Language is a Prison House

I wholeheartedly believe that this statement is true. But I want to examine it from a different angle. Language defines how we think and perceive the world around us. But I want to focus on how language locks us into a community. I have an interesting anecdote that pertains to this concept of language as a prison house.

One of my nephews was born legally deaf. And I know you might be thinking how the story ends (but just hear me out). His ears are malformed and he has no ear canal, no opening to let the sound in. And yet, with a hearing aid he can hear 80% of what a hearing person can. So as a toddler he learned to sign. It was only basics, I don’t think he ever got to a point of making a complete sentence. Then he got his really good hearing aid and my sister had to decide whether or not to send him to a ‘sign oriented’ or ‘regular’ class for preschool. Either one runs major risks. If he were to go to the sign class, he would obviously rely mostly on sign and not work on his speaking skills. If he were to go to the ‘regular’ class, he could get left behind, even with special help just based on his inability to hear (not his intelligence).
As a parent this is a pretty big decision (to say the least0. The deaf community is wonderful, but, it is a small community with limited opportunity. My sister would have to learn a new language just to communicate with her son. But could it possibly be worth it to risk him not learning any language at all? Imagine having no means to communicate, in any language.

My nephew did not go to the school that specialized in sign. He instead goes to a special class in a regular school that is just for kids with hearing ‘impairments’. They do not use any sign language in his class. His communications skills are improving, but if you didn’t have practice talking with him it would be difficult to understand him. Trust me, he has no problem expressing himself but it has taken a lot of work and speech therapy to get to that point.

Language is a prison house in that it defines our community and shapes our identity. Sometimes I think that we forget (because all of us know English) how many people in the world feel cut off from the greater international community because they only speak Serbian or Quechua or Hausa or Sign Language. We are fortunate, I suppose, that the ‘English speaking’ prison cell is at least very large.