Anyone who was part of ASL congregations? What was your experiences witnessing in ASL/Deaf territories?
Scott77
Ex -JWs ASL Congragations
by Scott77 43 Replies latest jw experiences
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White Dove
We drove around a lot because our territories were huge blocks of neighborhoods with only about 2-4 addresses marked on them. It was always nice to come across Deafies in the territory. Not very many were interested in our area, though. Good conversations about everyday life:)
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B_Deserter
There's an ASL congregation that's part of my old hall. But the weird thing is that the people who actually NEED to use ASL because they're deaf are vastly, vastly outnumbered by the people who LEARNED ASL in order to speak with them. I've seen that with other foreign language congregations as well. Less than half are actually foreign while the majority are just white people who learned the language to add to their spiritual plumage. Just something else to strut your "holier than thou" stuff in the congregation. I for one dislike the idea of ASL congregations. It's one of the few languages that can be "spoken" simultaneously with an auditory language without causing confusion or disruption. Forming an ASL congregation to me only serves to sequester the deaf congregation members from the main body. Learning ASL to speak with a fellow worshiper is all well-and-good, but learning it to "help out" in the "deaf congregation" to me is disingenuous.
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bluecanary
B_Deserter, I'm disappointed by your cynical post. You failed to point out all the women who learned foreign languages in the hopes of finding husband material among the new group.
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Scott77
Bttt...
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Lady Lee
B-deserter
Thanks for the insult.
I learned sign language because I thought it was beautiful. Something really attracted me to it. The impetus for me to learn was that they needed interpreters. I never dreamed I could be good enough to actually interpret talks. But because I loved it so much and spent most of my days with a deaf friend I picked it up very fast and signed my first talk in 3 months. I never ever expected a pat on the back for it. Or that people would come up to me after and thank me or say that they enjoyed watching me.
Congrats to all the people in your hall that learned to communicate with them. Even if they never learn well enough to interpret the showed a lot of caring for the people they saw 2-3 times a week or more
When I first learned there was only a deaf group. Not large enough to be a congregation. But they grew and after I left I think they had the motivation to start their own meetings. I heard that after that they started having their own public talks downstairs once a month and presumably other meetings as well. They still needed interpreters. The deaf group always outnumbered the people who learned to "help" But then they were a solid group who had been built up over years in another hall.
I also disagree with your thinking that having a deaf only cong sequesters them. Why on earth shouldn't they be able to communicate fully in a meeting without the use of interpreters? Our group always had their own book study on their own. Why shouldn't they?
I'm not defending the WTS' way of doing things but the deaf have just as much right to have a meeting without the use of interpreters as any other small group.
BTW I was already married so wasn't looking for a husband
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I did go on occasion with the deaf looking for people. Because there is a large school for the deaf in Montreal, there was a telephone book for the deaf. They used that to find other deafies. (is this a real word that people use?) Some would listen but many if not most didn't. Because people in our group had children in school they knew a lot of the deaf people already. But they were able to get a small french language deaf group going
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Scott77
Bluecanary, B_Deserter and Lady Lee all have good points. I do not what to say. I recently posted this comments below but I think, this is a right place for it. What I stated was that, within the Deaf community or Deaf World, its a small world. Almost everyone know each other. Many know each other based on the school they attended. There are few schools for the deaf. In USA, we have Gallaudent University for liberal arts education and NTID in Rochester, NY for Technical education. Many Canadian Deaf students attends those schools. Gallaudent University in Washington, D.C, is considered to be the world's mecca for the Deaf people. This applies to sign language interpreters too.Imagine, its harder for a hearing one to come out of the Watchtower, how much it will be harder even more for a deaf person!!!!!!!
Scott77
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dissed
We had a decently sized group in one of our congregations.
They complained they felt they were treated as second class JW's, partly because they used the library and were not mixed in with the front group.
Are thoughts were never that, but it was distracting to the regular group, having someone standing up, interpreting in an animated way, and by using the library, they had the possibility of interacting while a talk went on for clarification. No problem, so we switched them to the front.
The Elder that lead out group said they learned ASL because of a relative who was deaf AND it gave them an opportunity to get away from the regular boring meetings. It was also a great way to gossip to each other in public with no one knowing what they were saying.lol
We also had a unique foreign language group that used the 2nd school room. We asked them if they wanted, we could move them to the front and use head phones. They refused saying, they needed to intereact as the talk progressed and needed a seperate enviroment.
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Lady Lee
Scott
After I left the JWs I got some work at McKay Centre in Montreal (half of school is for deaf, other half for physical disabilities except not blind). Many knew I had been a JW because the kids knew who I was. But the non-JWs were happy that I was not a JW anymore and accepted me better than if I was still JW.
There is hope for more friendship after leaving especially if you live someplace where there is a larger deaf community.
It looks like here in Ottawa there is a larger deaf community. I know they had deaf JW group but when I let with deaf social group there were more deaf in there playing cards than I ever saw in a JW meeting andf they were just the ones over 55 yrs old. So I think there must be many deaf here in this city.
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Brocephus
Deaf and attractive women turn me on... What does that say about me? Seriously I have wondered this, maybe I should start a new thread on it.