Exchange Student Handicap Parking
Today at school my class participated in a student run workshop led by three girls who are researching handicaps and handicapped people for their "BAC" (basically the French equivalent to the SAT, but way more intense). Therefore, we got to take the day off from classes and listen to different people speak on the subject. There was a woman who isn't in a wheelchair, but plays handicap basketball for fun, a man whose son has Multiple Sclerosis and a group of blind people from a guide dog association. But the person I found most interesting was a woman who became mute a few years ago due to cancer. She can hear perfectly, but she communicates through sign language. She had us think about how we might get by in our day to day life without being able to speak. She explained to us how doing simple, day to day things, like buying bread at the bakery or scheduling a hair appointment are made so much more difficult. She said she relies on hand gestures instead of writing and that her teenage children often have to speak for her and even call the insurance company on her behalf. When she went mute, she attended a university course to learn sign language and it took her two years to learn. She also learned English sign language for her work. The whole time she spoke, using exaggerated facial expressions and body language along with her signing, two sign language interpreters translated for us.
I didn't want our time with her to end because I was so inspired by her story. I felt a connection to her because living in a different country, not knowing the language, you feel like you're handicapped in some ways. Simple things like she said, buying bread or making a call, are made so much more difficult. And what's more you have to depend on other people more than usual to communicate for you. You have to trust that they can get your idea across, even though it will never exactly be stated the way you would have said it yourself. Like a deaf or mute person, you also have to be more animated, relying on gestures and body language more than before. I thought, if this woman can get by in her day to day life, unable to use her voice for the rest of her life, surely I can handle a few months of a little miscommunication.
And who knows? Maybe I might learn sign language after this year. But English or French...that's the question.