Deaf, Mute and Blind

It’s amazing to think that during my thirteen-hour flight, I flew over the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, Alaska, the Pacific Ocean (Including sharks, whales and secret government submarine vessels), Japan and North Korea before arriving in South Korea. Korea air was amazing! There were at least 40-50 movies or shows to choose from and the screen was much larger than the TV screens in Air Canada. After we took off, the flight attendants brought around little packages with headphones, travel toothbrushes, little tubes of toothpaste and slippers for the flight. Though my legs got pretty crampy, having had a middle seat, the flight was fine. It was however, a very long day. From the time I arrived at the airport, to the time we arrived at the hotel, it was about 21 hours – with barely any sleep.

It’s amazing how ignorant you become when you enter a new culture, especially one that has a language that isn’t remotely close to your own, how to use the toilet, for example. I was at the Hanaem office of education today, and I needed to use the bathroom. Do I use the stall with the hole in the ground? Or do I use the ‘handicap’ washroom that has a real toilet? I went for the handicap one. How do I flush it? What do all the buttons mean? Why isn’t there soap to wash my hands? Another example is in my hotel room. How do I turn the lights on? How do I change the computer to a different language? Where are the sheets for the bed? Why is there no shower curtain? Finally, and most importantly, shopping. Where can I go for a break/coffee/tea? How do I know which places are sketchy and which are reputable? Where do I do my laundry? How does the laundry machine work? How do I communicate please, thank you, hello and goodbye? I barely know how to recognize a grocery store! I know I’m smart, but here, in regards to basic survival and communication, I am deaf, mute and blind.

Immigrants and refugees in Canada must face a terrible dilemma upon arrival, especially if they don’t have a family to take them in and show them the ropes. At least I have a group to follow around and leaders to tell me what to eat and where. I can’t imagine just showing up, changing my money and be expected to find a home, a job and make friends. I’m excited for my job at LINC in the fall. I’m excited to be part of the process where families become literate in Canadian culture as well as the English language. I’m excited to help those who are already very smart communicate their knowledge. I’m excited to help Canadians-to-be learn to own a piece of Canada for themselves. Empathy is everything. The ability to have compassion for someone else’s circumstances emphasizes the saying “they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” This trip is not just about a ‘working vacation,’ it’s also about the opportunity to ethnographically consider what it might be like to enter a pair of shoes other than my own. 

Octopus for sale at the fish market. I don't know how much it is, where it came from, how to eat it, or what this lady's name was. But I do know that this lady smiles a lot, was more than happy to let Nicole take the picture, and was probably pretty entertained by our incessant amazement at such a normal sea creature.