5a Train Go Sorry

5a "Train Go Sorry” Inside the Deaf World.

"I am a hearing student assigned the book Train Go Sorry in my Introduction to Humanities Class. Other readings assigned in this class include several essays from the book My California. In both books, we examined the cultures of California that form a microcosm of the U.S. In this essay, I will incorporate 4 required questions." Then proceed to include the following questions.

1. What does Train Go Sorry mean (who in the book is this referring to; there is a specific person, include his name and his outcome. Remember that good college writing assumes no one has read the information and you must present it or 'teach' it by giving us details.)?

2. What pair of 'shoes' do you think the main person in the book is walking in and what did she learn? In other words, who or what culture does she want to belong to and why?

3. What is one image you won't ever forget? Draw us a picture in words to explain this. What chapter is it in?

4. What are 5 facts about ASL or Deaf culture you think everyone should know after your reading of this book?

The book, Train Go Sorry was just ok for me, I do not feel it flowed very well. It seems like each chapter was like a completely different story but about the related information of the deaf lives of the students or family. For example, the story about James and his brother seemed to come out of no where. I do realize it is her style of writing. This is a book I will have to read again when I have more time and I can try to appreciate it more. I felt the entire book is one humiliation after another for the deaf students of Lexington School.

The story describes the school, students, teachers, and families of those in the book. The author, Leah Cohen is writing the book as an observer and participant and as a hearing person in a school for the deaf. She went to school there for 7 years and her father was the superintendent of the school. Her grandparents were both deaf. She tells about the death of her grandfather and how they really could not talk. She remembers one night walking home with him hand in hand.

The story tracks the progress of two students, James and Sofia. Sofia is a Russian immigrant who has to learn both English and ASL (American Sign Language) to go to the university. The second student is James, a poor boy from the projects who gets little or no support from his family. He also has a brother who he was very close to, in a near by prison. His brother robbed someone with a group of boys from the neighborhood.

The title of the book from ASL means, “you missed the boat, or missing the boat.” In general it means the missed opportunities that people have had to make connections between the hearing and the deaf. The idea of missing opportunities between these two groups is throughout the book. Chapter 12 deals with this in even more detail.

Chapter 12 starts off with James trying to see his brother Joseph who is in prison. His brother has been there for almost a year. He noted the prison was only a mile from his school and that he was the first of his family to visit his brother. He also stated that he really never got to say good bye because everything happened so quickly. When he finally had cleared all the hurdles to see him, he is told his brother was not there but in court. James then expressed how his life was a series of missed connections, lost opportunities. “James understands what has happened in a single phrase: train go sorry or train go zoom; in any case, it is the ASL equivalent of “you missed the boat.” The story of James life has been the story of missed connections, the train that has left the station, the boat that has set sail without him.” (p 188) The expression finally made sense to me, the train is gone sorry you missed it. It reminds me of broken English that you sometime hear those who do not speak English very well.

James second attempt to see his brother is the same result, he is in court again. The third attempt is successful, but the meeting is full of stress. They talk for a while and at the end of the conversation Joseph states that, “home is better than here.” I thought it was an interesting comment by James when he said if he were not deaf he might have been with the group at the robbery that put his brother in jail. He missed that train or boat. When they shake hands and James says goodbye, “he knows it was his brother who had missed the boat this time.” (p 198) Both had missed the boat at different times.

I thought chapter 5 was sad. Even the title, Words Left Unspoken tells you something about the information. This chapter goes into detail about the problems of communication between the deaf and the speaking. This is high lighted with the little girl (author) stating the following about her grandfather who was deaf. "He died before I was really able to converse in sign. I have never seen his handwriting. I once saw his teeth, in a glass, on the bathroom windowsill. Now everything seems like a clue" (p 69) She was unable to communicate with him because of the negative attitude about sign language at that time in history.

The author is walking in the shoes of deaf students but is still an outsider of the culture because she hears. She has to learn not only the sign language but also how to express what you are saying with your whole body. For the deaf, the face and expressions is the key to expressing the meaning of the words. She learned much from the students and their culture. She finally learned the language and worked in the deaf culture. She expressed how much she missed out on. She lived day to day with the deaf and could not sign or communicate with them.

There are many things about ASL or Deaf culture that I think everyone should know after reading this book. The following are just some of them.

