My Haikus

by Vania

1. Communication
Sign Language is important
Useful for the Deaf

2. Using Sign Language

Important and beautiful
Not oral method

3. Residential schools
Are wellsprings of Deaf Culture
Deaf Identity

4. Deaf Clubs in the past

Socializing together
With their own language

5. A good sojourner
Immersed in a new culture
With an open mind

Why I chose to write these haikus

I chose to write haikus because I am not good at writing rhyming poetry and I
cant draw. Instead, I have written 5 haikus, and I have chosen as themes for my
haikus the themes we discussed in class. I chose the points that stayed with me the
most and that I consider important for someone to know about Deaf Culture. I liked
that ASL is very important for the education of deaf children and as a result is
important for all deaf people. I have written two haikus about sign language
because I consider sign language to be very important for the deaf.
I also wrote a haiku about wellspring and how it is an abundance of Deaf
culture and language and can be found in Deaf schools (e.g., residential schools for
the deaf) and how these places can help a deaf person find their identity. The book
Wonderstruck is also a book about two kids finding their identities and I enjoyed the
book, so this information just stayed with me. I wrote one about Deaf Clubs like the
one I read about in Upstairs in The Old Hotel. I am fascinated by the fact that there
used to be many Deaf Clubs where Deaf people hung out and socialized and how
the Clubs arent really around anymore. I just found this to be very interesting and
something I didnt know anything about before starting the interpreter program.
The last haiku uses the main theme of the class and that is being a sojourner
and what it means to be a sojourner. The way I saw it, it meant someone learning
about and immersing themselves into someone elses culture and keeping an open
mind and be willing to accept the many different things about the culture. For
example, language, traditions, how people communicate, what is and what isnt
appropriate in a certain culture, how and why people do certain things, etc. I used
this theme because I am a sojourner into Deaf Culture. I am learning the language

and all about what deaf people are like, what they like to do for fun, how deaf
people socialize, deaf history, how the deaf became deaf (e.g., born deaf or after
birth from illness), etc. There is a lot about Deaf culture and the language that I still
need to learn, but in this semester alone I have learned a lot (from both my Deaf
Studies and Deaf Culture classes). So wrote about the things in class that has
stayed with me throughout the term. I hope that other people who see this will learn
what Ive learned this semester, at least a little bit.