Because of his hearing disability he is unable to form certain words and annunciate so he is often mocked and taken is unserious by people. Growing up I can remember not wanting friends to meet my grandfather, a person I was very proud of, someone who fought for everything, never gave up and insisted I do the same. He was always my mentor and someone I could always look up to. Yet, because of the way he spoke I was too embarrassed to even acknowledge his existence. But growing up in a small community where everyone knows everyone, often times my friends would come in contact with my grandfather. And every time he spoke people would get this shell shocked l!.
ook on their face, not knowing whether to laugh or to take him serious. I saw the way he was treated by others, the looks people gave him behind his back and the way he was mocked every time he opened his mouth. What these people did not know was the knowledge this man possessed. Yet, because he cannot express himself like everyone else he is looked upon as unintelligent. I knew of my grandfather's intelligence better than anyone but no matter how hard I tried I could not overlook his disability. Not until the summer when my sister and I took a course on sign language. At the end of the final class I remember having this overwhelming respect for my grandfather. .
Sign language is by far the most difficult language to learn but has been the most beneficial to my life. Every morning I would wake up for class and every morning for two hours I would learn to sign the alphabet and word phrases but never really understood the importance of them or how they all fitted together. I began to get frustrated with it until I started to watch my grandfather and father sign back and forth to each other and saw how passionate they were and how their hands smoothly transferred from word to word. I wanted to share that with my grandfather also.