When people can not communicate with each other it causes problems and frustration. It is even worse when it is family members. This could be a parallel to what is going on in the world today. Countries, groups, and people can not communicate and come to any sort of agreement on anything it seems. This was one of Freire’s central points about communication.

Deaf children, especially those born to hearing parents, need the company of other deaf children in order to learn the language that is best suited for them. Only in the company of other deaf children of varying ages and deaf adults is it possible for deaf children to pick up on Deaf culture, the culture that will understand them for who they are and not consider them handicapped. A deaf child who is mainstreamed is likely to spend most of his or her childhood isolated, unable to communicate effectively with peers or develop native fluency in sign language for effective communication with other deaf people. Schools for the deaf, on the other hand, provide rich opportunities for deaf children to develop socially as well as learn in classes that are thoroughly adapted for their skills and needs.

One of the largest and perhaps somewhat understated issues in the book is the question of the role of ASL in deaf education. I was shocked to read that some teachers at the Lexington School, at least in the early 1990s when this book was written, still had no fluency in ASL. How could they communicate with their students? As Cohen explains, Lexington was founded as an oral school, and it has only been quite recently that students were finally allowed to communicate with each other in sign. Cohen was born into a family where her father and grandparents were fluent in sign and used it as their primary means of communication, and she spent the first 7 years of her life living in a residential school for the deaf, haunting the hallways and even attending preschool classes with deaf children. With such an upbringing, fluency in ASL should have almost been her birthright. Instead, with ASL banned on campus during the time she lived there, she did not start to learn sign language until her college years, by taking private lessons.

The image I will not forget is the deaf students hiding to communicate with each other with sign language. I was surprised and shocked to learn that the students at the school could not communicate by signing with each other. The only place it was practiced was in their rooms behind closed doors. If someone saw them using sign language they would be disciplined.

The truly tragic "Train Go Sorry" in this book is the fact that Cohen was denied learning sign language as a child, and that deaf students anywhere studying in deaf schools still find teachers in their classrooms who do not know and use ASL. While oral skills have their place and should be a part of the deaf curriculum, they should constitute a minor course of study, and not the medium of instruction.

One of the main theme’s the book is the argument about ‘mainstreaming’ versus Deaf culture. Should deaf children be assimilated into the hearing world, or be brought up in the world of Deaf people? She argues that it is essential for deaf children to have a rich linguistic culture, and the only way to get that is in a signing world. In American Sign Language, ‘train go sorry’ means 'missing the boat.' Leah Hager Cohen uses the phrase as shorthand for the many missed connections between deaf and hearing people.

The idea of the cochelar implants brings up the discussion of what is best for the individual.? It seems that those that get the implants loose the cultural value of their community. Would it be better for them to be more in the hearing world or the deaf world? I do not feel there is any one answer.

The Tower of Babel, (chapter 8) I feel is the real heart of this book and the information about the conflict of the non hearing and hearing worlds. The chapter discusses the problem of all the different types of communications going on at the school. “The students receive a mishmash of languages and contradictory messages about how they are expected to communicate. Students come to the school with different communication systems, so one classroom might contain oral and signing students who are unable to understand one another. In short, it’s a mess, at least as far as policymakers are concerned.” (p 115) It goes on to say it has been going on for a hundred years, and its identity is an oral school. Dr. Leigh with personal experience advocates using both oral and signing to communicate. (p 116) The image or attitude I will not forget after reading this book is the way the deaf students were treated. They were treated terrible for communicating with sign language. This chapter talks in detail about how the deaf students were denied the ability to communicate with each other with sign language. This was not limited to the school environment but this was everywhere. They were punished in various ways for signing some even physical punishment. If the students were observed signing even on the streets they would be treated as if they were engaged in some unseemely act. A school official would go to them and send them on their way. What was also surprising to me was that this attitude and actions was accepted by both students and parents as, the way it was.

I thought the use of the Tower of Babel was fitting since that is where Jehovah God confused the one language and caused the people to start using many languages because of disobedience. From this point on they no longer spoke one language. They could not easily communicate with each other from this point on. Genesis 11: 1-9.

Communication is one of the most important things individuals, governments, or anyone can do. The better and more people communicate the better off everyone will be. This would be expressed very well and Freire would appreciate the Bible verses found in Prov. 15:22-23. These verses discuss communication and the frustration when there is a lack of talking.