My Experiences & Philosophy Behind Listening to The An Interpreter Enchanting Songs with Sign Language
Song interpretation in Sign Language is something I find so beautiful, heart-warming, and very emotional but it’s also hard as well. In these Songs, This isn’t just translating words, but also translating emotion, and rhythm as well. That’s special.
Hello, Dear beautiful Readers and followers, welcome back to my new story, I hope all’s well. Today’s story is a tribute to those who are the most special people who work and do something amazing to bring happiness and smiles to others. And I would like to share one of my other keen interests which listen to songs or poems with Sign Language.
In one of the last posts, I shared about listening to instrumental music. I’m a big fan of listening to instrumental music and also background music whilst I need to focus on studies or work or anything else.
I use instrumental music when I need to focus, it is exceptionally amazing & helps.
Read more about it here:
Today, I’ll share some of my food of thoughts on listening to music with sign language in this post. I will share some videos and also talk about different things which are related to this topic.
The Deaf/deaf community all over the world, though small, has a unique identity. It involves members with varying levels of hearing loss from mild to profound deafness, who was born Deaf/deaf, and those who experienced hearing loss later in life. Some people can be cured by treatment or assisted through hearing aids, while others have adapted to living without hearing.
The word Deaf/deaf is used to describe or identify anyone who has a severe hearing problem. Deaf culture deaf with a capital D to refer to people who have been deaf all their lives, or since before they started to learn to talk. They are pre-lingually deaf. It is an important distinction because Deaf people tend to communicate in sign language as their first language.
Most people often think of “Deafness” and “hearing impairment” are the same thing.
The difference between being ‘partially deaf’ and being ‘hard of hearing’:
Nothing at all. In fact, all the “hearing descriptors” are socially constructed terms. There’s no point where you become “deaf” rather than “partially deaf” or “hard of hearing.”
“Deafness comes as a spectrum from the hard of hearing to total deafness,”
Most Deaf people are not “fully deaf.” There’s no number or interval that changes you from partially deaf to deaf.
People hesitate to use the term “deaf” because of social connotations. Hearing people tend to assume that all deaf people are complete, 100% soundless. That is far from accurate, of course, but a lot of people who call themselves hard of hearing feel that they aren’t “deaf enough” to call themselves deaf.
Being Different IS Beautiful!!
First of all, it’s very visual. The deaf is being different. Most deaf people know other deaf. Very different than the larger hearing world. In general, people who are deaf only have friends who are also deaf, and only marry deaf people. Their world is completely isolated.
They have their own narrative, as well as their own expressive genre and accounts about their deaf experience in society. and also there are challenges that D/deaf people face every day in the hearing world.
I had written a poem same topic. I would like to share the link here. It’s an honor for me if anyone is keen to read poems and read my poem as well and also share how they feel after reading them.
Read poems here is the link;
We understand language the same as a hearing person understands the language. A person being unable to hear does not render them unable to learn, think, or live what you would call a “normal” life. Although our language is more often than not signed, we also understand written language just like the next person.
There is no such thing as ONE language for the entire planet.
This applies to all languages, whether spoken by mouth or hand. The Deaf culture and community have their own language, their own idioms, their own habits, and a group of friends.
Sign Language Hands of Grace is a New Way to Serve Deaf:
There are many different signed languages just as there are many voiced languages. Signed languages are languages that are visual communication and have to be SEEN, with the normal properties of languages. They vary in different places (countries, or sometimes within countries), and have dialects.
Signed languages are independent languages that exist in their own right. They are independent of the oral languages that exist in the countries where they are spoken, and they usually have dramatically different grammatical rules from the oral languages of the countries where they are spoken.
Sign languages are complete languages in themselves: their syntax, grammar, and semantics are complete. Sign language includes the signer’s hand, facial expressions, and body movements. Sign language is not oral. Sign language is the primary language of the Deaf. Signed words are not mere gestures in exactly the way voiced words are not mere sounds coming out of the mouth.
New words form in various sign languages naturally and spread by popular usage. Just like new words in oral languages. And words from one language don’t always match up to words in another language. For example, a new word in American Sign Language may not exist in English, so we English speakers would have to describe the concept using our existing words.
For people who are deaf or hard of hearing, tend to communicate in sign language as their first language. It connects them to others who are Deaf and also other people who can speak and hear. To communicate with each other and the world using sign language or the lip-reading method, Deaf people have to look at each other while doing so.
