In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

KAMPOL SUWANARAT he sign for Thailand is derived from the sign movement meaning elephant trunk. In the old days, Thailand had thousands of elephants, and the elephant was so revered that even our national flag showed the figure of a white elephant on a background of red. The appearance of the flag has changed over the years, however. The first change was to a flag with five stripes of three colors-red for the nation, white for religion, and royal blue for the monarchybut still with the elephant in the center. Now, however, the flag has only the five stripes of color and no elephant. Thailand, a country that is more than 700 years old, is the only country in southeast Asia that has never been colonized by western nations. Our culture is very old. The deaf Thai community is very small compared to the nation as a whole. There are only 100,000 deaf Thai in a country of 55 million people. Thus, deaf Thai undoubtedly constitute a minority group. We who are deaf live among hearing people and are unavoidably influenced by the majority culture, but we still have our own culture, too. When we were born, we automatically became part of the Thai nationality. We live in an environment filled with the hearing Thai culture and have adopted many of its customs. For example, the hearing Thai greet each other with a movement called a "wai," which is a salutation with varieties and degrees of movement to indicate respect for different levels of rank or seniority. We, the deaf Thai, also practice this custom. So, undoubtedly, the deaf culture in Thailand is actually part of the Thai national culture. This does not mean that all other cultural aspects are the same, however. Some of our own deaf Thai culture is quite different from the hearing culture. Some of the differences and similarities between the two cultures will be illustrated by my presentation. You may already know that Thailand, or Siam as it was called in the old days, is known as the land of a thousand smiles. The Thai, whether rich or poor, whether experiencing difficulties or not, smile often. We, the deaf Thai, smile often too. But we have less to smile about, because we are oppressed by ignorance-the ignorance of not knowing about our surroundings as well as do hearing Thai. We often have fewer friends and are often lonely. Whereas the hearing Thai have a spoken and written language and sometimes also use gestures, we, the deaf Thai, have only sign language. Very few of us can read and write, either newspapers or personal letters. Generally the hearing Thai often assume that we deaf Thai are terribly strange, especially when we are seen talking through sign language. Some say that we behave 62 THE DEAF WAY ~ Deaf Cultures Around the World like monkeys. This shows their ignorance of sign language. Hearing people do not understand the significance of sign language. It is well known that before deaf people can communicate their stories, such as where they went last weekend, with whom, and what exciting events they experienced, they need both hands and mouth movements to communicate. And for more and clearer information, they have to add facial expressions and other body movements. Hearing people are astonished and sometimes frightened upon seeing a deaf person talk about some health problem, for example a sore throat, headache, or stomachache. The facial expressions are so precise they look frightening. In reality, the deaf person may not be experiencing any pain at all, but the hearing onlooker may think he or she is in extreme pain, judging from facial expressions. As I mentioned a moment ago, one distinct custom we take from the majority culture is the wai. This is a sign of both formal greeting and politeness. There are varieties of wai that show different degrees of respect, depending on the age, status, or position of the person greeted. For example, if the first person is much younger than the second, the younger one will give a respectful wai with his palms raised up to the middle point between the eyebrows. The older one, or the one of higher status, responds to this sign of respect with a lower positioned wai, which indicates less formality. The highest rank of wai for the Thai is used to show respect to the Buddha image and to monks. For this kind of wai, the joined palms are raised with...

Share