Page 86 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

Do Americans Really Have a Culture? 71

ents’ home at eighteen. We reproach those who are still hanging
around the house in their twenties, regardless of their economic
difficulties. In modern psychological jargon, we speak of a family
that is overly close as “enmeshed” or having “separation-individu-
ation problems.”
At the other end of the life span, the ideal for seniors is to stay
as independent and active as possible until their very last day,
thereby avoiding the worst possible fate: becoming a burden on
their children. Of all the aspects of American life that surprise and
dismay foreigners, the status of the elderly is probably the most
shocking. While they may shudder at what appears to be aban-
donment of our older citizens, we see it as respecting them by not
undermining their prized independence.
In many other cultures, dependence, far from being a sign of
weakness, is seen as a desirable quality. “Chinese parents, for in-
stance, take pride in being dependent on their children and being
supported by them. In Japan, to be self-reliant...is to be without
an identity…. For the Japanese, dependence is a virtue” (Stewart
and Bennett 138).
In American Deaf culture mutual dependence is a survival tactic
which has become an integral part of daily life. To pick only one
example, in a lecture class at a college where several Deaf stu-
dents watch the interpreter, if one student misses a point or needs
a little extra explanation, he or she turns to the other Deaf stu-
dents, who immediately take their eyes off the interpreter, thereby
missing out on the next chunk of lecture in order to supply their
classmate with the needed information. There is neither a feeling
of stigma associated with having asked the question nor any rec-
ognition of the individual’s right to refuse to help, for in Deaf cul-
ture the sharing of information is an almost sacred obligation or
duty that takes precedence over individual concerns.
Hearing Americans, on the other hand, are uncomfortable with
being obligated to others and therefore may try to avoid too much
personal commitment. If a friend is going through a hard time
and we want to help, we take pains not to offer insult by implying
that our friend is not completely capable of taking care of him- or
herself. Dropping by unexpectedly, we might stretch the truth by
saying that it was on our way home, as if admitting that we had
gone out of our way to help would demand too great a reciprocal
gesture. This attitude is the exception among many of the world’s
cultures, where systems of mutual obligation define relations, of-

04 MINDESS PMKR 71 10/18/04, 11:25 AM