Sign Language Ministry for the Deaf feat. Lynnette Zulli

Transcript

Blaise Delfino: 0:06

You're tuned in to the Hearing Matters Podcast with Dr. Gregory Delfino, and Blaise Delfino of Audiology Services and Fader Plugs, the show that discusses hearing technology, best practices, and a growing national epidemic, hearing loss. Before we kick this episode off, special thank

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faster, dryer, smarter, verified. On this episode. We have Lynette Zulli joining us. Lynette ,you have a passion for American Sign Language. You are originally from the Lehigh Valley, right down the road from Easton. Welcome to the Hearing Matters Podcast. It is such a pleasure to have you on the show. Now being a Lehigh Valley native, how did you become interested in sign language?

Lynnette Zulli: 1:09

Well, when I got married, my father in law was deaf. So I wanted to be able to communicate with him, not right away. But I found the need to speak to him more, or sign to him more or communicate to him more in his language rather than a mere hi, wave, or thumbs up or something like that I wanted a little bit deeper. And I more importantly, I wanted to get him to understand about God in his life.

Blaise Delfino: 1:40

Wow, that's amazing. Now, where did you go to learn more sign language after your father in law taught you?

Lynnette Zulli: 1:46

Well, my father in law taught me words, not how to communicate. And I would always ask my husband, how do you say this? Or how do you say that? And he would say, oh, I don't remember I don't remember. And then he would sit down with his father. And they would be signing together and I'd be looking at him like he forgot. I'm like, okay, okay, whatever. And then, eventually, I was going to a church at that time, it was called Church on the Move. And they offered a sign language worship class, which was taught through music, and that was right up my alley. And it was like in sessions, like a two month session, one year and then they had another one. So I took that class and the rest is kind of history because I been in choirs all my life. And music is another one of my passions, and it just fit together

Blaise Delfino: 2:39

And talk about music, being a universal language, and then learning another language, which is absolutely beautiful. And that being ASL, what do you think the hardest part of learning ASL was?

Lynnette Zulli: 2:51

For me there wasn't a hard part because I wanted it. And I had a purpose for it. But I think when people just look at it as a beautiful language, they think it's like dance, and they want to learn it right away. And it does require precision because one less finger means something else, or one opposite move of a hand means another word. So a lot of people don't want to get into those technicalities, right? It's crucial.

Blaise Delfino: 3:24

We had a guest on by the name of Maryann Stefko and we were talking about the importance of baby sign language, and creating those neural pathways and babies being able to communicate at a much younger age for their needs and milk and things like that nature. And it is so amazing what these babies can do. You know, I know Mary Sue's grandchildren use baby sign language. When you're talking about the intricacies that are involved with American Sign Language. How important are facial expressions?

Lynnette Zulli: 3:57

That's it because deaf people cannot hear the highs and the lows in your voice. Or if you're being sarcastic or sad. So your facial expressions help to explain more of everything. But if you're not aware of your expression, and people who are deaf, I'm going to give you an example. My father in law was in the hospital and there was a nurse that said, oh, he understands what I mean. He can hear me and I said no, he's totally deaf. And she said, oh, he knows what I mean. But when she left, my father in law said to me, why is she mad at me? And I said, she's not mad at you. And he said, yeah, because when hearing people talk louder, they tend to scrunch their face more. If you're screaming at a normal place, you're okay. But if you talk louder, you tend to scrunch up in your expressions change. So he thought that she was mad at him. And I said she's not mad, I'm not gonna say what I said.

Blaise Delfino: 5:03

Now can you explain how you learned sign language through music, because I'm really interested in learning about this, Lynette.

Lynnette Zulli: 5:11

I'm going to take you back to hearing how you learn, when we learned the alphabet, it wasn't a, b, c, it was a, b, c, d….there was a song, you know, everything you pretty much learn by music. And children tend to remember things through music. And when you do the alphabet, it's kind of like a roller coaster for ASL. Because one letter will go into the next. And it's kind of like a flop, which is kind of like music. But you do have to learn the alphabet, you do have to learn the words before you learn songs. And you have to know the song. So with music, a lot of times the music is over the lyrics, but you have to hear the lyrics in order to sign the song. And a lot of places that we've ministered in, the music was so loud that we couldn't hear the lyrics. So we couldn't interpret the song. And people would look at us like, why is she just standing there? I can't hear the words. So after you learn your words, and the alphabet, which is crucial, because you can't communicate, you can't tell somebody your name. If you don't know the alphabet, if you can't spell your name. After you learn all of that, then I suggest that people choose their favorite worship song. And then we'll go word by word, and a word like hallelujah, I break it up into syllables. So would be Ha, whether you say hallelujah, or it's hallelujah, hallelujah, though the syllables are still the same. How would be this, you clap your hands together? That's the HA, lay, one, loo, two, yuh. So if it's longer or shorter, the HA would go slower, or faster. So everybody's on the same note, you're following a tempo where a lot of times you'll see interpreters, they'll add extra things in the song, or extra words or signs in the song to try to explain the song. But I'm more ESL, which is English. I don't want them to miss any words, right? And they're very capable of doing that, because most of them can read English well. So I include mostly every word except for the twos that does things like that. Okay, that's interesting. I and a friend of mine, her name is Carolyn Garrett, we had a ministry for a very long time, it's about seven to 10 years. But with COVID, it kind of shut it down all together. And I never really got into the zoom thing. So I'm kind of like a fish out of water. But I truly do miss signing to music, and mainly teaching

