages - like ASL - were so complex, so “4-dimensional” (compared to the single time dimension of speech), so grammatically alien compared to spoken languages; no idea that Sign would arise spontaneously between deaf parents and infants; no idea that Sign had been taught to the deaf by deaf teachers until the 1880’s when it was replaced by what appeared to be a vastly inferior system that existed for nearly 100 more years; no idea even that the frantic signing in the corner of TV screens was simply a transliteration of English and a totally different thing from Sign altogether. And so on.
Although the final chapter concerns a strike at Gallaudet, a university for the deaf in the US, this is not about the politics of deafness and the Deaf community: rather, its focus is from his perspective as a neurobiologist and physician, so it is full of insightful observations about the development of language and thought processes that arise in the absence of hearing.
Seeing Voices does suffer from the usual Sacks issue of excessive and extended footnotes (which he acknowledges, but says one can read or not), and for once I was going to ignore them even though they must make up nearly half of this short work. But, they contain so much that is interesting and integral to the story that I think you do have to read most of them. At least this time there appear not to be any footnotes to the footnotes!
I had no idea that Sign languages - like ASL - were so complex, so “4-dimensional” (compared to the single time dimension of speech), so grammatically alien compared to spoken languages; no idea that Sign would arise spontaneously between deaf parents and infants; no idea that Sign had been taught to the deaf by deaf teachers until the 1880’s when it was replaced by what appeared to be a vastly inferior system that existed for nearly 100 more years; no idea even that the frantic signing in the corner of TV screens was simply a transliteration of English and a totally different thing from Sign altogether. And so on.
Although the final chapter concerns a strike at Gallaudet, a university for the deaf in the US, this is not about the politics of deafness and the Deaf community: rather, its focus is from his perspective as a neurobiologist and physician, so it is full of insightful observations about the development of language and thought processes that arise in the absence of hearing.
Seeing Voices does suffer from the usual Sacks issue of excessive and extended footnotes (which he acknowledges, but says one can read or not), and for once I was going to ignore them even though they must make up nearly half of this short work. But, they contain so much that is interesting and integral to the story that I think you do have to read most of them. At least this time there appear not to be any footnotes to the footnotes!
July 17, 2014
The first two sections are a bit of a slog. Sacks goes into the history of educating deaf people, and he veers off all over the place into footnotes that are neither amusing nor informative. Despite that, he does manage to put the history of Sign and boarding schools for the deaf into both a historical and international context. To summarize, having successfully educated many people with Sign, demonstrating that deaf does not equal dumb in any sense, that hundred years of success was completely dismantled in favor of speech and language-focused education which returned deaf people into a second-class of people who were, truly disabled by the people supposed to be teaching them. Then, in the third section, you get people actually studying Sign, recognizing that they are real languages with real grammar and everything, and a deaf rights activism that results in the student takeover at Gallaudet. That part is interesting, not least because the recognition of a language really seems to lead to recognition of culture in both the ethnic sense (Welch or Gaelic, say) and in the human-rights sense (reclamation of the words "gay" and "black" as part of an ongoing battle to receive the full human status to which all people are entitled.
There is also some interesting stuff on accommodation and mainstreaming which parallels more recent educational efforts demanded by people with autism. I really wish there had been some sort of update, though, because the book was published in 1989. Fortunately, the Internets were able to bring me up-to-date.
Library copy.
There is also some interesting stuff on accommodation and mainstreaming which parallels more recent educational efforts demanded by people with autism. I really wish there had been some sort of update, though, because the book was published in 1989. Fortunately, the Internets were able to bring me up-to-date.
Library copy.
August 3, 2016
I first read this book in 1992, and have re-read it several times as my prelingually Deaf daughter has grown up. In many ways it is an odd book--A warm, wonderfully personal first section; a cold, complex scientifically explanatory middle section; and a passionate ending section. I disagree with the criticism that the book is "dated". All books are "dated" the moment they are published; there have been developments in the world of the Deaf, but nothing that changes the nature of communication or the human condition.
Cochlear implants have happened; and they work best, as one would expect, with hearing adults who, like Rush Limbaugh, have gone deaf and have neither the wit nor the empathy to join another culture.
But cochlear implants were the third or fourth time that deafness has been "cured" in the last 200 years, and as incomplete as any of the earlier "cures".
If a parent has a deaf child, there are many choices one faces, but the first is a simple choice: Either my child is horribly defective and must be "fixed"; or my child and I have a language difference, and I need to learn a new language. My wife and I chose the latter.
Cochlear implants have happened; and they work best, as one would expect, with hearing adults who, like Rush Limbaugh, have gone deaf and have neither the wit nor the empathy to join another culture.
But cochlear implants were the third or fourth time that deafness has been "cured" in the last 200 years, and as incomplete as any of the earlier "cures".
If a parent has a deaf child, there are many choices one faces, but the first is a simple choice: Either my child is horribly defective and must be "fixed"; or my child and I have a language difference, and I need to learn a new language. My wife and I chose the latter.
September 2, 2018
The contents of this short book should be common knowledge, but to me they were as new as they were astonishing, enraging, exciting. Oliver Sacks admits that he is an outsider to the topic, and I hope his reputation will encourage many to pick up this volume on trust as I did, and be inspired to do something, at least to read further.
To be born deaf, Sacks points out, is potentially devastating, because the deaf child can't hear people talking and therefore can't learn speech, and is thus deprived of language, the crucial vehicle of thought. But, language need not be speech; it can be visual, and deaf people generate visual languages, sign languages, wherever they are and especially wherever they meet. In the early 19th century, a few hearing people in France finally bothered to learn some sign language and used it to teach deaf people to read. Abruptly, everything changed and deaf people finally began to enter public life. American Sign Language was developed and everything was awesome, until the Victorians decided to ban sign language and force deaf people to learn to speak, which can only be done with thousands of hours of intense tuition. Deaf people returned to isolation and delayed educational progress. This situation has, to the date of Sacks' writing, improved little; the deaf are still heavily oppressed by the strange tyranny of the hearing. Developed sign languages like ASL are complete and awesome and highly expressive, and, to say the least, their use benefits the user, especially when sign is learned "as a primary language", by improving their perceptual and memory skills considerably. Hearing people who learn to sign use both modes among themselves, because they find it comfortable and helpful. Yet many hearing parents of deaf children, instead of learning sign, force their children to learn speech. Instead of true sign languages, signed transliterations (like Signed English) are used for teaching.
Wondering if there had been any improvement, I started digging around a little, and at least I can see there's a very long way to go.
As well as being an important history, this book has lots of fascinating information and reflection on language learning, especially in early life. I would push it particularly into the hands of anyone intending to ever become a parent...
To be born deaf, Sacks points out, is potentially devastating, because the deaf child can't hear people talking and therefore can't learn speech, and is thus deprived of language, the crucial vehicle of thought. But, language need not be speech; it can be visual, and deaf people generate visual languages, sign languages, wherever they are and especially wherever they meet. In the early 19th century, a few hearing people in France finally bothered to learn some sign language and used it to teach deaf people to read. Abruptly, everything changed and deaf people finally began to enter public life. American Sign Language was developed and everything was awesome, until the Victorians decided to ban sign language and force deaf people to learn to speak, which can only be done with thousands of hours of intense tuition. Deaf people returned to isolation and delayed educational progress. This situation has, to the date of Sacks' writing, improved little; the deaf are still heavily oppressed by the strange tyranny of the hearing. Developed sign languages like ASL are complete and awesome and highly expressive, and, to say the least, their use benefits the user, especially when sign is learned "as a primary language", by improving their perceptual and memory skills considerably. Hearing people who learn to sign use both modes among themselves, because they find it comfortable and helpful. Yet many hearing parents of deaf children, instead of learning sign, force their children to learn speech. Instead of true sign languages, signed transliterations (like Signed English) are used for teaching.