Meanwhile, hearing people using speech and depending on the sense of sound look away and break eye-contact at any time or point during a conversation. A hearing person’s lack of visual connection doesn’t make an impact on the delivery of a message or the quality of communication, whereas a D/deaf person’s does.
It is normal to express what one is thinking through sign language without a filter instead of trying to hide it behind subtlety and formality, which is a common custom in the hearing community.
The one challenge that D/deaf people face every day is communication with people who don’t understand Sign Language is a challenge that stretches across all aspects of life.
Music is an art and inclusive and it is meant for everyone to enjoy no matter blind or deaf
In a world dominated and driven by able-bodied privilege, that assumption is prevalent some people always assume that there is only one way to enjoy music, and that is by listening and hearing to it and even a lot of misconceptions about deaf people are the most common misconception is that they cannot enjoy music.
There is absolutely no reason to deprive deaf people of the experience to listen to music and enjoy music like others. This is not the case.
As I earlier talked about them, It never means that someone who is deaf can not hear anything and maybe most people do not know about this fact but it’s true that they can sense vibration in the part of the brain that other people use for hearing which helps explain how deaf musicians can sense music and play different musical instruments and deaf music lyric Interpreter who interpret oral language music lyric into sign language, and how deaf people can enjoy music.
So, The way that they experience music is different than the way hearing people experience music, but they can still enjoy it in a full capacity and they can definitely derive pleasure from it.
These findings suggest that the experience deaf people have when ‘feeling’ music is similar to the experience other people have when hearing music.
Artist Christine Sun Kim was born deaf, and she was taught to believe that sound wasn’t a part of her life, that it was a hearing person’s thing. Through her art, she discovered similarities between American Sign Language and music, and she realized that sound doesn’t have to be known solely through the ears — it can be felt, seen, and experienced as an idea. In this endearing talk, she invites us to open our eyes and ears and participate in the rich treasure of visual language.
sign language interpreter Amber Galloway Gallego has created an immersive translation style that brings the emotional experience of music and performance to the Deaf community and beyond.
The social influence of music
The social influence of music is absolutely huge and ubiquitous. Music is too passive for most people, even for those who listen to it a lot. There’re some people who like to listen to music as relaxing while working or do anything for concentration as therapy and same another side there are some people who don’t like to listen to music.
Anyway, different people have different philosophies behind listening to music and listening to different kinds of music at different times and moods. For a lot of people around the world, MUSIC is much more than a mix of tunes & lyrics. That depends on the individual.
I liked this quote;
“The type of music you play generally affects your mood. People have individual tastes for different situations — from the gym, where people who are exercising tend to listen to more upbeat music, to someone who’s working on a project that requires concentration.”
Music can have very different impacts on people. For the most part, music can have a positive impact. Music exerts a powerful influence on human beings. It can boost memory, build task endurance, lighten your mood, reduce anxiety and depression, stave off fatigue, improve your response to pain, and help you work out more effectively.
As described earlier, It very much depends on the individual. For some it can provide all the motivation for life and/or else in anything as per their need; for others, it is little more than a “pleasant” noise.
They believe and think that It frames our mood and tells us how to feel about stuff. it has great power to change our mood. Even though they think that music is great healing medicine, without using any slipping pill having lots of side effects one can feel calm and happy just by listening to good relaxing rhythmic music. And these people tell others and explain their food of thoughts something this way when someone asked from them about music.
Our bodies require oxygen to survive, grow and heal. When we breathe, we oxygenate our blood and zap brain cells but when we sing full-throated and lustily, we breath deeper, from our core, our diaphragm, our gut. That puts a lot of oxygen into our blood. It energizes us, makes us more alert, and helps us to interact with other people.
So, Music is or should be interactive for them.
Music is vital in the development of deaf and hard of hearing. Scientific research has proven that music positively impacts many areas of the brain, including the following domains:
- fine and gross motor
- social and emotional
- sensory
- receptive and expressive language
- cognitive
- musical
First, let me define what music is for me!
The meaning of music is not limited to the flow of notes, sometimes embedded with lyrics. Music lies everywhere and in every field. From the sound of winds and the waves to the chirping of birds. When the clock chimes and does its ding dong. All are music to my ears.
