When I planned to interview someone who used NZSL in their everyday lives, I didn’t really think it through. I thought it would be a cool idea, to get an insight of how a deaf person’s life might be like. I started off with the plan to interview a person who took deaf studies in university, but I realised that I wasn’t yet capable of having a full interview with anyone in sign. The questions I wanted to ask, I would have had to search up online rather than use the knowledge of NZSL that I already had.

 

However, coincidentally my teacher decided to give us a presentation of the deaf community and culture and an insight into her life during part of our NZSL class. She brought in an interpreter and told us we could ask any questions we wanted. I thought this was a perfect alternative to an interview, because I could find out all the information I wanted. Also, I wouldn’t need to search up words on the internet to come up with questions for an interview I wasn’t ready for.  

 

She started talking about what it was like during her childhood, when NZSL wasn’t a recognized language. She explained that none of her family members knew sign. She also explained that if a boy wanted to ask her out on a date that they would have had to phone her mother and that she even had to take her mother to her job interviews! NZSL was made an official language in 2006 which wasn’t that long ago, so to think about how many deaf people in New Zealand had to struggle like this is so heartbreaking.

 

On a happier note, she did inform us about the Deaf Olympics and how so many people would gather around to attend these kinds of events. It made people feel included and there were so many sports dedicated to accommodating the deaf community. She then showed us a list of names of the athletes who participated in the Olympics and sure enough, there she was! Although I don’t remember what she placed (I should have written that down), I do remember that she was one of the top participants for running, which is impressive! A question that was asked was how the athletes would know when to start running. If it was a gun, then the athlete could tell from the smoke that came up from firing a shot. Otherwise a blinking light was used.

 

Deaf club was also one of the things she had mentioned. Deaf club is a place for deaf people to be able to get away from the hearing world and meet people who were like them. Only NZSL is used in deaf club and it is a great way for deaf people to relax and have fun. It is available to deaf and hearing people and if we wanted we could attend a meeting to test out our NZSL skills, but I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.

 

I never knew anything about the deaf community or deaf culture before I started this NZSL paper, and I don’t regret taking it on as an elective. I think this paper teaches you so much more than you expect and I’m hoping to continue with NZSL next year.