Wondering if there had been any improvement, I started digging around a little, and at least I can see there's a very long way to go.
As well as being an important history, this book has lots of fascinating information and reflection on language learning, especially in early life. I would push it particularly into the hands of anyone intending to ever become a parent...
April 15, 2018
у селі в моїх батьків жив американець.
він приїхав допомагати з місцевим самоврядуванням – територіальна громада, всяке таке. американець був молодий, сповнений ентузіазму і прагнення зробити щось прекрасне, тому його вистачило аж на кілька місяців (загалом проект корпусу миру розрахований на два роки). і, що цікаво, він пристойно – як на людину, яка оце щойно приїхала в нову країну, контактів із культурою якої раніше не мала, – розмовляв українською.
одна з проблем (далеко не найбільша, на жаль) полягала в тому, що в селі, куди він приїхав, англійською пристойно не розмовляв ніхто.
бідолашний американець опинився в ситуації, дуже схожій на ту, яку описує олівер сакс у зв'язку зі спільнотою глухих. попри те, що він був особою розумною й цікавою, люди з довколишнього середовища комунікувати з ним могли хіба на тому рівні української, який у нього був, – але своєї проблеми в цьому не бачили, бо у них же з комунікацією проблем вроді раніше не виникало. тобто з ним говорили повільно, голосно і простими словами, а значить, на прості теми. в американця навіть з'явилося враження, що його вважають розумово відсталим; і знаєте, це було цілковито виправдане враження, бо мені про нього відгукнулися як про "особливого" – ага, саме отак, у лапочках (і, може, те, що я йому це з відповідними інтонаціями переказала, стало ще одною спонукою звалити. чомусь мені не прикро).
людям, про яких пише сакс, щоправда, не завжди вдається звалити в середовище, де їх не сприйматимуть як осіб з вадами розвитку. насправді проблема виникає ще на крок раніше: у глухих часто нема умов для розвитку – насамперед тому, що їм не дають адекватних інструментів, із якими вони могли б працювати. і це дуже страшно; і це болючий приклад того, як вроді носії цивілізації намагаються нормалізувати все довкола себе, обрубуючи йому ручки-ніжки (ну або розтягуючи до вказаної у специфікаціях довжини).
він приїхав допомагати з місцевим самоврядуванням – територіальна громада, всяке таке. американець був молодий, сповнений ентузіазму і прагнення зробити щось прекрасне, тому його вистачило аж на кілька місяців (загалом проект корпусу миру розрахований на два роки). і, що цікаво, він пристойно – як на людину, яка оце щойно приїхала в нову країну, контактів із культурою якої раніше не мала, – розмовляв українською.
одна з проблем (далеко не найбільша, на жаль) полягала в тому, що в селі, куди він приїхав, англійською пристойно не розмовляв ніхто.
бідолашний американець опинився в ситуації, дуже схожій на ту, яку описує олівер сакс у зв'язку зі спільнотою глухих. попри те, що він був особою розумною й цікавою, люди з довколишнього середовища комунікувати з ним могли хіба на тому рівні української, який у нього був, – але своєї проблеми в цьому не бачили, бо у них же з комунікацією проблем вроді раніше не виникало. тобто з ним говорили повільно, голосно і простими словами, а значить, на прості теми. в американця навіть з'явилося враження, що його вважають розумово відсталим; і знаєте, це було цілковито виправдане враження, бо мені про нього відгукнулися як про "особливого" – ага, саме отак, у лапочках (і, може, те, що я йому це з відповідними інтонаціями переказала, стало ще одною спонукою звалити. чомусь мені не прикро).
людям, про яких пише сакс, щоправда, не завжди вдається звалити в середовище, де їх не сприйматимуть як осіб з вадами розвитку. насправді проблема виникає ще на крок раніше: у глухих часто нема умов для розвитку – насамперед тому, що їм не дають адекватних інструментів, із якими вони могли б працювати. і це дуже страшно; і це болючий приклад того, як вроді носії цивілізації намагаються нормалізувати все довкола себе, обрубуючи йому ручки-ніжки (ну або розтягуючи до вказаної у специфікаціях довжини).
Read
April 1, 2025no rating because this was a university book so i’m naturally biased against it!
March 6, 2014
This book is 25 years old, and while I'm certain there are more recent books on the topic of deafness, this one is still worth reading. It's not just about deafness, but about language, and how language shapes our brains, and how important language is to developing as a person. In just 150 pages, Oliver Sacks managed to blow my mind with things which had never occurred to me before.
March 5, 2021
Empecé este libro, que estaba en mi biblioteca, porque no tenía otros en papel para leer y de repente me encontré leyendo durante horas sobre la historia de la comunidad sorda, la lengua y el lenguaje, las anécdotas y los cambios en el tiempo.
Me interesó especialmente desde el lado de la comunicación, ya que es el rubro al que me dedico. Desde lo literario, festejo que un texto del ámbito científico me haya resultado entretenido y no repetitivo.
Me interesó especialmente desde el lado de la comunicación, ya que es el rubro al que me dedico. Desde lo literario, festejo que un texto del ámbito científico me haya resultado entretenido y no repetitivo.
November 5, 2020
How I made it this long before reading Olive Sacks I'll never know, but "Seeing Voices" is an incredible work of scientific and cultural commentary.
Sacks wrote "Seeing Voices" in the 90s immediately following the movement for deaf rights and the book reflects this new cultural idea that deafness shouldn't be pathologized, it should be celebrated for its richness in culture and history. Separated into three parts, the first part gives a historical recounting of deafness and goes into detail about those historical moments in which the deaf were given access to language and how this radically altered their access to the world. The second chapter engages with the linguistics of Sign and explains how Sign, as a language, actually alters the brains of deaf individuals and creates a neurological system that can speak in four dimensions. And finally, Sacks wraps up with a recounting of the radicalization of the deaf rights movement as they move from being clients for the hearing to telling their own stories.
An important book that will open your eyes - and ears - to the world of the deaf.
Sacks wrote "Seeing Voices" in the 90s immediately following the movement for deaf rights and the book reflects this new cultural idea that deafness shouldn't be pathologized, it should be celebrated for its richness in culture and history. Separated into three parts, the first part gives a historical recounting of deafness and goes into detail about those historical moments in which the deaf were given access to language and how this radically altered their access to the world. The second chapter engages with the linguistics of Sign and explains how Sign, as a language, actually alters the brains of deaf individuals and creates a neurological system that can speak in four dimensions. And finally, Sacks wraps up with a recounting of the radicalization of the deaf rights movement as they move from being clients for the hearing to telling their own stories.
An important book that will open your eyes - and ears - to the world of the deaf.
November 27, 2013
!!لأول مره أحس ان الصمم أسوأ من العمى
سمعته أوديو... وللأسف مالقيتش نسخه إلكترونيه مكتوبه علشان أقدر أتابع وأقصص منه
د/أوليفر كعادته وبأسلوبه الممتع بيدخلنا عالم الصم والبكم ...عالم محروم لأبعد الحدود :(
تجربة للي حابب يفهم جزء صغير من مدي حرمان الأصم
دي أغنيه مترجمه للغة للإشاره... شوفوها الأول -مره أو اثنين- من غير صوت, وبعدين بالصوت
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwYFaP...
الكتاب ده لازم يترجم للعربي
سمعته أوديو... وللأسف مالقيتش نسخه إلكترونيه مكتوبه علشان أقدر أتابع وأقصص منه
د/أوليفر كعادته وبأسلوبه الممتع بيدخلنا عالم الصم والبكم ...عالم محروم لأبعد الحدود :(
تجربة للي حابب يفهم جزء صغير من مدي حرمان الأصم
دي أغنيه مترجمه للغة للإشاره... شوفوها الأول -مره أو اثنين- من غير صوت, وبعدين بالصوت
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwYFaP...