Blaise Delfino: 8:04

sounds like you can sing as well, Lynette, So that is a

Lynnette Zulli: 8:07

I try, I wouldn't sing solo. Background choir. Yeah, that's good for me

Blaise Delfino: 8:13

With regard to teaching other individuals sign language. So you've learned sign language and sharing your gifts and your passion for sign language. What made you want to teach other individuals sign language?

Lynnette Zulli: 8:28

Because there's not enough people that know it, you can find someone to interpret for you in Spanish or any other language, it's kind of easy, but it's a whole different understanding of deaf people not understanding that they cannot hear, which is very hard to even imagine sometimes, because we hear our own voice, I can hear a fan in the background, or all of these little things that we don't even think about. But they hear nothing. And they're alone here among hearing people. And there's nobody to help. It kind of made me aware again, when my father in law was in a hospital, and they had to have an interpreter for him. And they said it would take a week or two. So that means your stay in the hospital would be a week or two. But then they brought in this automated interpreter. And at the time, he was like 85 or 86. And he looked at this thing on the TV and wonder why this person knew his name and why he's looking at him like he sees me and he just folded his arms and turned his head and the doctor was telling the interpreter to tell him this or tell him that and he's like, I can't because he's not looking at me. And the doctor didn't grab the concept of if he's not looking at me. He's not understanding anything he's not hearing so there's more of a need for interpreters and more of a need for just everyday people to learn a language to just simply say hire, how are you or have a good day or just anything? It's almost like if you were to be dropped in the middle of China and didn't know the language, and you heard someone speak English from a distance, and your first response would be, every part of you would be excited, and you would move closer. And yes, the conversation gets started, and you kind of gravitate toward that person. But you're here. I mean, you live here, and nobody knows your language. So usually, when people learn that you do not have to sign the Deaf people, no, you do not have to sign in, you speak to them in their language, you get the same response. It's an excitement of like, I'm so surprised that you know, my language, and it shouldn't be that way. Right? It shouldn't be that way. It should be offered in school. It should be a regular subjects are part of the curriculum. And now there are some schools that do offer it, but they offer it as a foreign language that I'm like, it's not foreign.

Blaise Delfino: 11:05

Right. To dovetail everything that you're saying Lynette to be in another country where you don't know the native tongue, but you're right, when you hear your native tongue from a distance, you have that sense of home, right? That sense of familiarity, right? I love that concept that you brought up because it has to feel so good for lack of a better term when individuals who use ASL and who speak with American Sign Language and or ESL, when they're connected with individuals or professionals that can actually carry a conversation. That's amazing. When you and I first met today, I said, my name is Blaise. Nice to meet you.

Lynnette Zulli: 11:46

And I probably gave you the same reaction like, oh, wow.

Blaise Delfino: 11:50

Yeah. Absolutely. Yes. And what was so great, I went to school at East Stroudsburg University and the audiologist is Dr. Susan Dillmuth-Miller. And she teaches the sign language class up there. So there's a sign language one and sign language two, it's wonderful. And what was so fun is like, we had to do a music video. It's like one of the songs. So we signed it. And it was such a great class. And it gave us the core framework to carry on a conversation. I've had patients here that speak using sign language, and I'm able to carry a conversation with them now. They teach me, and like, I'll ask them, how do I say this? So the next time they come into the office, Well, number one, I've learned something new, but it's such a beautiful language. And, Lynnette, you are sharing your passion and your love for teaching individuals, it's only going to spread like wildfire. Until more individuals in the Lehigh Valley start to learn ASL and ESL. Where did you first teach sign language? Where do you teach it now? And do you also teach using music?

Lynnette Zulli: 12:58

Well, actually, the first place I taught was at my home church, what was then my home church, Shiloh in Easton and started a sign language ministry there. So I taught 50 to 100 people going in and going out. Well, some people thought it was difficult, and then you kind of end up with like five or six that are dedicated, then moved on to individual families or individuals. Some people wanted to learn because they were becoming deaf, or knew someone in the family who was deaf, or just for personal enrichment. The ones that learn for personal enrichment generally don't stick with it. But I give them enough that if they do see a deaf person, they can at least be cordial.

Blaise Delfino: 13:47

Sure. I think that's wonderful. It's more tools and your communicative toolkit. Yes, yeah, absolutely. I love that. Now, your desire to teach truly became a passion. And would you say that this occurred when your father in law was in the hospital, where that's when the light turned on of I need to do something about this.

