Signing in as September signs out.
The message for the month is SIGN, SIGN, SIGN. Write me after you read: (susan@susanschaller.com)
If Deaf babies signed from the crib, they would be equal to all other babies, learning language, relating and communicating to their families, accessing education and cognitive stimulation (bed time stories, counting games, linguistic play,...) and community.
Please help me spread the word to your local doctor, PTA, EVERYONE: "visual language for visual babies" regardless of what else the parents and doctors are deciding. Sign and mime and visually communicate to that little baby while it is being tested and prodded by the medical experts.
All babies need and want language. [To all of you who have nothing to do with serving the Deaf community, I know this seems obvious, but were you to consider a career in deafness, your common sense would be washed out of your brain. Please tell your neighbors, friends and doctors that the medical world usually tells new parents of deaf babies NOT to sign to the baby as it interferes with speech learning (WRONG/error - please correct when opportunity arises)].
Keep on telling good stories about bilingual Deaf kids (who have a signed and spoken language).
Thank you, ahead of time, for any help, suggestions, and comraderie that you can send me;
susan schaller at susanschaller.com
Thursday
June Rose
As June roses bloomed larger than ever in Berkeley, I planted new chapter ideas for my new book.
A publisher continues to negotiate a new contract, and the old (second) book is evolving into a new (third) book.
I will tell you all the news and events as they unfold, in detail, another time.
Today, I must write a book.
Yours for language rights, bilingualism, visual language for visual babies, and smelling the roses,
susan schaller of www.susanschaller.com
A publisher continues to negotiate a new contract, and the old (second) book is evolving into a new (third) book.
I will tell you all the news and events as they unfold, in detail, another time.
Today, I must write a book.
Yours for language rights, bilingualism, visual language for visual babies, and smelling the roses,
susan schaller of www.susanschaller.com
Saturday
May travels and transition
Greetings from rural England, then Oxford, then Heathrow, then over the North Pole and Canada and back on land in San Francisco.
Works and Conversations published an interview about me and my work. Send me your address and I'll send you a copy.
The ASL Festival is on next week - I'll see you there, in San Francisco, just outside of the Embarcadero BART station. Exit and head for the bay - look for clever faces and hands - you can't miss it.
be happy
susan
www.susanschaller.com
Works and Conversations published an interview about me and my work. Send me your address and I'll send you a copy.
The ASL Festival is on next week - I'll see you there, in San Francisco, just outside of the Embarcadero BART station. Exit and head for the bay - look for clever faces and hands - you can't miss it.
be happy
susan
www.susanschaller.com
Wednesday
Equality Comes for Deaf People
Today marks a terrific triumph:
Universal declaration announced today that Deaf babies are first HUMAN babies and must be allowed equal access to language. From now on, all governments on the planet mandate that visual babies be exposed to a visual language - the signed language of the respective country, and all new parents of deaf babies learn that visual language.
Each country now recognizes their Deaf community's signed language as one of the official languages, allowing Deaf citizens to be active at every level of their society. Full bilingual education and bilingual services are now available for Deaf people all over the globe.
Hurrah! Hurrah! And shout and SIGN "HURRAH!" again.
Truly, this is the best day in world history for Deaf people everywhere.
I can now retire.
susan@susan.schaller.com
www.susanschaller.com
Universal declaration announced today that Deaf babies are first HUMAN babies and must be allowed equal access to language. From now on, all governments on the planet mandate that visual babies be exposed to a visual language - the signed language of the respective country, and all new parents of deaf babies learn that visual language.
Each country now recognizes their Deaf community's signed language as one of the official languages, allowing Deaf citizens to be active at every level of their society. Full bilingual education and bilingual services are now available for Deaf people all over the globe.
Hurrah! Hurrah! And shout and SIGN "HURRAH!" again.
Truly, this is the best day in world history for Deaf people everywhere.
I can now retire.
susan@susan.schaller.com
www.susanschaller.com
Saturday
April Flowers
In April, an interview of me will appear in Works & Conversations, with the announcement that " In Search of the Languageless Tribe" will be published soon. Hurrah!
I just came back from Southern England after interviewing a friend and fellow actor in the National Theater of the Deaf of Dot Miles whom I write about in the new book.
I'm off to Paris and then rural France this week. Back to England, then off the Austria at the end of March. I will be speaking in Salzburg at The English Center.
Then back to Shropshire to continue rewriting the book, adding, subtracting and polishing it for publication.