الكتاب ده لازم يترجم للعربي
December 23, 2017
Wonderful!
July 20, 2015
A small book that packs a punch. The author is a neurologist and so much of his book (specifically the chapter Thinking in Sign)covers how language is developed from an infant on in someone hearing and then how language is acquired by someone deaf. This chapter is only 60 pages long, but it took me over a week before I could move on. I reread several pages and a mere sentence held so much meaning and could reveal so much to me that I actually found myself in a study mode craving to learn more. The book left me with a feeling of knowing so little and wanting to know more.
Anyone can benefit from reading a book like this, but it is special to me because I have a deaf family member. Before reading this book, I had a deep desire to learn ASL because my experience has been that although other family members sign, and can interpret for me, when we predominantly talk we are causing an isolation that leaves me feeling horrible. My desire is to be bilingual and Signing be second nature to me.
I also found nuggets of wisdom in this book pertaining to deaf schooling. A theory revealed is that there is a critical time in our lives (between 18 months and 13 years)that our minds are ripe for developing language and that it diminishes after that.
There is also some evidence that supports residential schools being crucial to the deaf in their growth. Our educational system may focus more on mainstreaming, but that really doesn't seem logical to me (for pre-lingual deaf children) given that mainstream schools have no consistent focus on bilingual Signing. We have an innate ability to acquire language, but we don't do it on our own. It is only something that occurs with someone else. So what better argument for being with those that Sign.
Prior to this book, I thought of Signing to be pantomime and now I understand the depth of it and understand it to be a true language. I have never used the word lexicon and I had to look it up in order to understand some of the concepts in this book. This book also took a linguistic approach to dissect ASL and it was fascinating.
Anyone can benefit from reading a book like this, but it is special to me because I have a deaf family member. Before reading this book, I had a deep desire to learn ASL because my experience has been that although other family members sign, and can interpret for me, when we predominantly talk we are causing an isolation that leaves me feeling horrible. My desire is to be bilingual and Signing be second nature to me.
I also found nuggets of wisdom in this book pertaining to deaf schooling. A theory revealed is that there is a critical time in our lives (between 18 months and 13 years)that our minds are ripe for developing language and that it diminishes after that.
There is also some evidence that supports residential schools being crucial to the deaf in their growth. Our educational system may focus more on mainstreaming, but that really doesn't seem logical to me (for pre-lingual deaf children) given that mainstream schools have no consistent focus on bilingual Signing. We have an innate ability to acquire language, but we don't do it on our own. It is only something that occurs with someone else. So what better argument for being with those that Sign.
Prior to this book, I thought of Signing to be pantomime and now I understand the depth of it and understand it to be a true language. I have never used the word lexicon and I had to look it up in order to understand some of the concepts in this book. This book also took a linguistic approach to dissect ASL and it was fascinating.
July 2, 2015
In my own social and professional contacts, I have not yet met a deaf person nor known anyone using Sign language. Before reading this book, if asked directly about Sign, I would venture to guess that it is probably some literal translation of written/aural language, maybe a sort of visual Braille-like formation. Well, if I would think a bit, such “visual Braille” would immediately be rendered impractical if not impossible.
The first one third of the book is quite brilliantly written. Mostly, Dr. Sacks exudes on the importance of language to shape our cognition and psychological wholeness. “We speak not only to tell other people what we think, but to tell ourselves what we think. Speech is a part of thought.”, and “We start with dialogue, with language that is external and social, but then to think, to become ourselves, we have to move to a monologue, to inner speech.”
But can linguistic development happen among the deaf? In great length, Sacks talked about the “linguistic use of space”, the vastly different modes of meaning-making aurally vis-a-vis visually. A few useful diagrams such as the one on “look at” have been very useful to bring his points home.
The second third of the book is laden with neurological research on how brains of deal people may function differently. Some parts are repetitive, although the impression is that our brain’s plasticity may have been the reason for visual language. I wonder if one can learn Sign language, would it enhance the way we think?
The last segment is the student strikes at Gallaudet University in 1988, a key event in the Deaf Culture. But the writing seems to be a bit repetitive.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and perhaps gained some appreciation in Sign language and the unique culture of the deaf.
The first one third of the book is quite brilliantly written. Mostly, Dr. Sacks exudes on the importance of language to shape our cognition and psychological wholeness. “We speak not only to tell other people what we think, but to tell ourselves what we think. Speech is a part of thought.”, and “We start with dialogue, with language that is external and social, but then to think, to become ourselves, we have to move to a monologue, to inner speech.”
But can linguistic development happen among the deaf? In great length, Sacks talked about the “linguistic use of space”, the vastly different modes of meaning-making aurally vis-a-vis visually. A few useful diagrams such as the one on “look at” have been very useful to bring his points home.
The second third of the book is laden with neurological research on how brains of deal people may function differently. Some parts are repetitive, although the impression is that our brain’s plasticity may have been the reason for visual language. I wonder if one can learn Sign language, would it enhance the way we think?
The last segment is the student strikes at Gallaudet University in 1988, a key event in the Deaf Culture. But the writing seems to be a bit repetitive.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and perhaps gained some appreciation in Sign language and the unique culture of the deaf.
July 5, 2013
Blow up your idea of what language is, by reading this book.
I get that it would have been interesting to hear Dr. Sacks's thoughts on CI, and that the politics and science of Deafness he documented in 1989 have progressed now, but I think it sells short how he clearly explained what he learned about What Makes Us Human from exploring the language and culture of the Deaf community.
I get that it would have been interesting to hear Dr. Sacks's thoughts on CI, and that the politics and science of Deafness he documented in 1989 have progressed now, but I think it sells short how he clearly explained what he learned about What Makes Us Human from exploring the language and culture of the Deaf community.
January 12, 2016
If you want to understand Deafness and Deaf people you must read this book, along with When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf [Harlan Lane] and Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood by Paddy Ladd.
November 3, 2024
En 1988 se llevó a cabo toda una revolución por parte de las personas sordas en la Universidad Gallaudet de Whashington, reclamaban el derecho a su autodeterminación y de ser partícipes en la dirección de esta universidad dedicada a la educación superior de los sordos. Un año después se celebró en dicha ciudad el gran festival internacional de los sordos.
Oliver Sacks hace un repaso histórico de la forma en que ha ido evolucionando no solo la enseñanza de la persona sorda, sino además la defensa del lenguaje de señas natural como su lengua madre, y todo lo que esta significa para esa comunidad. De acuerdo con el país, su nombre cambia, así como algunas de sus señas, pero es sorprendente lo semejantes que son entre una y otra región. Porque el lenguaje de señas es “un lenguaje completo, capaz de expresar no sólo todas las emociones sino todas las proposiciones y de permitir a sus usuarios analizar cualquier tema, concreto o abstracto, con el mismo provecho y la misma eficacia que el habla y tan gramaticalmente como ésta”
Ya a finales de los ochenta terminaba mis estudios e iniciaba las primeras experiencias laborales, y tuve oportunidad de vivir como docente ese dilema entre la “enseñanza oral, de señas o total”, pero también el privilegio de compartir con personas sordas que defendían su lengua y que demostraban con soltura su capacidad y la importancia del respeto a la comunidad sorda.
En fin, me pareció un libro muy interesante sobre las cualidades lingüísticas y gramaticales del lenguaje de señas y cómo este es vital para el desarrollo y comunicación de la persona sorda y un gran complemento para el lenguaje en general. Recomendado.
