WEBVTT

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(Interpreter) Piano, p,
is my favorite musical symbol.

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It means to play softly.

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If you're playing a musical instrument
and you notice a p in the score,

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you need to play softer.

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Two p's -- even softer.

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Four p's -- extremely soft.

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This is my drawing of a p-tree,
which demonstrates

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no matter how many thousands
upon thousands of p's there may be,

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you'll never reach complete silence.

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That's my current definition of silence,
a very obscure sound.

NOTE Paragraph

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I'd like to share a little bit

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about the history of
American Sign Language (ASL)

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plus a bit of my own background.

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French sign language was brought
to America during the early 1800's,

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and as time went by,
mixed with local signs,

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it evolved into the language
we know today as ASL.

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So it has a history of about 200 years.

NOTE Paragraph

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I was born deaf,

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and I was taught to believe
that sound wasn't a part of my life.

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And I believe it to be true.

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Yet I realize now that
that wasn't the case at all.

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Sound was very much a part of my life,
really on my mind everyday.

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As a deaf person living
in a world of sound,

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it's as if I was living
in a foreign country,

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blindly following its rules,
customs, behaviors and norms

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without ever questioning them.

NOTE Paragraph

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So how is it that I understand sound?

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Well I watch how people
behave and respond to sound.

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You people are like my loudspeakers,
and amplify sound.

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I learn and mirror that behavior.

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At the same time, I've learned
that I create sound,

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and I've seen how people respond to me.

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Thus I've learned, for example,
don't slam the door,

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don't make too much noise when
you're eating from the potato chip bag,

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don't burp and when you're eating

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make sure that you don't scrape
your utensils on the plate.

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All of these things
I term "sound etiquette."

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Maybe I think about sound etiquette
more than the average person does.

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I'm hyper-vigilant around sound.

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And I'm always waiting and eager,

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nervous anticipation, around sound
about what's the to come next.

NOTE Paragraph

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Hence, this drawing.

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TBD, to be decided.

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TBC, to be continued.

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TBA, to be announced.

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And you notice the staff --
there are no notes contained in the lines.

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That's because the lines
already contain sound

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through the subtle smudges and smears.

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In deaf culture,
movement is equivalent to sound.

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This is a sign for staff in ASL.

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A typical staff contains five lines,

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yet for me signing it 
with my thumb sticking up

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like that doesn't feel natural.

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That's why you'll notice in my drawings
I stick to four lines on paper.

NOTE Paragraph

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In the year 2008 I had the opportunity
to travel to Berlin, Germany

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for an artist residency there.

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Prior to this time I had been
working as a painter.

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During this summer, I visited
different museums and gallery spaces,

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and as I went from one place to the next
I noticed there was no visual art there.

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At that time, sound was trending,
and this struck me --

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there was no visual art,
everything was auditory.

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Now sound has come into my art territory.

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Is it going to further
distance me from art?

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I realized that doesn't
have to be the case at all.

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I actually know sound, I know it so well

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that it doesn't have to be something
that's just experienced through the ears.

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It could be felt tactually.

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Or experienced as a visual.

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Or even as an idea.

NOTE Paragraph

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So I decided to reclaim ownership of sound
and to put it into my art practice.

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And everything that I had been
taught regarding sound

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I decided to do away with and unlearn.

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I started creating a new body of work,

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and when I presented this
to the art community,

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I was blown away with the amount
of support and attention I received.

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I realized: sound is like money,
power, control -- social currency.

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In the back of my mind, I've always felt
that sound was your thing,

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a hearing person's thing.

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And sound is so powerful

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that it could either disempower me
and my artwork, or it could empower me.

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I chose to be empowered.

NOTE Paragraph

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There's a massive culture
around spoken language.

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And just because I don't use
my literal voice to communicate,

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in society's eyes
it's as if I don't have a voice at all.

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So I need to work with individuals
who can support me as an equal

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and become my voice.

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And that way, I'm able to maintain
relevancy in society today.

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So at school, at works and institutions,
I work with many different ASL interpreters.

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And their voice becomes
my voice and identity.

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They help me to be heard,
and their voices hold value and currency.

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Ironically, by borrowing out their voices,

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I'm able to maintain
a temporary form of currency,

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kind of like taking out a loan
with a very high interest rate.

