Title of Movie: “Sweet Nothing In My Ear”
This film was one of the most influential and informative movie about Deaf culture that I have ever viewed. I was very moved. This story followed the Miller family, and focused on the parents Laura and Dan’s struggle to decide whether or not to give their deaf son, Max, a cochlear implant so that he may hear once again. There were many scenes and characters in the film that stood out to me, but the one I felt the most compassion towards was Max; a deaf child raised by both hearing and deaf parents. What stood out to me about Max was that as a child, he originally was a hearing child, but then slowly lost it as he grew older. This development stopped his formal speech altogether, and he learned to…show more content… In the beginning of the movie, Dan & Laura Miller went on a date to the movie theater and Laura, who is deaf, was able to use a closed captioned device that narrated the movie while watching. Additionally, the doorbell feature the Miller’s had in their home was an accomodation that I have never seen before; when a guest would arrive, the doorbell was wired so the lights in the home would flash, notifying the family of a visitor. Also, I noticed in one scene that when Laura (the mother) woke up in the morning, her alarm clock was adjusted so that the lamp on her bedside table would flash its light repeatedly, to awaken a person who is deaf. The use of technology in the 21st century is ever-changing, and I found it extremely eye-opening to see its use throughout the duration of the…show more content… Laura’s parents in the film were both deaf, and her father especially, was an advocate for Deaf pride. He has a history in his community as a Deaf advocate, published author, and he is very much for the preservation of Deaf culture as a whole. When Laura came out and said that she and Dan were considering getting their son Max cochlear implants, her father’s initial reaction was that of complete opposition. He felt upset that his daughter would view deafness as a “disability” and he makes a very powerful quote in the kitchen scene, saying “...the majority always thinks each minority wants to be like them.” This quote stood out to me in the discussion of Deaf culture, as there are many Deaf people like Laura’s father that feel that the preservation of culture should be passed down generation to generation, not changed and assimilated to the “normal” world. It is something to be cherished. As a future teacher of English as a Second Language, I resonate with this sentiment completely. The culture and heritage of an individual is meant to be celebrated, and not ashamed of. In my teaching experience with students of other languages, I was especially interested in this film. What really spoke to me was the scene in the elevator when Laura and Dan first met the cochlear implant professional, and he explained that ASL would be Max’s primary language, and English his second language. This film reflected for me