Oliver Sacks hace un repaso histórico de la forma en que ha ido evolucionando no solo la enseñanza de la persona sorda, sino además la defensa del lenguaje de señas natural como su lengua madre, y todo lo que esta significa para esa comunidad. De acuerdo con el país, su nombre cambia, así como algunas de sus señas, pero es sorprendente lo semejantes que son entre una y otra región. Porque el lenguaje de señas es “un lenguaje completo, capaz de expresar no sólo todas las emociones sino todas las proposiciones y de permitir a sus usuarios analizar cualquier tema, concreto o abstracto, con el mismo provecho y la misma eficacia que el habla y tan gramaticalmente como ésta”
Ya a finales de los ochenta terminaba mis estudios e iniciaba las primeras experiencias laborales, y tuve oportunidad de vivir como docente ese dilema entre la “enseñanza oral, de señas o total”, pero también el privilegio de compartir con personas sordas que defendían su lengua y que demostraban con soltura su capacidad y la importancia del respeto a la comunidad sorda.
En fin, me pareció un libro muy interesante sobre las cualidades lingüísticas y gramaticales del lenguaje de señas y cómo este es vital para el desarrollo y comunicación de la persona sorda y un gran complemento para el lenguaje en general. Recomendado.
March 13, 2016
Esta excelente incursão de Oliver Sacks no mundo dos surdos está organizada em 3 partes:
1. a primeira faz uma abordagem histórica sobre os surdos e a surdez, e explica-nos como surgiu a língua gestual americana, como não é uma simples transliteração em gestos das línguas faladas, nem sequer um conjunto de gestos de mímica ou pantomima; antes é uma língua completa, com uma sintaxe, semântica e gramática próprias, fonte de uma cultura específica e riquíssima (teatro, poesia, literatura, dança), que, de certa forma, é inacessível aos ouvintes.
2. a segunda parte trata da surdez do ponto de vista neurológico e explica-nos as diferenças entre surdez pré-linguística (quando se fica surdo antes de aprender a falar porque, por exemplo, se nasceu já surdo) e pós-linguística (quando a surdez tem origem em doença ou acidente ocorrido depois de aquisição da fala), descrevendo os hipotéticos mecanismos do cérebro envolvidos na aprendizagem da linguagem, salientando a enorme plasticidade do cérebro e as maiores capacidades dos surdos no que respeita a acuidade visual e organização do espaço.
3. por fim, Sacks descreve um episódio de revolta de estudantes na Universidade de Gallaudet, uma universidade americana destinada ao ensino dos surdos. Os alunos não aceitaram a eleição de um reitor não-surdo, exigindo que fosse escolhido, pela primeira vez, um surdo, no que constituiu um gesto de afirmação de um movimento identitário e de reivindicação de direitos em tudo semelhante aos movimentos feminista, dos negros ou dos homossexuais.
Em consequência da sua organização, "Vejo Uma Voz" não é um livro estruturado, e a profusão de notas de rodapé pode acabar por perturbar a leitura, mas tais questões são insignificantes quando comparadas com a faculdade que este livro tem de nos obrigar a pensar, de nos despertar para uma realidade na qual nunca tínhamos reparado, mesmo estando ao nosso lado (a prevalência da surdez é de 1 em cada 1000), e, se tínhamos, era com sentimentos de compaixão ou de preconceito.
Sim, porque quem não se recorda de ter, na infância, um familiar ou vizinho "surdo-mudo"? E, na verdade, nem deveria haver qualquer problema com o aparelho vocal do miúdo(a). Seria até, provavelmente, uma criança inteligente, enclausurada numa prisão de comunicação, cheia de vontade de aprender, mas sem dispor das ferramentas para o fazer. Normalmente, pelos seus sons guturais de protesto, por não se desenvolver como as outras crianças, os surdos pré-linguísticos eram classificadas como imbecis e enclausurados em hospícios e reformatórios. Sacks descreve que, quando se ensinava a estas crianças uma língua gestual, elas desabrochavam de repente, curiosas, inteligentes, ansiosas por aprender e por comunicar. Alguns deles tornaram-se excelentes escritores, pintores ou engenheiros. E pensar que, a partir de meados do século XIX até à segunda metade do século XX, as línguas gestuais foram proibidas em muitos países, como a Inglaterra, onde a imposição da conformidade vitoriana penalizava as minorias, como as de surdos, mas também, por exemplo, dos "sodomitas"! Em Portugal, por razões um pouco diferentes, também a Língua Gestual Portuguesa esteve proibida até 1974, pois a ditadura temia que, não sendo compreendida pela polícia política, fosse usada para conspirar contra o regime.
Mas ainda hoje temos por hábito classificar os surdos como "deficientes", como se fosse possível resumir a riqueza e o potencial de um individuo a uma única característica física. Foi com enorme espanto que descobri que é precisamente o contrário: por exemplo, as crianças surdas de nascença conseguem começar a comunicar com os pais em linguagem gestual logo a partir dos 4 meses, para pedir leite, por exemplo, enquanto as crianças não-surdas apenas começam a articular as primeiras palavras por volta do primeiro ano de idade. Os surdos, geralmente, têm uma maior consciência visual e espacial, o que se reflete nas línguas gestuais, que são mais ricas e concisas que as línguas faladas no que se refere a localização e orientação, e na expressão corporal. Neste e noutros campos, surpreendentemente, os "deficientes" somos nós, os "ouvintes".
Dei por mim a pensar: e porque é que não ensinamos a todas as crianças, desde a mais tenra idade, a língua gestual do seu país, fazendo com que, dentro de algumas gerações, esta se tornasse nativa de toda a população, tal como a língua falada? Caçávamos dois coelhos de uma assentada: nós, os "deficientes-ouvintes", poderíamos beneficiar de uma maior sensibilidade visual/espacial e a surdez deixaria de ser impedimento à integração na sociedade de pessoas com enorme potencial.
Costuma dizer-se que "burro velho não aprende línguas", mas eu não quero ficar para trás. Fui à procura na Net e encontrei uma Escola Virtual de Língua Gestual Portuguesa. Já completei o primeiro módulo e fiquei aprovado (com excelente nota!) no respetivo questionário de avaliação. Vá lá, é giro... e é grátis!
1. a primeira faz uma abordagem histórica sobre os surdos e a surdez, e explica-nos como surgiu a língua gestual americana, como não é uma simples transliteração em gestos das línguas faladas, nem sequer um conjunto de gestos de mímica ou pantomima; antes é uma língua completa, com uma sintaxe, semântica e gramática próprias, fonte de uma cultura específica e riquíssima (teatro, poesia, literatura, dança), que, de certa forma, é inacessível aos ouvintes.
2. a segunda parte trata da surdez do ponto de vista neurológico e explica-nos as diferenças entre surdez pré-linguística (quando se fica surdo antes de aprender a falar porque, por exemplo, se nasceu já surdo) e pós-linguística (quando a surdez tem origem em doença ou acidente ocorrido depois de aquisição da fala), descrevendo os hipotéticos mecanismos do cérebro envolvidos na aprendizagem da linguagem, salientando a enorme plasticidade do cérebro e as maiores capacidades dos surdos no que respeita a acuidade visual e organização do espaço.
3. por fim, Sacks descreve um episódio de revolta de estudantes na Universidade de Gallaudet, uma universidade americana destinada ao ensino dos surdos. Os alunos não aceitaram a eleição de um reitor não-surdo, exigindo que fosse escolhido, pela primeira vez, um surdo, no que constituiu um gesto de afirmação de um movimento identitário e de reivindicação de direitos em tudo semelhante aos movimentos feminista, dos negros ou dos homossexuais.
Em consequência da sua organização, "Vejo Uma Voz" não é um livro estruturado, e a profusão de notas de rodapé pode acabar por perturbar a leitura, mas tais questões são insignificantes quando comparadas com a faculdade que este livro tem de nos obrigar a pensar, de nos despertar para uma realidade na qual nunca tínhamos reparado, mesmo estando ao nosso lado (a prevalência da surdez é de 1 em cada 1000), e, se tínhamos, era com sentimentos de compaixão ou de preconceito.
