• Viva la Differenza!
• Elena Radutzky (bio)

Those who know me well, know that I have two serious chronic diseases. The first is rheumatoid arthritis, which has had some serious consequences, not the least of which for my signing skills. I can no longer make a fist, nor can I raise individual fingers. As a result, my deaf colleagues teasingly tell me that when I sign now, I "slur" like a drunk. My second chronic disease is a mental obsession: I am constantly driven to guarantee access to communication to those who are denied it, and this affliction dates back to long before I entered the Deaf world.

I was born in Brooklyn in 1944 into a family of Eastern European immigrants from four countries. They arrived in New York Harbor, welcomed by the Statue of (so-called) Liberty! What a linguistic opportunity: I could have become multilingual and multicultural, effortlessly; each grandparent had only to speak to me exclusively in their language.

Not a chance! They were all browbeaten into believing that to succeed, they must shed their language, culture, and accent and (heaven forbid) must never talk to the grandchildren in anything but English. My sister and I would enter the room while our grandparents were conversing in Ukrainian. Grandma would immediately whisper to Grandpa "Onuki tut" ("The grandkids are here"), and they would immediately switch to their broken English. Young as I was, I was furious!

Lucky for me, my Uncle Pete married Maria, a beautiful Cuban woman who spoke a language my family could not understand—Spanish! That was it! I was determined to master it. (I'm a tad embarrassed to admit that my prime motivation was revenge.) I even [End Page 421]

The American television comic Sid Caesar. Photo courtesy of the author.

changed my name from Ellen to Elena. I studied Spanish through junior and senior high and majored in it for my BA, then lived and studied for a year and a half in Spain to become fluent.

Obviously, my language deprivation was nothing like what most Deaf children go through. Yes, I was deprived of being bilingual as a child, but I acquired my native English from my parents, which enabled full cognitive and linguistic development at the appropriate developmental moment in time. Furthermore, I was fully accepted by my parents as being similar to them. This is not the case with 95 percent of deaf children, who are born to hearing parents. But what drew me to the Deaf world and sign language? My father happened to be the best friend of the famous American television comic and mime, Sid Caesar (figure 1).

From the age of ten, I spent many weekends at Sid's home. He had a Deaf gardener named Eddie, my first Deaf experience. Eddie did not use full American Sign Language (ASL) with Sid, but they got on [End Page 422] fine because Sid was an expert mime, had remarkable gesturing, and had learned fingerspelling and a dose of ASL from Eddie. Since I had acted in camp and school plays, I was intrigued by this visual-gestural communication. I must have tucked ASL deep into my gray matter, but I did not pursue it until much later. (Sid became attached to the Deaf community and starred with deaf actress Phyllis Frelich in Love Is Never Silent, a Broadway show based on the 1970 novel by Joanne Greenberg, In This Sign. I dedicated my doctoral dissertation to him.

I began my PhD program in 1976 at New York University (NYU). It was chaired by Neil Postman, and inspired by Marshall McLuhan, examined communication environments. Each student was to select a communication medium to analyze throughout the program. I did not know what to choose. The very evening before the decision deadline, on my way to class, I entered the wrong room and found twelve Deaf students, hands flying in the air in lively conversation. I stood there gaping. This was definitely not Sid and Eddie's language. I excused myself and closed the door. I turned around to find an announcement for an intensive course in ASL...

• 差异万岁！
• 埃琳娜·拉杜茨基（简介）

熟悉我的人都知道我患有两种严重的慢性病。第一个是类风湿性关节炎，它造成了一些严重的后果，其中最重要的是对我的手语技巧的影响。我不能再握拳，也不能单独举起手指。结果，我的聋哑同事戏谑地告诉我，当我现在手语时，我像醉汉一样“含糊不清”。我的第二个慢性疾病是一种精神困扰：我不断地被驱使去保证那些被剥夺了沟通机会的人，这种痛苦可以追溯到我进入聋人世界之前很久。

1944 年，我出生于布鲁克林的一个来自四个国家的东欧移民家庭。他们抵达纽约港，受到（所谓的）自由女神像的欢迎！这是多么好的语言机会啊：我本可以毫不费力地掌握多种语言和多种文化；每个祖父母只需用他们的语言与我交谈。

没有机会！他们都被迫相信，要想成功，就必须摆脱自己的语言、文化和口音，并且（但愿）永远不能用英语以外的任何东西与孙子们交谈。当我们的祖父母用乌克兰语交谈时，我和姐姐会进入房间。奶奶会立即对爷爷低声说“Onuki tut”（“孙子们来了”），他们会立即改用蹩脚的英语。我虽然年轻，但我很愤怒！

对我来说幸运的是，我的皮特叔叔娶了玛丽亚，她是一位美丽的古巴女人，她说的是我家人听不懂的语言——西班牙语！就是这样！我决心要掌握它。（我有点不好意思承认我的主要动机是复仇。）我什至[完第421页]

美国电视喜剧演员席德·凯撒。照片由作者提供。

我把我的名字从艾伦改成了埃琳娜。我从初中和高中学习西班牙语，并主修西班牙语，然后在西班牙生活和学习了一年半，才变得流利。

显然，我的语言剥夺与大多数聋哑儿童所经历的完全不同。是的，我小时候被剥夺了双语能力，但我从父母那里学到了母语英语，这使得我能够在适当的发展时刻获得全面的认知和语言发展。而且，我的父母完全接受我与他们相似。95% 的聋哑儿童的情况并非如此，他们都是听力正常的父母所生。但是什么吸引我来到聋人世界和手语呢？我的父亲恰好是美国著名电视喜剧演员和哑剧席德·凯撒（Sid Caesar）（图 1）最好的朋友。

从十岁起，我在希德家里度过了很多周末。他有一个聋人园丁，名叫埃迪，这是我第一次聋人经历。埃迪没有和希德使用完整的美国手语 (ASL)，但他们相处得很好[结束第 422 页]，因为希德是一位哑剧专家，手势出色，并且从埃迪那里学会了手指拼写和一定量的美国手语。由于我曾在营地和学校戏剧中表演过，所以我对这种视觉手势交流很感兴趣。我肯定已经把美国手语深深地融入了我的灰质中，但直到很久以后我才开始追求它。（Sid 与聋人社区结下了不解之缘，并与聋人女演员 Phyllis Frelich 一起主演了百老汇剧《爱永不沉默》，该剧改编自乔安妮·格林伯格 1970 年的小说《In This Sign》。我将我的博士论文献给了他。

我于 1976 年开始在纽约大学 (NYU) 攻读博士学位。它由尼尔·波兹曼 (Neil Postman) 主持，并受到马歇尔·麦克卢汉 (Marshall McLuhan) 的启发，研究了通信环境。每个学生都需要选择一种沟通媒介来分析整个项目。我不知道该选择什么。在决定截止日期的前一天晚上，在我去上课的路上，我走进了错误的房间，发现十二名聋哑学生双手在空中飞舞，正在热烈地交谈。我站在那里目瞪口呆。这绝对不是希德和艾迪的语言。我告辞并关上了门。我转身发现了一则美国手语强化课程的公告……