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Transcription: [00:09:03]
(SPEAKER 1)
But that's how we communicated and my parents were always including me

[00:09:09]
in everything, no matter if we had company, my mother would always sit next to me

[00:09:13]
and say "She's talking about this cousin who's getting married next month,"

[00:09:19]
in just a few words, simple sentences.

[00:09:24]
(SPEAKER 2)
Thank you for sharing that.
[[Clapping]]

[00:09:30]
[[Silence]]

[00:09:33]
(SPEAKER 3)
I guess I happen to be the rose among the thorn here. [[Laughter]]

[00:09:38]
[[Deep exhale]] [[Laughter]]

[00:09:43]
Ok. Hmm, what was I gonna say? Oh, my parents are hearing.

[00:09:50]
I was the firstborn boy. And they found out I was deaf when I was two.

[00:09:55]
And then my next brother, who was hearing also--he's hearing, yeah--and then as we were growing older,

[00:10:04]
my brother and I used to make homemade signs so that we could communicate.

[00:10:10]
Then we went, when I went to school, I went to a deaf school and I learned American Sign Language ASL from the school.

[00:10:18]
Then I learned signed English to talk with the teacher, and I found my mother would be learning signs also.

[00:10:24]
And I noticed I had to do that three ways of communicating:

[00:10:29]
My brother, who was so good I could say anything creatively and we could sign, I'm fine.

[00:10:34]
Then my mother and my teacher were pretty much the same, signing exact English. [[Laughter]]

[00:10:41]
And then my kids in school yeah, you know, we'd say anything we want and we'd just talk there.

[00:10:47]
By the time, my brother, who is hearing,

[00:10:51]
he started picking up signs from mother and then he started learning from what I was doing at school,

[00:10:58]
and he would start dropping the homemade signs.

[00:11:01]
And the three became two. And now we've got two. Man I had to have two languages, I could do with

[00:11:08]
[[?]] deal with two now. Then I noticed my mother and brother began to kind of combine the English

[00:11:15]
and the ASL and called it "pigeoned sign English." [[Laughter]]

[00:11:21]
I guess, that's right, PSE? [[Laughter]]

[00:11:25]
Now, talking about my two kids, they're both hearing.

[00:11:31]
My wife talks very well. She lost her hearing when she was 14, and so she still has good speech.

[00:11:38]
Me, I do it all, my hands do all my talking.

[00:11:43]
And now with my kids born, Billy, Bonnie--

[00:11:50]
"Milk, milk," you say it again and again and again, "Milk, milk, milk, milk, milk"--

[00:11:55]
they learned sign language before they learned how to speak.

[00:11:59]
They would be saying "Milk, milk, milk, milk, milk."

[00:12:01]
That's how we communicated, fine. And my kids are grown now and they can sign at home,

[00:12:06]
with my mother--with my wife, they talk.