Sim, porque quem não se recorda de ter, na infância, um familiar ou vizinho "surdo-mudo"? E, na verdade, nem deveria haver qualquer problema com o aparelho vocal do miúdo(a). Seria até, provavelmente, uma criança inteligente, enclausurada numa prisão de comunicação, cheia de vontade de aprender, mas sem dispor das ferramentas para o fazer. Normalmente, pelos seus sons guturais de protesto, por não se desenvolver como as outras crianças, os surdos pré-linguísticos eram classificadas como imbecis e enclausurados em hospícios e reformatórios. Sacks descreve que, quando se ensinava a estas crianças uma língua gestual, elas desabrochavam de repente, curiosas, inteligentes, ansiosas por aprender e por comunicar. Alguns deles tornaram-se excelentes escritores, pintores ou engenheiros. E pensar que, a partir de meados do século XIX até à segunda metade do século XX, as línguas gestuais foram proibidas em muitos países, como a Inglaterra, onde a imposição da conformidade vitoriana penalizava as minorias, como as de surdos, mas também, por exemplo, dos "sodomitas"! Em Portugal, por razões um pouco diferentes, também a Língua Gestual Portuguesa esteve proibida até 1974, pois a ditadura temia que, não sendo compreendida pela polícia política, fosse usada para conspirar contra o regime.
Mas ainda hoje temos por hábito classificar os surdos como "deficientes", como se fosse possível resumir a riqueza e o potencial de um individuo a uma única característica física. Foi com enorme espanto que descobri que é precisamente o contrário: por exemplo, as crianças surdas de nascença conseguem começar a comunicar com os pais em linguagem gestual logo a partir dos 4 meses, para pedir leite, por exemplo, enquanto as crianças não-surdas apenas começam a articular as primeiras palavras por volta do primeiro ano de idade. Os surdos, geralmente, têm uma maior consciência visual e espacial, o que se reflete nas línguas gestuais, que são mais ricas e concisas que as línguas faladas no que se refere a localização e orientação, e na expressão corporal. Neste e noutros campos, surpreendentemente, os "deficientes" somos nós, os "ouvintes".
Dei por mim a pensar: e porque é que não ensinamos a todas as crianças, desde a mais tenra idade, a língua gestual do seu país, fazendo com que, dentro de algumas gerações, esta se tornasse nativa de toda a população, tal como a língua falada? Caçávamos dois coelhos de uma assentada: nós, os "deficientes-ouvintes", poderíamos beneficiar de uma maior sensibilidade visual/espacial e a surdez deixaria de ser impedimento à integração na sociedade de pessoas com enorme potencial.
Costuma dizer-se que "burro velho não aprende línguas", mas eu não quero ficar para trás. Fui à procura na Net e encontrei uma Escola Virtual de Língua Gestual Portuguesa. Já completei o primeiro módulo e fiquei aprovado (com excelente nota!) no respetivo questionário de avaliação. Vá lá, é giro... e é grátis!
January 1, 2016
Eu já era fã de Oliver Sacks por sua forma belíssima forma de transitar entre o médico e o poético na descrição do cérebro humano. Assim, quando soube que ele tinha feito uma incursão no mundo dos surdos, não podia deixar de ler.
Escrito há mais de 20 anos atrás, algumas outras resenhas apontam que o livro pode estar, em matéria de conhecimento e avanços científicos, bastante datado. Entretanto, para quem não está familiarizado com o universo da gente surda, sua história e suas dificuldades, é uma introdução não só informativa, como bela e fascinante.
O livro é curto, e está dividido em três capítulos. No primeiro, Sacks faz um resumo da história dos Surdos - com um especial foco nos Estados Unidos - além de relatar o início de sua própria jornada nesse mundo. De médico que via a surdez como uma deficiência auditiva, ele conta como seus estudos levaram-no a descobrir não só a imensa complexidade e beleza da língua do sinais, mas também toda a cultura surda, e nos leva junto a descobrir que as maiores dificuldades encontradas por pessoas surdas estão no preconceito em relação ao uso da língua de sinais.
Há um grande embate no campo da educação de pessoas surdas: por um lado, uma corrente apregoa que o uso da língua de sinais como língua materna é o melhor para o desenvolvimento da pessoa surda, enquanto outras preferem a predominância do aprendizado da língua dos ouvintes: ou seja, que as pessoas surdas aprendam a vocalizar e a fazer leitura labial, sem passar pela língua de sinais.
Sacks posiciona-se na primeira corrente, citando as vantagens, inclusive de ordem neurológic - do aprendizado de uma língua que pode ser completamente compreendida e dominada por uma pessoa surda, ao passo que uma língua falada só pode ser apreendida de uma forma mais marginal.O segundo capítulo, um pouco mais árduo, é dedicado à descrição e análise da língua americana de sinais (ASL), entremeada por alguns estudos de casos, em que ele explica em mais detalhe essas implicações neurológicas da linguagem, e as formas como o cérebro se adapta e adquire as competências linguísticas e gramaticais.
Por fim, no último capítulo, o autor descreve suas experiências pessoais com o movimento político dos surdos no final dos anos 80, quando alunas e alunos de Gallaudet - uma Universidade de Ciências Humanas para Surdos - se insurgiram contra a indicação de uma reitora ouvinte, em detrimento de outros candidatos surdos. Sacks, que declara ser geralmente alheio a assuntos políticos, descreve com admiração e liricismo o movimento pacífico de reivindicação, sublinhando as peculiaridades que a cultura surda traz para o convívio universitário, assim como para os movimentos políticos. Suas descrições do ambiente da faculdade ,de suas entrevistas com estudantes e da passeata são verdadeiramente inspiradoras - assim como a sua esperança de que esse movimento seja apenas mais um passo em um crescente movimento de valorização da cultura surda e de emancipação e empoderamento das pessoas surdas.
Sempre tive um certo fascínio pela língua de sinais e suas potencialidades de expressão corporal, e via a surdez como uma condição médica, uma inconveniência na comunicação. Só fui tomar contato com a riqueza da cultura surda, assim como as injustiças vivenciadas por esse povo quando comecei a aprender LIBRAS e entrar em contato, mesmo que minimamente, com a cultura surda. Esse livro foi, portanto, não só um aprofundamento nos estudos sobre o tema, mas também um incentivo ao aprendizado de línguas de sinais - não só pelas potencialidades de comunicação com pessoas surdas, mas também pelo fascínio e beleza da comunicação visual-espacial.
Eu recomendaria fortemente esse livro a todas as pessoas - a narrativa é fascinante, as histórias são comoventes e, mais ainda, dá uma perspectiva científica humana a um fenômeno que é tão cercado de preconceitos.
Escrito há mais de 20 anos atrás, algumas outras resenhas apontam que o livro pode estar, em matéria de conhecimento e avanços científicos, bastante datado. Entretanto, para quem não está familiarizado com o universo da gente surda, sua história e suas dificuldades, é uma introdução não só informativa, como bela e fascinante.
O livro é curto, e está dividido em três capítulos. No primeiro, Sacks faz um resumo da história dos Surdos - com um especial foco nos Estados Unidos - além de relatar o início de sua própria jornada nesse mundo. De médico que via a surdez como uma deficiência auditiva, ele conta como seus estudos levaram-no a descobrir não só a imensa complexidade e beleza da língua do sinais, mas também toda a cultura surda, e nos leva junto a descobrir que as maiores dificuldades encontradas por pessoas surdas estão no preconceito em relação ao uso da língua de sinais.
Há um grande embate no campo da educação de pessoas surdas: por um lado, uma corrente apregoa que o uso da língua de sinais como língua materna é o melhor para o desenvolvimento da pessoa surda, enquanto outras preferem a predominância do aprendizado da língua dos ouvintes: ou seja, que as pessoas surdas aprendam a vocalizar e a fazer leitura labial, sem passar pela língua de sinais.
