BY SIGOURNEY NUÑEZ

In a Deaf household many barriers can be formed and pose as a roadblock for communication. Simple tasks as talking on the phone, to calling each others name’s, are not done the same in a Deaf household. Malihe Ghazanfari and Vania Elison describe their experience as children living in a Deaf home.

When Ghazanfari’s mother found out her daughter was Deaf, they originally did not want to learn sign language.  Different options were tried, she attempted to focus on oral speech and realized that was not successful for her  child and eventually accepted the fact that they would have communication barriers.

Ghazanfari was born in Iran in 1988 and moved to the United States at the age of  two,  even then her mother did not speak English.  Ghazanfari’s family tried to attend a local church to learn both American Sing Language and English at the same time, because then she only spoke Farsi.  Ghazanfari said, “It was a tough situation to handle, but now everything is fine.”

Elison, a coda (child of Deaf parents) says she recalls most of her childhood having to play the role of the interpreter. “Whenever they needed me, I would always go with them to the bank, doctor’s, meetings and things like that,” said Elison.  She says that a lot of her childhood she was torn between two cultures, that of the hearing and Deaf communities. Whether it was trying to maker her parents understand that she is a hearing girl trying to prove herself as a Deaf studies major at California State University Northridge, Elison will always feel like she will constantly have to show her parents that she is part of both worlds.

Tags:  CSUN Deaf Farsi Interpreting Language Barriers Sign Language Sigourney Nunez