It's not the government's choice to make, it's an individual one. Some deaf people choose to adapt completely to the hearing world, getting cochlear implants (if possible) and then learning to speak as well as use sign language, but others choose to live as part of the deaf community. It's a life choice. Some people who are born deaf choose to embrace it, which seems to have been what the Bélier family did. Ever since a young age, Paula's only way to communicate with her family was through sign language, so she learned it as her mother tongue, as well as French, which she either picked up from being in contact with the rest of the world or was put in specific therapy to learn. Not every deaf person, in the paradigm that's currently in practice in most developed countries (at least in Europe, can't 100% testify for the rest of the world), has to learn efficient lip-reading or to make speech sounds (which, to be efficient, often requires hearing). It's a choice people make and the Béliers seem to have made the choice to embrace life as part of the deaf community, probably because they never thought they'd have a child capable of hearing.
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boerpoel
8 years ago
Thanks for your reply, Maria.
I didn't thought of that when asking at IMDb, -of course it also can be an individual choice they both made/make.
Indeed it's a life choice, and which everyone should decide for themselves. But it must be hard if you choose to do so (like you well said: "some embrace life in a deaf community"), for instance here in West Europe; as most people probable expect automatically you had some training or at least trying to do so/ as it is available, for free or via one's health insurance.
Parents nowadays with a deaf born child probable can not do the same as the parents of the Belier's did in those years..? (meaning, they now have an oiled treadmill on "specialists" waiting for your child, I imagine?)
BTW, Maria; I don't know if you have a special interest on this subject, but just the other day I saw this unique movie, with only sign language.
No subtitles, no music. Still, you can follow the whole story.
If you can read sign language, 70% is understood by deaf people (according to IMDb Trivia), the other 30% is their Ukrainian "accent" ;-) .
Check this out; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1745787/reference
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mariajoaou27
8 years ago
It's not uncommon for deaf people to want to embrace the fact that they're deaf and be part of the deaf community. It can still be done nowadays. Of course that doctors and therapists will advise people against limiting their kids to sign language (and will encourage them to get their child implanted, if possible), but the parents have the last word. Always. It's harder to communicate with the hearing population when people are limited to sign language but, again, it's a choice one makes. It might be hard to understand for us, hearing people, but it's almost a cultural thing when it comes to deaf people.
I'll look into that movie, but I doubt I'll understand it. Every country has its own sign language (even British Sign Language and American Sign Language are different), and I don't know much in my country's sign language anyway. I am a Speech & Language Therapy major, hence why I take a special interest in this subject, but I'm still nowhere near an expert, given the broadness of my major. Hearing disabilities is only one portion of it :)
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