S3 E06: Travis Nguyen, interpreter & translator, on working with the deaf & deaf/blind communities, how intergenerational trauma manifests in day-to-d...

GUEST BIO

Travis Giuse Nguyen (he/él) is an interpreter and translator born and raised in Southeast Texas. The son of a Vietnamese fisherman in the U.S. and the long-time resident of two minority-majority cities (Port Arthur and Houston), syncretism is the defining attribute of Travis's lived experience. In his free time, Travis practices self-care by playing boleros on his trusty ukulele, singing, sewing, and caring for his plants..

Instagram | TikTok

DEFINITIONS

• ASL: American sign language
• Hakka, Hokkien, Cantonese are languages originating from Southern China.
• Neurotypical/allistic people do not have autistic or other neurologically atypical patterns of thought or behavior. People who have ADHD, ASD are neurodivergent.

MENTIONED

• Ocean Vuong
• Protactile

TAKEAWAYS

1. We naturally internalize traumatic experiences, and they shape how we view the world and interact with it, whether we are cognizant of it or not.
2. When multi-lingual people get dementia, they will lose the last language they learned first.
3. As people who hear, we have access to a lot of auditory information that we glean in passing everywhere we go because people around us communicate in a language we can understand. That is not a privilege that deaf people have, because very few people around them use sign language.
4. Even if you don't know sign language, don't be intimidated to interact with deaf people.
5. Many of us do not speak our cultural language because our parents were wrongly told that teaching us anything other than English would prevent us from becoming fluent in English.
6. Getting to know people who have different lived experiences can help you see your blindspots.
7. Discussing politics/religion only leads to arguments if we don't know how to talk about them.
8. Self-determination is a myth. While we do have choices, our views, our taste, our personality is inevitably shaped by the people and media that surround us.
9. Pulling yourself by your bootstrap is also a myth. No one can claim to be entirely self-made. No one can be part of society without using resources that they didn't create themselves.

CONTACT

Instagram | TikTok | Web | LinkedIn | Twitter

Host: Lazou

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