Journeys, metaphorically or literally, through life or to foreign countries, require some interactions with others, at least for basic needs – transportation, food, lodging.  These basic transactions require interacting with others, which requires communication. This summer I went on an overseas adventure to Buenos Aires, Argentina, with my teenage children, Ben, 16, and Maddie, 13.  I kept some notes from my adventures, which I’d like to share.

On this journey I found myself empathizing all the more with Ben, and what it is to be deaf.  We occasionally struggled with communication and felt at times confused by the information and proper actions we were to take in certain situations.

We were the poco, mediano, y mucho of Spanish speaking and understanding.  Ben had studied it in middle school, but it did not take (near 1 on a scale of 10 say).  I have “travel Spanish,” not bad expressively but so-so receptively (a 3 to 5 on the scale, perhaps).  And Maddie, having been in an immersion program for all of her school years, was way up there, an 8 or 9.  And I had visited Buenos Aires once before on my own, so had a sense of the people and language, the layout and charms of the city. 

Nonetheless, a foreign country/foreign language experience requires interactive communication. Actions must occur based on information received.  First, you have to gather the information, by observaton, reading, or asking. Second, based on the information, you have to take appropriate action. 

In a foreign situation, you often have incomplete or questionable information.  Sometimes this is due to the complexity of the information versus your knowledge; sometimes it is because the information makes no sense based on the setting; sometimes the information does not square with your assumptions or experience – you lack a nuanced understanding of the culture. You think: “Well, it looks like what you are supposed to do is stand here and order the drinks, but that person went over there and did something and got a drink, and should I be doing that?, but some people are in this line, but they are getting food, and …” Adding to the difficulties, you have to take an action with this incomplete or questionable information/knowledge – do you stand in line here, or go over there, or should you ask someone, or what?  Not only do you have incomplete information, you have no cultural context or experience to guide you in a course of action.

Navigating the journey of life as a deaf person might be something like the foreign travel experience – sometimes the information is not clear or is incomplete, and now actions have to be taken based upon suspect information.  The chances for error, misunderstandings, and embarassment are high. 

If we cue to our deaf children, however, we can eliminate the incompleteness or opaqueness of information.  Cueing is the best system to convey the spoken language, because there is no ambiguity with cues.  By cueing, our deaf children can take action on complete information, and achieve appropriate interactive communication, avoiding errors and misunderstandings.  Cueing American English to Ben gives him complete information and provides him the information and language skill-set to take the appropriate action. 

But how does this translate, literally? What happens to a family cueing American English in a Spanish speaking country?  For some observations, look for additional field notes from our Argentine adventure.