Sacks posiciona-se na primeira corrente, citando as vantagens, inclusive de ordem neurológic - do aprendizado de uma língua que pode ser completamente compreendida e dominada por uma pessoa surda, ao passo que uma língua falada só pode ser apreendida de uma forma mais marginal.O segundo capítulo, um pouco mais árduo, é dedicado à descrição e análise da língua americana de sinais (ASL), entremeada por alguns estudos de casos, em que ele explica em mais detalhe essas implicações neurológicas da linguagem, e as formas como o cérebro se adapta e adquire as competências linguísticas e gramaticais.
Por fim, no último capítulo, o autor descreve suas experiências pessoais com o movimento político dos surdos no final dos anos 80, quando alunas e alunos de Gallaudet - uma Universidade de Ciências Humanas para Surdos - se insurgiram contra a indicação de uma reitora ouvinte, em detrimento de outros candidatos surdos. Sacks, que declara ser geralmente alheio a assuntos políticos, descreve com admiração e liricismo o movimento pacífico de reivindicação, sublinhando as peculiaridades que a cultura surda traz para o convívio universitário, assim como para os movimentos políticos. Suas descrições do ambiente da faculdade ,de suas entrevistas com estudantes e da passeata são verdadeiramente inspiradoras - assim como a sua esperança de que esse movimento seja apenas mais um passo em um crescente movimento de valorização da cultura surda e de emancipação e empoderamento das pessoas surdas.
Sempre tive um certo fascínio pela língua de sinais e suas potencialidades de expressão corporal, e via a surdez como uma condição médica, uma inconveniência na comunicação. Só fui tomar contato com a riqueza da cultura surda, assim como as injustiças vivenciadas por esse povo quando comecei a aprender LIBRAS e entrar em contato, mesmo que minimamente, com a cultura surda. Esse livro foi, portanto, não só um aprofundamento nos estudos sobre o tema, mas também um incentivo ao aprendizado de línguas de sinais - não só pelas potencialidades de comunicação com pessoas surdas, mas também pelo fascínio e beleza da comunicação visual-espacial.
Eu recomendaria fortemente esse livro a todas as pessoas - a narrativa é fascinante, as histórias são comoventes e, mais ainda, dá uma perspectiva científica humana a um fenômeno que é tão cercado de preconceitos.
February 4, 2016
I picked this book up in the library of the college where I studied British Sign Language. They have a small section dedicated to BSL and Deaf studies, which I'm sure I'll work my way through while my library card still works. Anyway, I was interested to hear Oliver Sacks' perspective on Deafness as a neurologist, so I decided to give "Seeing Voices" a go.
This book definitely shows its age, having been published 25 years ago (before the Americans with Disabilities Act – and, indeed, the UK's Disability Discrimination Act – came in, as well as before cochlear implants became widespread). Some of the language shows this age, as well as the descriptions of contemporary attitudes. However, it's still an interesting and valuable read for a number of reasons. My favourite part was learning about deaf people who didn't have access to signing until later in life or not at all and how that affected their development. The historical context was well developed, particularly the discussions of different trends in the education of d/Deaf people. I also enjoyed reading about the "Deaf President Now" protest at Gallaudet University from a contemporary perspective, having first learned about it through the Stuff You Missed In History Class podcast.
Unfortunately, I had a number of significant issues with this book that prevented me from giving it a higher star rating. First of all, the book is only split into three long chapters. Though there are some breaks, this format makes the various threads more difficult to follow. (It also makes this a difficult book to dip in and out of.) There is also quite a bit of unnecessary repetition, which always bothers me. The biggest issue, however, is the footnotes. There are several that take up half-pages and at least one that took up more than a full page. This interrupted the flow of the narrative and made the book difficult to follow, particularly as some footnotes were more relevant than others. I feel like a lot of the information could have been incorporated into the main text in an effective manner and I'm not sure why it wasn't.
As I said, this book is quite out-of-date, and has a few other points against it. However, it offers an interesting perspective and is worth reading for that reason, as well as the topics it covers and being a product of the time in which it was written. I wouldn't recommend it as the first or only book you read on Deaf culture, but it's probably worth a read for anyone interested in that topic.
This book definitely shows its age, having been published 25 years ago (before the Americans with Disabilities Act – and, indeed, the UK's Disability Discrimination Act – came in, as well as before cochlear implants became widespread). Some of the language shows this age, as well as the descriptions of contemporary attitudes. However, it's still an interesting and valuable read for a number of reasons. My favourite part was learning about deaf people who didn't have access to signing until later in life or not at all and how that affected their development. The historical context was well developed, particularly the discussions of different trends in the education of d/Deaf people. I also enjoyed reading about the "Deaf President Now" protest at Gallaudet University from a contemporary perspective, having first learned about it through the Stuff You Missed In History Class podcast.
Unfortunately, I had a number of significant issues with this book that prevented me from giving it a higher star rating. First of all, the book is only split into three long chapters. Though there are some breaks, this format makes the various threads more difficult to follow. (It also makes this a difficult book to dip in and out of.) There is also quite a bit of unnecessary repetition, which always bothers me. The biggest issue, however, is the footnotes. There are several that take up half-pages and at least one that took up more than a full page. This interrupted the flow of the narrative and made the book difficult to follow, particularly as some footnotes were more relevant than others. I feel like a lot of the information could have been incorporated into the main text in an effective manner and I'm not sure why it wasn't.
As I said, this book is quite out-of-date, and has a few other points against it. However, it offers an interesting perspective and is worth reading for that reason, as well as the topics it covers and being a product of the time in which it was written. I wouldn't recommend it as the first or only book you read on Deaf culture, but it's probably worth a read for anyone interested in that topic.
May 9, 2021
I won’t bury the lead: Inspired by this book, I signed up for my first-ever sign language course and am now on week 3 of Colombian Sign Language, taught by a deaf professor. Accompanying Sacks on his journey from seeing the deaf in purely medical terms—“otologically impaired”—to seeing them as members of a different linguistic community was highly worth it.
The book’s first section contains a fascinating history of deaf culture and the origins of American Sign Language. The second part on neurology emphasizes the superior visual acuity and spatial organization of the deaf. With talk of neural substrates and lateralization of the brain’s hemispheres, this highly technical middle bored me. Finally, Sacks describes marching with the 1988 Deaf President Now student protest at Gallaudet University, the only liberal arts college for deaf students in the world. Reading about the students’ rejection of the illusion of their powerlessness was moving.
The most interesting takeaways:
Before 1750, deaf people were treated as little more than imbeciles by the law and society worldwide. This was followed by a golden period of deaf education sweeping France and then the US, thanks to contributions from key players in France’s deaf liberation movement.
The congenitally deaf suffer from tremendous information deprivation, as they miss out on background learning and often receive watered-down education content. Oralist education models add insult to injury by wasting so much time on teaching them to speak phonetic sounds they can’t hear, leaving less time for teaching regular stuff.
True sign languages are complete in themselves and have a radically different nature from spoken and written languages. Transliteration is impossible, as sign languages have different structures from speech. Sign language is not English, or French, or any other spoken language.
Sign language isn’t just narrative in structure but cinematic too. With the dimension of time, it is four-dimensional and the field of vision and angle of view are variable, with constant and fluid close-ups, distant shots, flashbacks, and fast-forward scenes. One is always aware of the signer’s visual orientation to what is being signed.
Title in Spanish: Veo una voz: I See a Voice
The book’s first section contains a fascinating history of deaf culture and the origins of American Sign Language. The second part on neurology emphasizes the superior visual acuity and spatial organization of the deaf. With talk of neural substrates and lateralization of the brain’s hemispheres, this highly technical middle bored me. Finally, Sacks describes marching with the 1988 Deaf President Now student protest at Gallaudet University, the only liberal arts college for deaf students in the world. Reading about the students’ rejection of the illusion of their powerlessness was moving.
