[stylist] learning braille

Judith Bron jbron at optonline.net
Mon Nov 16 22:27:59 UTC 2009 

The ability to learn a foreign language is often buried deep in a person's 
DNA.  I can't learn a foreign language for love or money.  My kids are all 
minimally tri-lingual.  My husband speaks 3 languages also.  If you are in 
any foreign country and can't speak the language, you can't criticize the 
natives for not speaking English.  They don't have to.  Perhaps their school 
system is such that English is mandatory.  You can take foreign languages in 
high school.  That doesn't mean everyone who took the language graduates 
speaking it.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 1:15 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] learning braille


> Funny though, when people do go to Greece, France, Italy, Switzerland, 
> Japan and so on, they often find that the local people know English. 
> Learning more than one language is standard in many countries, and those 
> countries generally score higher than US citizens on standard tests. I 
> understand your frustration with clerks who can't communicate, but many of 
> the instances of that which I have had in my life have been with 
> illiterate English-speaking Americans.
> Donna
>
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> Judith Bron wrote:
>> Barbara, Sign language and braille as options would be fine, just don't 
>> make them mandatory.  I disagree with Spanish being shoved down our 
>> throats.  I resent it when a sales person in a store can't answer my 
>> simple question about merchandise in English.  My resentment grows when 
>> they point their finger in the direction of what I want.  They can point 
>> all day, but I still won't find what I'm looking for.
>> Don't many deaf people read lips?  I've communicated with many deaf 
>> people because they read lips.  People who are blind communicate with the 
>> spoken word.  This is America.  Our language is English.  I can't expect 
>> to walk into Greece and expect the clerk in the store to speak English.
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barbara Hammel" <poetlori8 at msn.com>
>> To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 12:02 PM
>> Subject: Re: [stylist] learning braille
>>
>>
>>> Gee, I would agree with you and yet why is it that our children are 
>>> having Spanish shoved down their throats?
>>> I think that at the age when foreign language is an option in school, it 
>>> should be sign language and braille.  (Or at least have them included as 
>>> options.)  Any foreign language speaker can learn English.  A deaf 
>>> person will never learn to talk and hear what's said and a blind person 
>>> will never learn to read print.
>>> I do understand about that slippery slope and maybe this would be headed 
>>> down it, I don't know.
>>> Barbara
>>> Snow is God's way of reminding us that beauty can be found even in the 
>>> coldest hearts.
>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------
>>> From: "Judith Bron" <jbron at optonline.net>
>>> Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 10:30 AM
>>> To: "Stylist" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
>>> Subject: [stylist] learning braille
>>>
>>>> Robert and all, I think we are missing the important point here.  Is 
>>>> our goal to get the entire world to read Braille or evoke equal respect 
>>>> from society because we are blind?  Here's a brief example of what I 
>>>> mean by evoking respect even though we are different.
>>>>
>>>> My family eats only kosher foods.   For dinner last night I made 
>>>> meatballs in an Italian sauce.  I used ground beef, tomato sauce and 
>>>> Italian spices. Now someone might say, "How can you make an Italian 
>>>> sauce without pork products?"  My religion forbids me from eating pork 
>>>> products.  Someone of Middle East descent might say, "How can it have 
>>>> been good if you didn't use cumin?"  I have a friend who is allergic to 
>>>> tomatoes and has developed her own sauce for meatballs without using 
>>>> tomato sauce.  All of us are different and there is no law that all of 
>>>> our eating needs be met the same way.  Let's take it a bit further.
>>>>
>>>> When talking about "how nice" it would be if all children learned 
>>>> Braille to better understand folks without sight we are starting a 
>>>> journey down a slippery slope that can be extended in many dangerous 
>>>> directions.  No, not every one is forced to eat only kosher foods.  Not 
>>>> everyone should be commanded to eat pork and not everyone should be 
>>>> forced to live as if they too had an allergy to certain foods.  We're 
>>>> all different.  Realize that and respect the right of every individual 
>>>> to be different.  Everyone should not be required to read Braille, 
>>>> communicate with their friends via sign language, walk with a white 
>>>> cane or spend their life in a wheelchair. Yes, there are people in 
>>>> society who are handicapped, but society has to learn to respect those 
>>>> things that make them different. If a man in the grocery store sitting 
>>>> in the wheelchair asks a standing person to reach for the can on the 
>>>> high shelf they should do it with a smile on their face.  If a blind 
>>>> person asks where the rest room is answer him and ask if he can be of 
>>>> further assistance.  You get the picture.
>>>>
>>>> There are those in society who demand that all people subscribe to 
>>>> their religion.  They claim that if this isn't accomplished they will 
>>>> kill all people who reject their teachings.  We all know how these 
>>>> people are referred to.  We reject their premise that all people are 
>>>> the same and therefore must live the same way.  We can't "demand" that 
>>>> all first graders learn Braille and we can't command that a first grade 
>>>> class in the public schools learn Japanese because one child might be 
>>>> from Japan. Let's keep excelling in whatever it is we do best and gain 
>>>> the respect and acceptance of society because we deserve it.  Judith
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
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>>
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