PBS高端访谈:通过技术手段让聋哑人发声（在线收听）

AMNA NAWAZ: Last week's Brief But Spectacular featured Melissa Malzkuhn, who was born deaf into a deaf family. She spoke about how access to sign language offers access to humanity. Tonight, we have a separate take on language and deafness from Caroline Clark. Born into a hearing family, Clark was diagnosed as deaf at the age of 2. She reflects on her relationship with words and how she turned to technology to help her speak. Clark now works with the Baker Institute, a nonprofit that provides speech therapy for deaf children.

阿姆纳·纳瓦兹：上周《简短而精彩》的主人公是梅利莎，她天生失聪，他的家人也都是失聪人事。她在节目中分享了手语的学习是如何让她接触他人的。今晚，我们的主人公卡洛琳·克拉克将从另一个角度来讲述与语言和失聪有关的故事。出生在失聪家庭的克拉克2岁被确诊为失聪。她回顾了自己与文字打交道的经历以及她是如何通过科技手段来帮助自己发声的。克拉克现在在贝克研究所工作，这是一家非盈利机构，专门为失聪儿童提供语言障碍矫正的服务。

CAROLINE CLARK, Student: I was diagnosed with deafness at 2. And I will never forget the word, the first word that I learned. And it was the word up. So, my mom told me this story. She said that she was in my grandmother's house, and she would hold me in her arms, and she would carry me up and down the stairs. And she would say to me, Caroline, up, up, we go. And she even sometimes would apparently take my hand and place it on her throat, and I would feel the vibrations of what she was saying. And, finally, when I was two-and-a-half, I said the word back to her, up. And when my mom heard that, she cried tears of happiness, because I think that moment she knew that I learned to speak. Learning to speak when you can't hear is an interesting process. You pay close attention to how the, forming the lips. Most of all, it's just repeatedly trying the word over and over again. There's a magnet that is inside of my inside of my head and then there's a magnet outside of my head. So, sound comes through the magnet. When it first gets turned on, you don't understand anything you're hearing. It sounds like beeps, and then slowly sounds like Donald Duck. And then, one day, you ask someone, did you say the word door? And they said, yes, I said that word. And so, over time, you begin to understand this new language. I didn't learn sign language. My mom made a conscious decision to teach me how to speak. As I got older, she said, OK, you can learn sign language. And I honestly, I had other things I wanted to learn over sign language. One time, I was in the grocery store, and I was just browsing among things, buying some groceries. And this guy comes up to me and started signing to me. And I couldn't sign back. It was just very awkward for me. I'm clearly a deaf person, but I can't even communicate to this other deaf person. And, in that moment, I felt this huge divide between our walls, between my world and his world. And, yes, I felt a little bit embarrassed. I'm fully proud of being deaf, but it's not, being deaf is not a big piece of my identity. Frankly, I identify more as a woman and being gay over being deaf. So, dating while you're deaf is an interesting experience. First off, people always ask you where you're from in the beginning conversation. And you have to say you actually have a deaf accent, and things get awkward pretty quickly. I think common misconceptions of deaf people is that we experience the world in a fundamentally different way, we can't see the same things, or we can't hear the same things, we don't experience the same thing. And that's not true. We want the same things. We crave the same things. We want to feel loved. We want to feel included. When I was younger, I was so annoyed. I would be leaving school, and all my friends, they are going off to play dates, and I was going to a speech therapist. I think that fundamental experience of really learning how to fail over and over and over has really molded me into the person I am today, being told constantly, you're not pronouncing that right, try again, do it over. And so I really have embraced this growth mind-set. And I have a firm belief that I could do anything I want, as long as I try hard enough. I'm Caroline Clark, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on being deaf.

卡洛琳·克拉克，学生：我2岁确诊为失聪。我永远不会忘记一个单词，这是我学会的第一个单词。这个单词就是“向上”。当时，妈妈给我讲了这样一个故事。妈妈说，她在姥姥家的时候，会用胳膊抱着我，带着我上下楼。上楼的时候，她会跟我说：卡洛琳，往上走，我们往上走。有时候，妈妈甚至会牵着我的手，放在她的喉咙上，这样我就能感受到她说话时喉咙的震动。后来，我2岁半的时候，也会对她说“向上”这个单词了。妈妈听到的时候，喜极而泣，因为我觉得那一刻，她以为我学会说话了。失聪人士学说话是很有意思的过程。你要密切关注唇形的变化。最重要的是：重复重复再重复。我的脑子里面有一块磁铁，脑子外面也有一块磁铁。声音会穿越磁铁发出。第一次发声的时候，你自己都不会知道自己听到的是什么。那声音仿佛哔哔的声音，速度又慢，俨如唐老鸭。然后，有一天，你会问某个人：您会说“门”这个单词吗？他们会回答：会啊，我会说。时间长了，你就会开始理解这门新语言。我没有学习手语。母亲很明智，让我学习了如何说话。随着我年龄的增长，母亲说：好，你可以学习手语了。说实话，我当时有比手语更想学的东西。有一次，我在杂货店看东西，买点杂货。有个人走过来，开始对我唱歌。但我却不能以歌声相回应，我实在是很难以这种方式作回应。显然，我是个失聪人士，但我却连这一点都无法告诉另一位失聪人士。那一刻，我感到我们之间的隔着一堵墙，一个巨大的鸿沟就横亘在我们的世界之间。是的，我有点小尴尬。作为失聪人士，我感到自豪，但这并不是识别我的大标签。说实话，与失聪相比，大家更明显的一种感觉是：我是女性，且我是同性恋。所以，作为一个失聪人士去约会就很有意思。首先，人们总是在对话开始时问你，你从哪里来。你必须坦言自己其实是失聪人士，然后气氛突然就尴尬起来。我认为，大家对失聪人士有一个普遍的误解：我们感受世界的方式与别人有着本质的不同，我们看不到他们看得到的东西，我们听不到他们听得见的东西，我们无法感同身受。但这并不是真的，我们和其他人一样，有着同样的渴望。我们渴求同样一件事：被他人所爱。我们希望感受到包容性。我还小的时候，总是感觉很懊恼。放学后，我所有的朋友都去约会了，只有我是去见语言治疗师。我认为，一次次从失败中爬起的经历真正地将我塑造我今天的自己。在这个过程中，有人不断地告诉我：你发得对，再试一次，再来一次。我真地很喜欢这种成长式的思维方式。我也坚信，心之所向，无所不成，只要我足够努力。我是卡洛琳·克拉克，这是我本期有关失聪人士的《简短而精彩》。

AMNA NAWAZ: You can watch last week's episode with Melissa Malzkuhn and all our Brief But Spectacular episodes at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.

阿姆纳·纳瓦兹：观众朋友们可以登录PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief来观看上周梅利莎那期在内的所有节目。