The most interesting takeaways:
Before 1750, deaf people were treated as little more than imbeciles by the law and society worldwide. This was followed by a golden period of deaf education sweeping France and then the US, thanks to contributions from key players in France’s deaf liberation movement.
The congenitally deaf suffer from tremendous information deprivation, as they miss out on background learning and often receive watered-down education content. Oralist education models add insult to injury by wasting so much time on teaching them to speak phonetic sounds they can’t hear, leaving less time for teaching regular stuff.
True sign languages are complete in themselves and have a radically different nature from spoken and written languages. Transliteration is impossible, as sign languages have different structures from speech. Sign language is not English, or French, or any other spoken language.
Sign language isn’t just narrative in structure but cinematic too. With the dimension of time, it is four-dimensional and the field of vision and angle of view are variable, with constant and fluid close-ups, distant shots, flashbacks, and fast-forward scenes. One is always aware of the signer’s visual orientation to what is being signed.
Title in Spanish: Veo una voz: I See a Voice
February 22, 2024
Wybitna, kompleksowa i pojętna opowieść o języku migowym, która po 35 latach wciąż może zaskakiwać swoją przenikliwością (zwłaszcza w kraju o takich uwarunkowaniach jak Polska).
Składa się z trzech części — pierwsza to w zasadzie wprowadzenie do świata Głuchych, niesłyszących, migających, także do istoty języka dla człowieka.
Druga część to fascynująca i otwierająca oczy analiza wpływu języka na życie człowieka, jego neurologicznych i społecznych zdolności; także historii i ewolucji języka, w tym języka migowego, oraz badań w tych dziedzinach (Chomsky, Vygotsky, Stokoe, Bell, Gallaudet). Autor, neurolog, wykazuje się dogłębną znajomością społeczności g/Głuchych, w tym osób z afazją, zespołem Tourette'a, chorych psychicznie, tzw. „dzikich dzieci”, itd. Przekrój poruszanych tu tematów jest przepastny.
Ostatnia część to świeża relacja ze słynnego i przełomowego dla tożsamości Głuchych protestu Deaf President Now na Uniwersytecie Gallaudeta, która potencjalnie miała doprowadzić do wzrostu samoświadomości i tożsamości paternalizowanych Głuchych.
„Chociaż uczenie się „słów" w języku migowym może występować u dzie ci głuchych wcześniej niż uczenie się słów u dzieci zdrowych, to jednak nabywanie umiejętności posługiwania się strukturami gramatycznymi po- jawia się mniej więcej w tym samym czasie w jednej i drugiej grupie dzieci. [...]. Jednak jest faktem niezwykle zastanawiającym, że dziecko niesłyszące już w wieku 4 miesięcy umie wykonać odpowiedni znak oznaczający, że chce mleka, podczas gdy dziecko zdrowe potrafi jedynie płakać lub rozglądać się dokoła. Być może dla wszystkich dzieci okazałoby się korzystne, gdyby nauczyły się kilku znaków języka migowego!”
„Już w XVI w. głuche dzieci z niektórych rodzin szlacheckich uczono mówić i czytać, aby mogły być traktowane przez prawo jak osoby normalne (niemowy nie miały możliwości podejmowania działań prawnych)”
„Większą część dnia spędzałem z matką i rozumiałem prawie wszystko, co do mnie mówiła. A właściwie dlaczego miałoby być inaczej? Nie będąc tego świadom, przez całe życie czytałem z ruchów jej warg. Gdy do mnie mówiła, miałem nieodparte wrażenie, że słyszę jej głos. [...] Świadomość tego, że nie słyszę, że są to głosy-projekcje, że po prostu rozumiem, co mówią dzięki czytaniu z ruchów ich warg, dotarła do mnie dopiero po opuszczeniu szpitala. Pewnego dnia rozmawiałem ze swoim kuzynem, który nagle zakrył usta dłonią. Cisza! Wtedy po raz pierwszy uświadomiłem sobie, że nie potrafię „słyszeć, gdy nie widzę...”
„Tak więc dla Platona język, wiedza, epistemologia są wrodzone - cały proces uczenia się jest właściwie procesem przypominania, reminiscencji, jednak może on nastąpić dopiero po spełnieniu odpowiednich warunków, czyli w obecności mediatora, który będzie nauczycielem i partnerem w dialogu”
[Matki] „»w sposób bar- dzo głęboki przetwarzają świat postrzegany przez nasze zmysły, a narzędziem pozwalającym im na dokonanie tego przekształcenia jest język. Świat, który dzięki takim zabiegom poznaje dziecko, jest o wiele bogatszy i bardziej interesujący. One także nazywają otaczające dziecko obiekty, ale nazywają również to, co nie znajduje się w sferze poznania zmysłowego, a dla poszerzenia owego procesu opisu rzeczywistości posługują się przymiot- nikami... W świecie tak przedstawionym pojawiają się ludzie oraz ich działania opisane za pomocą m.in. przysłówków. Nie tylko opisują one otaczający je świat, ale pomagają swoim dzieciom zreorganizować go na swój sposób i myśleć o całej jego złożoności.«
Matki te stymulują tworzenie się świata o charakterze koncepcyjnym, który nie tylko nie zubaża świata postrzeganego za pomocą zmysłów, ale wzbogaca go i umieszcza na płaszczyźnie symboliczno-znaczeniowej”
„Kolejnym dowodem składniowej i fonemicznej struktury języka migowego są obserwacje odnoszące się do języka migowego osób dotkniętych psychozami - np. w przebiegu schizofrenii (język migowy chorych psychicznie). Mamy tu do czynienia z rozczepieniem, rozkładem i ponownym złożeniem języka migowego, tworzeniem neologizmów oraz dziwnymi formami gramatycznymi (w ramach istniejących struktur gramatycznych). Analogiczna sytuacja pojawia się w przypadku osób słyszących i posługujących się językiem mówionym, które są chore psychicznie”
„Żywione kiedyś przekonanie, że utrata słuchu powoduje kompensację w postaci zwiększonej wrażliwości na bodźce wzrokowe, nie może być odnoszone jedynie do posługiwania się językiem migowym. Wszyscy głusi, nawet ci, którzy utracili słuch już po tym, jak nauczyli się mówić i ciągle posługują się językiem mówionym, mają pewną większą wrażliwość zmysłu wzroku i zachodzi u nich coś, co można by określić jako bardziej wizualną orientację w stosunku do otaczającego ich świata. [...] I tak np. osoba słysząca umie przewidzieć, kiedy skończy się rozmowa telefoniczna na podstawie intonacji głosu i oczywiście wypowiadanych słów; podobnie niesłyszący (można porównać go do kogoś, kto czeka na zewnątrz szklanej budki telefonicznej) potrafi ocenić, kiedy rozmowa ta może zbliżać się do końca. Jest to możliwe dzięki zauważaniu drobnych gestów i ruchów - zmiany w położeniu ręki na słuchawce, zmiany sposobu stania, odsuwanie się głowy od słuchawki, przebieranie stopami oraz zmiany wyrazu twarzy”
„Od wielu lat wiadomo, że angielski w wersji języka migowego jest trudny i obciążający dla osób, które się nim posługują. Niesłyszący - pisze Bellugi - mówią nam, że mimo iż potrafią przetwarzać poszczególne elementy w tym języku, mają trudności, gdy dochodzi do przetwarzania całych wiadomości, przedstawionych w postaci tzw. „ciągów sekwencyjnych". Trudności te nie maleją wraz z coraz dłuższym posługiwaniem się tym językiem i są spowodowane pewnymi fundamentalnymi uwarunkowaniami o charakterze neurologicznym - szczególnie związanymi z tzw. pamięcią krótką i przetwarzaniem kognitywnym. Żaden z tych problemów nie pojawia się w przypadku posługiwania się ASL, który dzięki wykorzystywaniu struktur przestrzennych wydaje się idealnym językiem wizualnym”
Składa się z trzech części — pierwsza to w zasadzie wprowadzenie do świata Głuchych, niesłyszących, migających, także do istoty języka dla człowieka.
