Quotes About Communication

The oralists believe in speaking and lipreading without ever signing; and the manualists are pro-signing in American Sign Language (ASL).

Mom turned to me, puzzled. In sign language, she asked, "What was Grandpa saying in the kitchen?" My heart froze.

The only way Tyrone had of communicating was to hit someone.

This was insanity. This was coming out of my mouth and it was madness.

her parents had no way of telling her she was going away to school.

I have talked and listened and heard and there is no me!

I had to learn I wasn't deaf. I had to start speaking out.

American Sign Language—ASL—is a language unto itself, with its own syntax and grammar. Adjectives follow nouns, as in Romance languages.

By the age of two, hearing children perceived their parents' deafness well enough to know automatically that they must use gestures with their parents and other deaf people. If the children talked at all, their voices had an unusual quality and they exaggerated their mouth movements. These same children immediately shifted gears, speaking in "normal" voices, with hearing people.

Having hearing children meant they had to come into contact with hearing people even more frequently than they would have otherwise—hearing teachers and scout leaders wouldn't have been such a part of their lives.

Immediately the stranger would bend over toward me and ask, "Does he lip-read?" as if Dad had suddenly become as inanimate as a cigar store Indian.

For the first time, it hit me that my mother and father were deaf.

Every day they met with constant, irritating reminders of their shortcomings, from the petty annoyance of not being able to ask for a cup of coffee in a restaurant, to the sobering knowledge that they couldn't hear cars careening around corners, and that deaf people had been shot in the back by policemen when they hadn't heard a command to halt.

Like virtually all schools for the deaf at that time, the Indiana State School emphasized oral skills: speaking and lipreading.

In sign language, conversations like these are unbelievably hard. You must look directly at the person as you talk to him, and as he talks to you. You can't avert your eyes to relieve the tension.

We were speaking in feelings. Words were not enough.

That was another thing hearing people did—made too-large movements. It was tantamount to shouting.)

Who's on first, What's on second, I Don't Know is on third.

Don't tell your problems to people: eighty percent don't care; and the other twenty percent are glad you have them.

Never tell your problems to anyone . . . 20% don't care and the other 80% are glad you have them.

The problem with having a sense of humor is often that people you use it on aren't in a very good mood.

Music is the greatest communication in the world. Even if people don't understand the language that you're singing in, they still know good music when they hear it.

I always believed that I have something important to say and I said it.

Be careful. Everything you say, every single day, may be recorded in your students' hearts forever.