Lynnette Zulli: 14:07

Yes, yes. It was then that I knew that the health care people needed to know especially people in church needed to know and there's a whole lack of people that knew the language. I think that was the main reason and I met a young deaf woman in church. I think this is the real reason and she was at the altar and she was crying and they came and got me and said she was deaf. So she just said she wanted her children. It was a situation where some hearing person said something about her and caused her to go to jail. It's a whole she prepared me this one young woman prepared me for any issues any deaf person might have had legally financially medically, because she was put away in jail for a month without an interpreter and put on drugs because they said she was depressed which she had a right to be. They took away her children. They arrested her without an interpreter. It was just a nightmare. It was a nightmare. But I work with her for two years. And eventually thank God got her children back. But if I had not been there in some of her court proceedings, she still would not have gotten her children back because I was there as an advocate for her because I could hear everything that was going on. Her attorney never taught her how to act, because he never knew sign language. He would just point to a paper and she knew where to sign. She didn't understand everything on the paper, because one of our meetings was I went to her attorney's office with her. And he said, Well, she never needed an interpreter before. And I said, Well, I'm here now. So I asked her to read the paper. And if she didn't understand any words, to ask me, so she started to read and the first sentence her eyebrows went up. And she stretched her eyes, and she's like reading and she's stretching her eyes. And I said, What's this word? And she tucked her head. I said, Well, what's this word? She tucked her head, she could not read legal paperwork. I mean, half of us don't know what it says. Right? So I said, Why didn't you ask me? She was ashamed. But she knew where to sign because the line was there. And once I signed the word to her, she understood and she went, oh, so it was a eye opener for not only her, me, but her attorney totally changed his mind about how he thought about her. And what he thought was her guilt. He opened his heart in his mind to listen to her and found out that she was telling the truth, even though she could not communicate as a hearing person would understand it. But I think that was the moment that I knew that people really needed to know something or even be a part of, I'm going to go back to the courtroom, you have a hearing interpreter, you have a deaf interpreter, the Deaf Interpreter stands in front of the judge, the hearing behind the deaf person, as they speak, you'll so you'll have a judge, you'll have two or three people speaking at the same time, and the hearing person will interpret to the deaf interpreter who will interpret to the deaf person. So now there was a game when you were a kid, I don't know, maybe you might not remember, but it was whispered down the alley.

Blaise Delfino: 17:50

Oh, I know this game. Okay.

Lynnette Zulli: 17:54

So the first sentence that you give, if you pass it down three people, it's not the same. There was one day where her children went for their annual doctor's appointment, and she had five children. And this one had an ear infection. This one had this and this one had that. And by the time it got from interpreter to interpreter to her kids all fine. That was the ASL interpretation of the whole thing. So she would sit there and to hearing people, her demeanor look like she didn't care about anything. She was not taught how to sit in court. So it was just a relaxed thing and trying to focus on what the interpreter said, not a whole lot of emotion. But they're looking at her like, she doesn't even care about anything. Well, they're not understanding that the information that she's getting is minimal, right? A lot of time. That's what ASL does. That's why I want to give them every word.

Blaise Delfino: 18:55

Sure. Everywhere she lacked the proper pragmatics or social use of language because she is deaf. And I'm sure maybe throughout her life, maybe she didn't have communicative partners to

Lynnette Zulli: 19:09

No, her family and her friends were hearing, there was one instance where we're we're walking down the hall, in the courtroom. She's like, they always look at me and and I said, because you're loud. She looked at me like I said, yes, you're loud. She's like, No, no. I said, Yes. You can't hear, I hear you. And I said, you're loud. And no one ever told her that. I said, that's why they're staring at you because you're walking down a quiet hallway. And you're loud. It was those little things. Yes, you know, that are so important. They can't hear themselves.

Blaise Delfino: 19:45

When I'd have to say you positively influenced her life. And that's such a touching story. So thank you for what you're doing for the community. I understand. And Mary Sue, who is our publishing coordinator shared a lot of insight formation with me and your history and your background. It's so inspiring. I understand that you teach sign language to other merchants at the farmers market where you have a booth. Tell me more about this.

Lynnette Zulli: 20:11

That's my cue mark. When we have our downtime, I always throw in a word or sentence when people say they want to learn. I take them seriously. That's great. And I'll quiz them here and there. And like my neighbor who sells popcorn, I'm like, Okay, how do you sign popcorn? So this is popcorn. I kind of relate it to what it looks like, or I like to give a correlation to help you to remember the sign. But it's important because the people that come through are not all hearing. They're not all deaf. And there's that in between, which is the heart of hearing, which is a whole nother category in itself which needs attention. Yes, but I teach whenever I can, if you say you want to learn. I'm there to teach.

Blaise Delfino: 21:04

You're tuned into the Hearing Matters Podcast with Dr. Gregory Delfino, and Blaise Delfino of Audiology Services and Fader Plugs. Today we had Lynette Zulli, Lehigh Valley native on the Hearing Matters Podcast, and we discussed sign language. Lynette, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.

Lynnette Zulli: 21:24

Thank you for having me.

Blaise Delfino: 21:25

Until next time, hear life’s story