For me, music is primarily an expression of emotions. Each specific music area signifies specific emotion and it affects our emotions. There are different kinds of music so it affects different ways, for example When we listen to happy positive vibe songs, we feel happier and positive, and in the same way, listen to any sad and heartbroken song then we tend to feel a decline in mood. And for me, the basic difference between living and non-living things is the existence of emotions. So, music is equivalent to the proof of the existence of every living organism and that’s the basic importance of music for me.
So for me and great impact. For others, it may be different.
Listening to The An Interpreter Enchanting Songs with Sign Language:
Sign Language is a very expressive language. Songs in sign language are therefore equally expressive and many times are more expressive than their purely vocal versions. Therefore, Most people think of singing in sign language as translations of Hearing-created songs into a signed language. While this form is popular. There are so many people that have interpreted songs into Sign Language.
Sign Language Song is the translation of a song’s lyrics and performing them in sign language. Like all languages, sign language is a means of communication but also a means of artistic expression. sign language music interpreters are working to make this musical art form more accessible and more enjoyable.
The emotive and captivating performance gives Deaf people access to the songs while hearing people have the chance to experience the song both audibly, but more intensely, in a visual and powerful way.
It takes practice, good interpreting to get signs that flow together, and skill to show the emotion on your face and body. Moving with the music is a part of it to me. Now I have seen people sign language songs and enjoy it. But the heart enjoys the total experience.
It is very dramatic to sign music. It can be funny, sad, happy, rejoicing, or serious. A good song that signs well depends upon the signer. Sign the lyrics and dance to the music. That way, a deaf audience will know that there’s a song playing and that you’re signing song lyrics.
A growing number of Sign Language interpreters are bringing visuals to a hearing-centric musical world.
Sign Language interpreters who specialize in the performing arts. an interpreter grooving to the music, mirroring the emotions and physicality of the artists onstage, interpreting their imaginative lyrics for music lovers who rely on visual accommodations.
The hands have their own emotions. They have their own mind.
A good Sign Language interpreter performance prioritizes dynamics, phrasing, and flow. The parameters of sign language hand shape, movement, location, palm orientation, and facial expression can be combined with elements of visual vernacular, a body of codified gestures, allowing a skilled Sign Languages speaker to engage in the kind of sound painting that composers use to enrich a text.
Songs are interpreted in Sign Language the same way that poetry is interpreted in different spoken languages. We say interpreted rather than translated because of an important difference.
To translate between, say, English and Urdu, one can change each word, one by one,” perhaps substituting appropriate idioms, but otherwise translating each word literally. That’s fine for common prose, but it doesn’t work at all for poetry: if you were to translate word for word, the meter wouldn’t scan, the lines wouldn’t rhyme, and it would be so lucky that no one would read it.
The pairs of lines are swapped to keep the rhythm the same. For most songs, the translation is not literal, and some even change the meaning entirely… but they generally keep the sentiment the same. The same is true for Sign Language.
One common way in which hearing people are first exposed to sign language is through the popular phenomenon of ‘song signing’ videos. If you do an online search for the name of virtually any popular song followed by “sign language,” you’ll find dozens of videos in which people sign lyrics to the camera while the song plays in the background. To someone with limited exposure to sign language, these videos look fascinating and impressive. However, the reality is complex, as song signing is a much more controversial topic than it may initially seem.
It should tell you something that Deaf people are willing to take on something like that…This popular form especially among Hearing students of signed language and other people without any knowledge of the signed language, this format is for many.
The main issue with song signing relates to appropriation and misrepresentation. A large percentage of the song signing videos on YouTube are posted by people who have either taken an introductory Sign Language class or who have not received any official instruction.
As a result, videos that are labeled as “Sign Language covers” do not involve anything resembling true Sign Language. Because the signers do not grasp the grammar rules and unique conventions which make Sign Language a language entirely separate from oral language, they often impose oral rules on Sign Language vocabulary, resulting in a final product that would be confusing or meaningless to a fluent signer.
this practice isn’t just disrespectful, it also perpetuates serious misconceptions. Because the majority of viewers have no way of judging how accurate the videos are, they tend to accept what they see as proper Sign Language and celebrate the hearing signers as skilled artists. As a result, false impressions of sign language spread easily and amateur performers with no involvement in Deaf culture receive exposure and acclaim which could be directed towards Deaf performers.
I think, in this case, Interpreters should be fluent in the natural signed language of their country. Better yet, hire Deaf people and have them translate songs into their native, naturally signed language. That would be true Deaf empowerment.
