WEBVTT
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Didn't understand anything, did you? 毫无头绪对吧
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(Laughter) 笑声
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That's 63 million deaf people in India 在印度有630000000 聋人
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who go through this
year after year, day after day, 他们年复一年日复一日的经历这些
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trying to make sense
of a world they cannot hear. 尝试去感知这个听不见的世界
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Huge lack of awareness and social stigma 巨大的意识缺乏以及社会污名
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of having a child
that is differently-abled. 对于有这特殊的孩子
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Parents run from pillar to post 父母四处
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trying to understand
how to bring up their child. 尝试着了解如何抚养他们的孩子
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And they are told,
"Even though your child can't hear, 他们被告知，“即使你的孩子听不见”
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there is nothing wrong with his voice box. 他的喉咙没问题
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There's nothing wrong 声带也没问题
with his vocal chords
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and he can be eventually他最后会被教会如何沟通交流
taught how to speak."
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There starts the journey
of years being spent trying to teach 这意味着这是一个多年的旅程花在指导
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this little child how to articulate words
that he cannot hear.这些小孩如何清晰表达那些他们听不见的单词
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Even within the family, 即使在家里，这些小孩想要
this little child wants
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to communicate with his parents. 和他的父母交流
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He wants to be part
of the conversations in the family. 他想 成为家里沟通交流的一份子
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But he can't. And he doesn't understand 但他不能。 他不明白为什么没人倾听他们
why nobody is listening to him.
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So he feels isolated and misses out 所以他感觉到被孤立和遗漏了
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on a crucial skill that is required在我们成长中被要求的最关键的技能
when we grow up.
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He goes to school thinking, "Okay,
hopefully things will be different." 他去到学校想着“好吧， 希望一切会有所不同”
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And he finds the teachers
opening their mouths and closing 他们发现老师的嘴一张一合
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and writing these strange things
on the board. 以及在黑板上写着奇怪的东西
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Without understanding,
because he can't hear,他们不同因为他们听不见
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he copies it all down,
regurgitates it at the exam time, 他们复制下这些东西， 在考试的时候依样复述
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and by rote and a few grace marks,
he finishes school, class ten. 通过机械性以及优雅的记号。 他本分的完成了学业。
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What are his chances of employment?
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Here is this child who really doesn't have
any real education.
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Visual words, vocabulary
of thirty to forty words.
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He's emotionally insecure, he's probably
angry with the whole world also,
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which has, he feels has
systematically disabled him.
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Where does he work?
Menial labor, unskilled jobs,
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often in very abusive conditions.
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That's where my "birth" journey starts
in 2004. I don't have, as Kelly said,
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I don't have any family who are deaf.
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Just a strange pull and,
no rational thought.
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I jumped into this world
and learned sign language.
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At that time, it was a challenge.
Nobody wanted... Nobody seemed to know...
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"What is it that you want to learn, Ruma?
Is that a language?"
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Anyway, learning sign language
opened up my life to this community
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which is outwardly silent,
but is brimming
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with the passion and curiosity
as visual learners.
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And I heard their stories
of what they wanted to do.
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And a year later, in 2005,
with meager savings of about $5,000
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of a matured insurance policy,
I started this center,
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in a small two-bedroom flat
with just six students
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and me teaching them English
in sign language.
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The challenges, the need of the hour
at that point was,
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how do I get these kids who just
high school pass
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into real jobs into the companies?
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Jobs of dignity, jobs that can prove
that deaf are not dumb?
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So, the challenges were huge.
The deaf were years sitting like this
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and years of ennui and darkness.
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They needed to believe in themselves.
The parents needed to be convinced
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that this child is not deaf and dumb.
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And he's capable of standing
on his own two feet.
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But most importantly,
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would the employer employ
somebody who couldn't speak,
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couldn't hear, and very much
couldn't read or write either?
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I sat together with some of my friends
from the industry,
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and I shared with them my story
about what it meant to be deaf.
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And I understood there were
clear areas in companies
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where deaf could work, deaf people
could work as a great value add.
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And with meager resources,
we created the first ever
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vocational training curriculum for
deaf people in the country.
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Finding trainers was a problem.
So I trained my deaf kids,
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my students, to become
the teachers for the Deaf.
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And it's a job they took on
with great responsibility and pride.
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Still, the employer was skeptic.
Education, qualification, 10th pass.
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"No, no, no, Ruma,
we cannot employ him."
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That was a big problem.
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"And even if we did employ him,
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how are we going to communicate
with him? He can't read, write.
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Can't hear/speak."
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I just told them, "Please can we
take it just one step at a time?
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You know, can we focus
on what he can do?
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He's a great visual person.
He can work. And...
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and if it works wonderful, if it doesn't,
we will at least know."
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Here I would like to share
a story about Vishu Kapoor.
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He came to us in 2009
with no language at all.
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He didn't even know sign language.
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All he saw, processed in his brain
was through his eyes.
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His mother was in despair and
she says,
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"Ruma, can I please keep him
in your center for two hours?
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It's really difficult for me
to manage him,
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you know manage with him
24 hours a day."
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So I said, "Yeah, okay."
Like a crash service.
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It took us a very painstaking
one a half years for us
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to give Vishu a language.
As he started communicating and
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he got a sense of self and
he understand that there was...
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I mean he couldn't hear, but heck,
he could do so many other things.
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He figured out that he liked to work
on the computers.
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We encouraged him, motivated him,
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and put him through our I.T. programs.
He cleared all the tests, you know,
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much to my nervousness.
An opening came one day
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in the back end of
a very well-known I.T. company,
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and just for the exposure and
the experience, I said,
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"Let Vishu also go
for this job interview."
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Vishu went there and cleared
all the technical tests.
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Even then I said, "Uh, I just hope
he will be able to stick on
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for 6 months at least."
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It's been a year and a half now.
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Vishu is stil there,
and he's not only just,
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'oh, this poor guy working in
this hearing environment.'
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He is winning laurels as best employee
of the month, not once but two times.
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(Applause)
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And I want to share with you that,
today, it takes us about
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a year and a half to teach
a deaf person to get ready
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to get into this real world
that we know about.
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In a short time of 6 years, today
500 of my wonderful young students
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are working in some of
the top organizations in the industry:
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in graphic design profiles,
in the back end of I.T. organizations,
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in hospitality,
in barrier breaking employment
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like in the security, and in banks.
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And also in retail outlets, and
doing direct customer service.
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(Applause)
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Directly facing people like
you and me in KFC, in coffee outlets.
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I just leave you with
a small little thought that,
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yes, change is possible.
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And it just starts with one little
change in our perspective.
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Thank you so much.
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(Applause)
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And this is applause,
it's an international sign for applause.
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Thank you so much.