The way Juanita writes this succinct paragraph is telling. Not only are Juanita and Joey appalled, they are confused and left thinking that this is a university that has to get its act together. While I support the need for dialogue, this needs to be said:

Shame on Gallaudet for not keeping these sensitive discussions behind closed doors. I pray that prospective students aren’t going elsewhere as a result.

Gracias!

I gave this additional thought… there are people who employ this device–using another language–to create, or maybe fabricate weight. Like when someone says “Capisce?” No added substance there. Juanita, however, succeeds because there’s absolutely no pretension to her passages in Spanish. That might explain why it came across as haunting and not kitschy. (Nacho Libre, anyone?) And maybe it’s why we feel humbled, not bamboozled.

Gallaudet or Georgetown? Ah, si, esta es la pregunta! Hmm, doesn’t quite work when I do it… : )

I had dinner with a friend last week and we talked about this particular masterpiece. And while we aren’t fluent in Spanish, we’re familiar enough with it to know that it’s a downright sexy language and can often be interpreted “aesthically” and maybe even phonetically for some.

If you’ll notice, in certain passages and particularly with the closing sentence, the author doesn’t offer an English translation. During those instances, the reader is humbled and practically forced to try and decipher the context by doing the “aesthetic/phonetic” translation.

For me personally, the act of being forced to translate and analyze was fun and challenging. This tactic, I thought, was even suggestive of how the mother raised Joey. It was almost as if the mother was whispering, “I will always, always make sure I challenge my son - and push him to every limit.”

Also, a friend who is fluent described the last couple of Spanish paragraphs as “haunting” - and that for those of us who aren’t fluent, we were unfortunate to not be able to sense the holistic impact of this work.

Juanita and Joey both make me want to enroll in Spanish 101 somewhere! Hmm. Gallaudet or Georgetown? :)

My reaction to the post was similar to many others’. I read it, then a re-read, then went “Wow.” After a while, though, I began to wonder if it was less due to the content and more due to the delivery.

This reminds me of a scene in “Wayne’s World 2” where an old man said something and Wayne 7 Garth looked at the audience and went, “That was awful.” Then they re-did the scene with Charlton Heston standing in for the old man… Heston uttered the very same words, and by god, it was different! No wonder he was Moses…

The point here, I guess, is that writing affects when it’s skillfully done. When all has been said a thousand times already, it then becomes a matter of delivery. But know what happens when you don’t stop thinking? You move on to a tangent, and now I’m wondering about the effect brought about not by the writer but us, the readers. What if we all knew Spanish already, would it be stripped of much of its impact? Was the delivery dependent on the second language being novel?

* How many of us are meaningfully fluent in another language? Would the delivery resonate with you as much if it were written alternatingly in English and that language?

* Would it work if it were done in spoken English and ASL? You know, as in a parent speaking then signing into a camera?

Just wondering. Thanks for indulging.

I did not say that. I simply said that when Gallaudet thrives, all deaf people benefit directly or indirectly. It’s one of the few national institutions we have, and one of the few major institutions that serves deaf people around the world.

That is not saying it’s the be-all and end-all. You can love Gallaudet while also loving the broader world — it does not have to be either/or.

Based on the reading, he doesn’t appear to
be someone who’ll turn his back on the deaf
community. Besides, in no time, he’ll discover
there is a lot of deaf people like him, intellectually wise.

Joey’s choice of university might depend on what he wanted to major in, and where he expected to work after graduation. However, many undergraduates from Gallaudet have gone on to be successful in businesses in the hearing world. When I was in college, I thought the first two years of general education requirements were a bore, but I got through them. Junior and senior years taking my major courses were a lot more meaningful and relevant to my interests.

Just a thought here: when I’m writing English to someone who speaks Spanish, I tend to simplify my syntax to make it easier to translate.

In any case, your comment, “All of us deaf people benefit when Gallaudet thrives” indicates the bubble-boy mentality he’s referring to here. Gallaudet is not the be-all, end-all for the deaf world, as much as we would like it to be….

You have to admit, he’s opening himself to far more opportunities by attending Georgetown University rather than Gallaudet.