My Journey into the Deaf World

My Journey into the Deaf world

Hello again!

So, referring to my previous writing, I was yacking about me wanting to do something MORE.

I started to think about doing volunteering works. But when I started, it was quite difficult to choose what would be a suitable organisation for me to work with. I started off with the wrong foot, I joined an organisation that would later got entangled with so many hot wrong issues, being in a multi racial multi religious country, I decided to call it quit and went hunting again.

The Aha....moment

My collision into the deaf world started out as a prank pulled out by my husband when he intentionally sent me to the one and only Kentucky Fried Chicken food chain restaurant in Kota Kinabalu, which hires Deaf workers.

I was excitedly explaining what I wanted to the smiling and polite staff when she showed me a pen and a paper, I froze in confusion for a while until I suddenly realized the situation I am in. I remembered feeling embarrassed and I can tell the locals were staring at me. Obviously, by then they must have already known I’m from out of state. I left the building feeling sorry for myself because it could have been better. My husband was laughing because he thought he has pulled the coolest prank ever on me. Nevertheless for a moment, it seems a bit funny to me, but I thought it was just cruel because it made me felt out of place and I could have been more prepared coming in to the restaurant if only I knew. 

Few days later, looking back at the experience, it was actually the beginning of my interest to learn sign language. The fond memory of my first encounter with a deaf friend took me in the year of 2007. 

The memory was my Aha... moment. And this is where it begins. I called up the Sabah Society for the Deaf to enquire about sign language classes, and got myself enrolled. Finally...Of course YEAY!! I completed my beginner class and graduated with flying colours. 

The day I completed my beginner sign language class in 2013, was the happiest day in my LIFE! and that was also the day i penned down my name to become one of their volunteer!. I am still learning sign language until today. Unfortunately the society does not have the capacity to offer advance classes. :( So I am painstakingly learning via our regular meet up with the Deaf from the association or from deaf schools during youth deaf workshops and so on...

(The memory came into light when I was going up and down looking for a perfect place and a perfect way to serve the community).