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If I didn't continue this practice,

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I feel that I could just
fade off into oblivion

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and not maintain
any form of social currency.

NOTE Paragraph

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So with sound as my new art medium,
I delved into the world of music.

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And I was surprised to see
the similarities between music and ASL.

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For example, a musical note cannot
be fully captured and expressed on paper,

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and the same holds true
for a concept in ASL.

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They're both highly spatial
and highly inflected,

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meaning that subtle changes

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can affect the entire meaning
of both signs and sounds.

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I'd like to share with you
a piano metaphor,

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to have you have a better
understanding of how ASL works.

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So, envision a piano.

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ASL is broken down into
many different grammatical parameters.

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If you assign a different parameter
to each finger as your play the piano --

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such as facial expression, body movement,
speed, hand shape and so on,

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as you play the piano --
English is a linear language,

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as if one key is being pressed at a time.

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However, ASL is more like a chord --

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all 10 fingers need to come
down simultaneously

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to express a clear concept or idea in ASL.

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If just one of those keys
were to change the chord,

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it would create a completely
different meaning.

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The same applies to music
in regards to pitch, tone and volume.

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In ASL, by playing around with these
different grammatical parameters,

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you can express different ideas.

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For example, take the sign "to look at."
This is the sign "to look at."

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I'm looking at you.

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Staring at you.

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Mhm.

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Oof -- busted.

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Uh-oh.

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What are you looking at?

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Aw, stop.

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I then started thinking, "What if I was
to look at ASL through a musical lens?"

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If I was to create a sign
and repeat it over and over,

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it could become
like a piece of visual music.

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For example, this is the sign for "day,"
as the sun rises and sets.

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This is "all day."

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If I was to repeat it and slow it down,
visually it looks like a piece of music.

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All...day.

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I feel the same holds true for "all night."

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"All night."

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This is "all night," represented in this drawing.

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And this led me to thinking
about three different kinds of nights.

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"Last night," "overnight,"
and "all night long."

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I feel like the third one has
a lot more musicality than the other two.

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This represents how time
is expressed in ASL

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and how the distance from your body
can express the changes in time.

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For example, 1H is one hand,
2H is two hand,

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present tense happens closest
and in front of the body,

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future is in front of the body
and the past is to your back.

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So the first example is "a long time ago."

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Then "past,"

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"used to"

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and the last one,
which is my favorite,

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with the very romantic
and dramatic notion to it,

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"once upon a time."

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"Common time" is a musical term

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with a specific time signature
of four beats per measure.

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Yet when I see the word "common time,"

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what automatically comes to mind for me
is "at the same time."

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So notice RH: right hand, LH: left hand.

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We have the staff across
the head and the chest.

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I'm now going to demonstrate
a hand shape called the "flash claw."

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Can you please follow along with me?

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Everybody, hands up.

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Now we're going to do it
in both the head and the chest,

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kind of like common time
or at the same time.

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Yes, got it.

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That means "to fall in love"
in International Sign Language.

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International Sign Language, as a note,
is a visual tool to help communicate

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across cultures and sign languages
around the world.

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The second one I'd like
to demonstrate is this --

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please follow along with me again.

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And now this.

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This is "colonization" in ASL.

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Now the third, please follow along again.

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And again.

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This is "enlightenment" in ASL.

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So let's do all three together.

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"Fall in love,"

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"colonization"

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and "enlightenment."

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Good job, everyone.

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Notice how all three signs
are very similar,

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they all happen at the head and the chest,

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but they convey quite different meanings.

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So it's amazing to see
how ASL is alive and thriving,

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just like music is.

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However, in this day and age,
we live in a very audio-centric world,

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and just because ASL has no sound to it,
it automatically holds no social currency.

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We need to start thinking harder
about what defines social currency

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and allow ASL to develop its own form
of social currency without sound.

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And this could possibly be a step
to lead to a more inclusive society.

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And maybe people will understand that
you don't have to be deaf to learn ASL,

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nor do you have to be hearing
to learn music.

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ASL is such a rich treasure
that I'd like you to have the same experience.

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And I'd like to invite you to open your ears,

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to open your eyes, take part in our culture
and experience our visual language

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And you never know,
you might just fall in love with us.

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Thank you.