Druga część to fascynująca i otwierająca oczy analiza wpływu języka na życie człowieka, jego neurologicznych i społecznych zdolności; także historii i ewolucji języka, w tym języka migowego, oraz badań w tych dziedzinach (Chomsky, Vygotsky, Stokoe, Bell, Gallaudet). Autor, neurolog, wykazuje się dogłębną znajomością społeczności g/Głuchych, w tym osób z afazją, zespołem Tourette'a, chorych psychicznie, tzw. „dzikich dzieci”, itd. Przekrój poruszanych tu tematów jest przepastny.
Ostatnia część to świeża relacja ze słynnego i przełomowego dla tożsamości Głuchych protestu Deaf President Now na Uniwersytecie Gallaudeta, która potencjalnie miała doprowadzić do wzrostu samoświadomości i tożsamości paternalizowanych Głuchych.
„Chociaż uczenie się „słów" w języku migowym może występować u dzie ci głuchych wcześniej niż uczenie się słów u dzieci zdrowych, to jednak nabywanie umiejętności posługiwania się strukturami gramatycznymi po- jawia się mniej więcej w tym samym czasie w jednej i drugiej grupie dzieci. [...]. Jednak jest faktem niezwykle zastanawiającym, że dziecko niesłyszące już w wieku 4 miesięcy umie wykonać odpowiedni znak oznaczający, że chce mleka, podczas gdy dziecko zdrowe potrafi jedynie płakać lub rozglądać się dokoła. Być może dla wszystkich dzieci okazałoby się korzystne, gdyby nauczyły się kilku znaków języka migowego!”
„Już w XVI w. głuche dzieci z niektórych rodzin szlacheckich uczono mówić i czytać, aby mogły być traktowane przez prawo jak osoby normalne (niemowy nie miały możliwości podejmowania działań prawnych)”
„Większą część dnia spędzałem z matką i rozumiałem prawie wszystko, co do mnie mówiła. A właściwie dlaczego miałoby być inaczej? Nie będąc tego świadom, przez całe życie czytałem z ruchów jej warg. Gdy do mnie mówiła, miałem nieodparte wrażenie, że słyszę jej głos. [...] Świadomość tego, że nie słyszę, że są to głosy-projekcje, że po prostu rozumiem, co mówią dzięki czytaniu z ruchów ich warg, dotarła do mnie dopiero po opuszczeniu szpitala. Pewnego dnia rozmawiałem ze swoim kuzynem, który nagle zakrył usta dłonią. Cisza! Wtedy po raz pierwszy uświadomiłem sobie, że nie potrafię „słyszeć, gdy nie widzę...”
„Tak więc dla Platona język, wiedza, epistemologia są wrodzone - cały proces uczenia się jest właściwie procesem przypominania, reminiscencji, jednak może on nastąpić dopiero po spełnieniu odpowiednich warunków, czyli w obecności mediatora, który będzie nauczycielem i partnerem w dialogu”
[Matki] „»w sposób bar- dzo głęboki przetwarzają świat postrzegany przez nasze zmysły, a narzędziem pozwalającym im na dokonanie tego przekształcenia jest język. Świat, który dzięki takim zabiegom poznaje dziecko, jest o wiele bogatszy i bardziej interesujący. One także nazywają otaczające dziecko obiekty, ale nazywają również to, co nie znajduje się w sferze poznania zmysłowego, a dla poszerzenia owego procesu opisu rzeczywistości posługują się przymiot- nikami... W świecie tak przedstawionym pojawiają się ludzie oraz ich działania opisane za pomocą m.in. przysłówków. Nie tylko opisują one otaczający je świat, ale pomagają swoim dzieciom zreorganizować go na swój sposób i myśleć o całej jego złożoności.«
Matki te stymulują tworzenie się świata o charakterze koncepcyjnym, który nie tylko nie zubaża świata postrzeganego za pomocą zmysłów, ale wzbogaca go i umieszcza na płaszczyźnie symboliczno-znaczeniowej”
„Kolejnym dowodem składniowej i fonemicznej struktury języka migowego są obserwacje odnoszące się do języka migowego osób dotkniętych psychozami - np. w przebiegu schizofrenii (język migowy chorych psychicznie). Mamy tu do czynienia z rozczepieniem, rozkładem i ponownym złożeniem języka migowego, tworzeniem neologizmów oraz dziwnymi formami gramatycznymi (w ramach istniejących struktur gramatycznych). Analogiczna sytuacja pojawia się w przypadku osób słyszących i posługujących się językiem mówionym, które są chore psychicznie”
„Żywione kiedyś przekonanie, że utrata słuchu powoduje kompensację w postaci zwiększonej wrażliwości na bodźce wzrokowe, nie może być odnoszone jedynie do posługiwania się językiem migowym. Wszyscy głusi, nawet ci, którzy utracili słuch już po tym, jak nauczyli się mówić i ciągle posługują się językiem mówionym, mają pewną większą wrażliwość zmysłu wzroku i zachodzi u nich coś, co można by określić jako bardziej wizualną orientację w stosunku do otaczającego ich świata. [...] I tak np. osoba słysząca umie przewidzieć, kiedy skończy się rozmowa telefoniczna na podstawie intonacji głosu i oczywiście wypowiadanych słów; podobnie niesłyszący (można porównać go do kogoś, kto czeka na zewnątrz szklanej budki telefonicznej) potrafi ocenić, kiedy rozmowa ta może zbliżać się do końca. Jest to możliwe dzięki zauważaniu drobnych gestów i ruchów - zmiany w położeniu ręki na słuchawce, zmiany sposobu stania, odsuwanie się głowy od słuchawki, przebieranie stopami oraz zmiany wyrazu twarzy”
„Od wielu lat wiadomo, że angielski w wersji języka migowego jest trudny i obciążający dla osób, które się nim posługują. Niesłyszący - pisze Bellugi - mówią nam, że mimo iż potrafią przetwarzać poszczególne elementy w tym języku, mają trudności, gdy dochodzi do przetwarzania całych wiadomości, przedstawionych w postaci tzw. „ciągów sekwencyjnych". Trudności te nie maleją wraz z coraz dłuższym posługiwaniem się tym językiem i są spowodowane pewnymi fundamentalnymi uwarunkowaniami o charakterze neurologicznym - szczególnie związanymi z tzw. pamięcią krótką i przetwarzaniem kognitywnym. Żaden z tych problemów nie pojawia się w przypadku posługiwania się ASL, który dzięki wykorzystywaniu struktur przestrzennych wydaje się idealnym językiem wizualnym”
April 24, 2018
I'm considering being a linguist because of this book. There are some things, some existences that just cannot be explained. Sacks does a great job showing you just how much language can make a person, and does a great job trying to depict the life of the language-less. It's a tough existence that's darn near impossible to even imagine, but this book gives as good of a overall peek as you'll ever get.
2018: Not sure what I meant by "language-less" when I wrote this. I hope I was referring to the "Wild Boy" and the like, people who were literally deprived of languages/communication. Not the Deaf/signers.
After delving deeper into Deaf culture /ASL, I need to reread this book to give a more robust (and accurate, if my first review is as misguided as I'm suspicious it is) review.
2018: Not sure what I meant by "language-less" when I wrote this. I hope I was referring to the "Wild Boy" and the like, people who were literally deprived of languages/communication. Not the Deaf/signers.
After delving deeper into Deaf culture /ASL, I need to reread this book to give a more robust (and accurate, if my first review is as misguided as I'm suspicious it is) review.
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