Week 14

Part 1:

Train Go Sorry by Leah Hager Cohen

"I am a hearing student assigned the book Train Go Sorry in my Introduction to Humanities Class. Other readings assigned in this class include several essays from the book My California. In both books and film, we examined the cultures of California that form a microcosm of the U.S.; and the U.S. forms a microcosm of the world. In this essay, I will incorporate 4 required questions."

1. What does Train Go Sorry mean (who in the book is this referring to; there is a specific person, include his name and his outcome. Remember that good college writing assumes no one has read the information and you must present it or 'teach' it by giving us details.)?

In American Sign Language, the term "Train Go Sorry" means "Missing the boat." What this means, is that there are many connections that are missed between the deaf and the hearing, and a failure to recognize that deaf people are members of a unique culture. The person in the story that the term "Train Go Sorry is referring to is a young man named James Taylor. A young deaf man who came from a poverty stricken neighborhood and family, Taylor had found himself at Lexington School for the Deaf where he was truant a lot in his first year. He was invited to live in the dorm at Lexington in his second and continuing years to encourage better attendance and slowly began to excel until finally passing all of his tests and earning his way into Camden County College. There were several references in the story of how James Taylor had "Missed the boat," or the connection with the hearing society-including his brother Joseph. In Chapter 7, James becomes frustrated as he is sent back and forward between the hospital and the audiologist when being tested for his hearing devices, because of his struggle to communicate his needs with his hearing counterparts. Upon leaving the audiologists office, he encounters a man on the street who asks him if he'd like to buy a token for a dollar. It was raining; water was dripping off the man’s lips and he could not read them, so he shook his head and walked on. Another man approached him on the subway steps of the train station, and asks James about the train. He says, "Uptown number one?" James stares hard at this man’s lips with his eyes; trying to understand them, but found himself staring at the man with his lips moving; trying to form the words. The man thinks James is mocking him, and walks away disgusted. In chapter 12 titled "Train Go Sorry,” James makes two unsuccessful attempts to visit his brother, Joseph, in prison. Unable to make a call to the prison, he goes there and gets through the visiting process just to learn that his brother was in court. On his third trip though, he is able to visit Joseph. He recognizes that prison has made his brother an ugly person. He realizes the distance that is between them and their lives. He knows that he'll never go back to visit Joseph again. James believes that if he were not deaf and hadn't gone to Lexington, he may have been with his brother on that fateful day that he and a group of boys pulled a gun on a woman in an apartment building. He believes he might have been in prison too if it had not been for being deaf. When James gets ready to end his visit, Joseph says to him, "You stay here and I'll go home." James replies "No." Joseph tells him, "It is better at home than in jail." At that moment, James feels it is Joseph that has "Missed the boat" this time.

2. What pair of 'shoes' do you think the main person in the book is walking in and what did she learn? In other words, who or what culture does she want to belong to and why?

The main person in the story, Leah Hager Cohen is walking in a deaf person shoes. She is walking in the shoes of her grandfather Sam, who was deaf, and also attended Lexington School for the dead; she was walking in James and Sofia's shoes. Leah's father, Oscar, was the principal and later the superintendent of Lexington School for the deaf where Leah grew up and attended school. Leah, and hearing person, felt left out and an outcast from her deaf peers during activities at school. She wished that she had been deaf like the other students. She felt at the time that the privilege of being able to hear was nothing compared to the closeness and the bonds that the other deaf children at the school shared because of what they had in common. The fact that she spoke the "Teachers language," she felt set her apart the most from the other students. She wanted so much to belong to this bonded culture that she put pebbles in her ears in protest, and she longed to take speech classes. It wasn't until later that Cohen thoroughly realized that her status as a hearing person would forever restrict her from belonging to the deaf community.

3. What is one image you won't ever forget? Draw us a picture in words to explain this. What chapter is it in?

One image in this story that I will not forget, can be found in chapter6, when Sofia (A young deaf girl from Russia who attended Lexington,) wakes up to her period the day before her scheduled Bat Mitzvah. Her mother, who didn't agree with her Bat Mitzvah, is the first place was quick to tell her that she could not proceed with her ceremony during her period because it was considered to be impure. Sofia had been denied to practice her religion of choice in Russia and had worked hard here in America to prepare for this ceremony. She was already older than most that choose to have this ceremony, she went against her parents beliefs, and learned the language of Hebrew. She wasn't about to forget about her ceremony and consulted with her Rabbi, who informed her that it was okay to be on her period for her Bar Mitzvah. Sofia had decided that to many connections have been missed for her. It was time for her to start recovering the pieces that she had lost; it was time to filling in the holes (Pg. 91.) It turns out that her mother was more embarrassed of others hearing her deaf daughter speech during the ceremony, than the actual ceremony itself. Sofia worked hard to overcome her adversities, fill the empty holes in her heart, and to prevail and this is why I was drawn to the image of Sofia and her Bat Mitzvah in the story.

4. What are 5 facts about ASL or Deaf culture you think everyone should know after your reading of this book?

I learned that although there were early attempt to teach sign language to students, most hearing people considered sigh language to be primitive.

Another important fact that I learned was that even though deaf people can accomplish anything a hearing person can, most deaf people feel they belong to their own specific culture.

There were many references in the book that stressed that mainstreaming the deaf into the hearing society was more harmful to the overall health and feelings of self-worth of the deaf than beneficial.

Many of the bi-cultural kids that came to Lexington from other countries came with no language system at all, signed, spoken, or written because many of them had been schooled with mentally retarded children and had never seen another blind person at all.

One of the most important things I learned from reading this story, is that a hearing person like Oscar or Leah Cohen can not only learn to communicate with the deaf by learning their language, but also by opening up their minds and hearts to them, and respecting their unique culture.

Part 2:

1) Antonio- He said that Waiting for the World to Change was a very good video and it had one of his favorite songs by John Mayer.

2) Alexa- I learned that ASL counts as a foreign language credit in 35 states in the U.S. and California is one of them.

3) Alex- He thinks that more people should be open minded with ASL and they should require ASL is schools just like Spanish and French.

4) Judy- I learned that ASL is a dominant language for the deaf in USA, english speaking parts of Canada and Mexico, but is different in other countries such as Britain.

5) Mario- I learned that ASL is a natural language as proved to the satisfaction of the linguistic community by William Stokoe, and contains phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax and pragmatics just like spoke languages.

6) Michael- I learned that there are between 100-500 Thousand Primary users of ASL in the U.S.

7) Catherine- She said that it was a strange sensation not hearing the music, only seeing the worlds. She used her imagination and had a sense of connection with the faces on the stage.

8) Danielle- I learned that only 10% of Deaf population acquires their deafness from their family.

9) Raquel- I learned that the deaf are accepted into employment more readily in Ohio than elsewhere.

10) Tamika- I learned that it is estimated that 9 out of 10 members of the American Deaf community marry other members of their cultural group and wish for a deaf child so that they may pass on their culture.