Thank you, all who have been supporting me and the advocacy for Deaf language rigtht, for these many years.
L'chaim, and equal access to language and life,
susan
www.susanschaller.com
I just came back from Southern England after interviewing a friend and fellow actor in the National Theater of the Deaf of Dot Miles whom I write about in the new book.
I'm off to Paris and then rural France this week. Back to England, then off the Austria at the end of March. I will be speaking in Salzburg at The English Center.
Then back to Shropshire to continue rewriting the book, adding, subtracting and polishing it for publication.
Thank you, all who have been supporting me and the advocacy for Deaf language rigtht, for these many years.
L'chaim, and equal access to language and life,
susan
www.susanschaller.com
Tuesday
The Honesty, Creativity and Confidence of 5-yr.-olds
Dear Readers,
Let's all be 5 again. Just think of everything we could accomplish!
In Chapter Two: Language Wars
... My attraction to languages and their respective cultures stems from both the early love of my father and also from his strange sub-culture. When I was five, I remember the excitement of learning to read. I knew it was a doorway into a much bigger world outside our little house in Wyoming. Only days or weeks after learning to read, I wandered into my father’s office where books stood, wall to wall, floor to ceiling, and lay scattered across his messy desk. I climbed onto his big oak swivel chair to reach the top of his desk. My father always had open books, at least three, in his work space, besides all the papers and closed books circling the writing pad. I pulled the first book closer. Shock, disappointment and excitement all flooded my insides at once, as I stared at a completely different and unreadable alphabet. That ancient Greek book was next to an ancient Hebrew text and next to an English book with the familiar alphabet but few words I could understand. I found more funny words or lettering in Latin and old German Script books, all lying in front of me. For a split second, I felt like I was drowning in an ocean, but with the confidence of a five-year-old, I decided to learn how to read them all.
Let's all be 5 again. Just think of everything we could accomplish!
In Chapter Two: Language Wars
... My attraction to languages and their respective cultures stems from both the early love of my father and also from his strange sub-culture. When I was five, I remember the excitement of learning to read. I knew it was a doorway into a much bigger world outside our little house in Wyoming. Only days or weeks after learning to read, I wandered into my father’s office where books stood, wall to wall, floor to ceiling, and lay scattered across his messy desk. I climbed onto his big oak swivel chair to reach the top of his desk. My father always had open books, at least three, in his work space, besides all the papers and closed books circling the writing pad. I pulled the first book closer. Shock, disappointment and excitement all flooded my insides at once, as I stared at a completely different and unreadable alphabet. That ancient Greek book was next to an ancient Hebrew text and next to an English book with the familiar alphabet but few words I could understand. I found more funny words or lettering in Latin and old German Script books, all lying in front of me. For a split second, I felt like I was drowning in an ocean, but with the confidence of a five-year-old, I decided to learn how to read them all.
Monday
Deaf Bilingual Coalition
Recently, I donated for a fund-raiser, for the Deaf Bilingual Coaltion,a Polish poster of Children of a Lesser God and some old ILY (mother signing to a baby) postage stamps. As I looked around the room of almost hundred signing Deaf people, I wondered why it was so hard for hearing parents, doctors, and most of society to accept these people as equal to us. They have their own language, sports teams, churches, traditions and customs, and beautiful art and poetry. What is it that makes humans focus on differences rather than similarities, and worse, abuse minorities who are not "like us"?
This last Thursday, the U.S. celebrated Thanksgiving, a holiday dedicated to gratitude. We are all grateful for diversity in nature - plants, animals, landscapes. Nature includes all the varieties of humans, making life much more interesting. I'm grateful for every word of every foreign language I've learned - it's the beginning of a window into a different culture and way of viewing the world. I'm especially grateful for meeting Deaf people and learning a 3-D language and a richer way of seeing.
Yours for language rights for all people, especially deaf babies,
susan schaller
www.susanschaller.com
This last Thursday, the U.S. celebrated Thanksgiving, a holiday dedicated to gratitude. We are all grateful for diversity in nature - plants, animals, landscapes. Nature includes all the varieties of humans, making life much more interesting. I'm grateful for every word of every foreign language I've learned - it's the beginning of a window into a different culture and way of viewing the world. I'm especially grateful for meeting Deaf people and learning a 3-D language and a richer way of seeing.
Yours for language rights for all people, especially deaf babies,
susan schaller
www.susanschaller.com
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