Deaf people have translated things like the musical play Big River into stunning natural signed language. It requires a lot of work and practice and joy and dedication to doing something like that well. It becomes something else entirely, something defiantly exuberantly affirmatively Deaf.
Some Deaf musicians prepare for their interpretations by experiencing a song through any means available to them. Many people speak about their heightened receptivity to the vibrations of sound, which they experience through their bodies.
“It has more meaning when I sing with my hands,” Harmsen
It’s really up to the person doing the song. Some song signers are very literal, often hearing people. I’ve seen interpreters do that, but also some who understand the deeper meaning of the songs.
“We didn’t want to just translate text, We wanted to make music visible.” Haupt
Once you have a solid grasp of sign language than doing songs will come more naturally. You’ll be able to see beneath specific words or signs and grasp what the songs are really about.
Now people both deaf artists and other sign language interpreters are harnessing the power of YouTube to share their own sign language music videos of their favorite songs, and even musicians who can hear are using the expressive power of sign language in music videos.
sign language music videos proliferate on YouTube, where they spark comments from deaf and hearing viewers, the richness of American Sign Language even other sign languages as well has gotten a broader stage.
My Philosophy:
Music is many different things to different people and they like and listen to different kinds of music. There are hundreds of genres of music, so while we might like one kind, others might like something completely different. It depends on a lot of things. But no matter what kind of music we like, we would agree that music can really move us in different ways like emotionally.
I like to listen to very specific different kinds of music at different times in the background depending on what I’m doing. It depends on situations and mood.
In today's post as you see and read that I am talking and sharing some of the food of my thoughts on “ Sign Languages and Interpreted song’s lyrics into sign languages. I like and often time listen to and watch Interpreted Sign Songs and poetry in my free time and mood. Yeah, I like different kinds of music in different oral and sign languages, and same I also like poetry as well.
These were great to watch and all these videos were truly amazing and inspirational, watching this really makes me want to, though! that “falling in love, colonization, and enlightenment” bit kind of opened my mind to how elaborate and beautiful it can be and a totally new perspective I learned today!
I love these videos as it makes me understand sign language more as I listen to musical instruments and others. it feels like turning the music into interpretive hand dancing and even though I could hear the music I felt entertained and I felt like I could feel the music.
I feel it is necessary to interpret music with such emotion without this the mute and deaf will miss out on the beauty of music.
All the sign language interpreters that are doing this are amazing. I deeply appreciate the work they’re doing and their dedication to changing how music is signed because it is the worst nightmare to imagine never being able to experience music in all its beauty. That was beautiful! Thank you so much to give this to the others!
In the end, I would like to share with you one inspirational story with you guys.
Final Thoughts:
Deaf people experience music just like anyone else. The world needs to become more accessible to those who are deaf and also blind. There are a lot of inspirational stories and other things to change your mindset and clear those hidden truths about those things and people.
These videos and the guy’s story are so inspirational, I hope that every deaf people out there are doing great, don’t let the negativity get to you!! So many of us take much of our lives for granted and never stop to appreciate not just the subtle beauty of life but even some things so impactful and emotional.
We see we don’t need to have the same things other people have to still get the meaning or experience out of something, and that’s something I think most of us have been ignorant to for most of our lives.
We strive to acquire things we don’t have just because we want them. When we realize that we don’t need those things we want and we can still experience the sensation those things offer without them, that’s when we start to appreciate all that we do have in life. That’s when we learn that we just might have enough or even more than what we need and that there’s no real reason to crave things just because we want them.
Keep going what you can do and never say I can’t do it!
Hopefully, it will help shine a light on different groups, break barriers and bring people together. Above all, it’s about fun!
Hope this article inspired you to do something that you always wanted to do but lost interest in, due to something. I would like to express great gratitude to all who reviewed this article and generously fed back to me their comments and suggestions. please recommend this article and follow me on Medium. A special Thank You
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Finally, I pray to Allah to benefit those who read this article and others, grant me truthfulness in what I say and do, preserve my thoughts and my pen from deviation and guide me in all my affairs.
And all praise and thanks are due to Allah, without Whose help and guidance nothing can be accomplished. May Allah bless you with happiness, success, guidance, health, and knowledge. May Almighty Allah give us the strength to follow the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) and make us part of the group who is among the most righteous! Ameen.
Be patient with yourself. And Keep learning!!
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