ASL Teacher Breaks Down CODA Movie

Hey signers! Today's video is like nothing we've ever done before but we have the best reason to switch things up. If you haven't heard CODA a movie centered around a deaf family and their hearing daughter, has received wide critical acclaim. This is huge in the Deaf community and we here at Learn How to Sign wanted to take time to celebrate this. So in today's video we are breaking down the ASL and culture within the movie of CODA to help you better appreciate everything about this movie so sit back, grab yourself some popcorn and let's learn all about CODA. Okay disclaimer I will be giving away tons of spoilers to this movie so if you haven't already, you need to go and watch this movie, like now! But if you're not worried about spoilers then you are in for a treat packed full of any of those burning ASL questions. I learned that on YouTube! Also this is a mature movie and rated PG-13. Please be aware of this before watching the movie and this video. So first, why is this movie titled CODA? CODA stands for Child of Deaf Adults. This was named since the movie is centered around Ruby who is a CODA. So as you have seen from the movie, she is her family's connection to the hearing world and this was not only true in working with her dad and her brother on the fishing boat but also their voice selling the fish. The movie even starts with what had to be the most awkward doctor's appointment that a child would be mortified to know that their parents are talking about. Even as hilarious as it is to watch her have to interpret a doctor's appointment for her parents, it also shows her responsibilities being the only hearing person in the family. Throughout the movie the viewer gets hints into Ruby's life. In this scene Ruby shares to Mr. V what it's like growing up and having a deaf voice. As one can assume she grew up around a deaf family so she mimicked what she heard. Typically CODAs do have to go through speech when they enter school or even before. I talked funny when I first started school. We even get a glimpse into her life in her house, like when she can play the music as loud as she wants or when she's needing some quiet time to focus but everyone in her house is incredibly noisy or when her parents are too loud. Did you notice in that scene that she had to flip off and on the lights to get her parents attention? Throughout the movie we get to see several examples of accommodations that are needed for deaf people. In the movie there are a few quick mentions of what their day-to-day looked like. Ruby mentioned them only seeing their deaf friends once a month. In the deaf community there are typically a scheduled night maybe once a month called a Deaf Chat or a Deaf Coffee. It allows everyone in the Deaf Community to have a specific night set aside to get together. You have to think typically those who are deaf or hard of hearing don't work with others who are deaf. In the case of Ruby's family they might be the only deaf people in their community so having this time set aside is so important for their socialization. You might have heard Ruby's mom mention a video phone. The purpose of this service is providing a virtual interpreter. A camera is attached to a TV in a common space in your home where you can see the services of an interpreter for your phone calls you make a call with an interpreter to chat with a hearing person or you can chat screen to screen with another person who has one. Oh and did you catch the alarm clock? Ruby's dad was using this is a light up alarm clock since a sound alarm would not work. There are also devices that you can set under your mattress and it vibrates when the alarm goes off. Another vital tool we see deaf individuals using throughout the movie is something you frequently use a smartphone. Just seeing how it is used throughout the movie shows how vital of a role it plays today in the deaf community. You can't imagine how difficult it would have been back in the day before cell phones and video phones. For instance, deaf people would have to go to the person's house that they wanted to speak with and they would also have to carry around pins and paper to communicate with other people. You might have noticed the entire movie was captioned whether it was signing or talking. The goal was accessibility for all viewers. The actors said during filming they were also provided with interpreters so they would have complete access to communication. There are specific parts the producers decided not to caption. Like when Ruby signs to Mr. V what it feels like to sing because she doesn't have the english words to express it. How do you feel when you sing? I'll interpret it for you. It feels…….light and it's pulling from the inside and it releases I'm floating away. The script itself had to be adapted into ASL, of course, but included ASL idioms to keep with the authenticity as well as the speed of the signing because it's their native language. The conversation between Ruby's parents gives us light into their personal struggle of wanting to keep Ruby home with the realization that Ruby had never truly ever been a child. This also shares deep insight into a conversation between two deaf people. The open captioning gives their conversation in English grammar but this what they are sign in ASL. As you can literally see ASL structure is completely different from English. What I spoke is considered an ASL gloss, the written down structure of ASL, but as you could also see the actors didn't just rely on their script. They incorporated non-manual signals meaning, changes to their facial expression, mouth movements and body language to communicate questions and responses, all of this on top of their acting abilities! Now you might have caught the phrase TRUE-BUSINESS that didn't quite connect with the English caption. TRUE- BUSINESS is an ASL idiom. Yes ASL has their own idioms too. TRUE-BUSINESS can mean absolutely or indeed or sure enough. This movie shares some emotionally touching moments too. Just imagine for a second that you're growing up with an incredible God-given talent and everybody can witness it except for your parents. How hard would that be for you? How hard would that be for your parents? Ruby shares with her family her love for singing and she's great! But her parents truly don't know how great she is. Since they can't hear her, they use another sense, their sight, to see her confidence on stage and how other people are reacting to her singing. The smiles, the clapping to the music, the tears from one lady. From that they can see what her daughter is doing is incredibly moving and is evoking all of these emotions from the audience. It was an incredible pause to allow us to get a glimpse of what her parents experience. Let's just take a moment and experience it ourself. Grab yourself a tissue. I’ve got mine. Don't put your tissues away just yet. There's a special scene where we get to see Ruby's dad ask her to sing and then in that moment he held onto her neck to feel her vocal cords moving. The actor Troy Kotsur shared this idea from his own personal experience. My daughter became addicted and just immersed into this world of practicing the piano every morning, sometimes all day long and I still couldn't hear the piano but I would walk through the room and I would touch the wood on the piano to feel its vibrations and it was a similar idea of feeling Ruby's voice in that scene. What an amazing connection! Before we continue if you're liking this breakdown, please click the like button. This will show us if we should do more content like this but it will also help this video reach more people so they too can learn more about ASL and deaf culture. Speaking of deaf culture a big phrase you see is DEAF CAN. We get to see this statement through Ruby's brother. Throughout the movie we see Ruby taking action and helping her family but what her brother really wants is to prove himself and that DEAF CAN do the exact same thing as hearing people. We saw this go all the way down into an argument between the two of them. He wanted her to leave so that he could prove his worth to his family and his people. At the end of the movie we get to see her brother and parents prove that deaf can as their business thrives. This whole sequence is also so touching because we get to see Ruby's parents release her to pursue her own desires. She lived her whole life serving her family and setting aside her own aspirations but ultimately her whole family saw that she deserves the ability to pursue her own passions. And the movie ends perfectly with ruby looking back to her family and signing not only “I love you” but crossing her fingers and signing I REALLY LOVE YOU This movie was absolutely the best depiction of life as a CODA. I was blown away by the authenticity presented by the script and the acting. I truly hope this movie has opened doors for more deaf films, deaf actors and the appreciation of ASL. I have loved being a small part of this community and can't wait to see what the future holds. I give this movie two thumbs up which is literally a 10 out of 10. If this video piqued your interest in learning ASL, then subscribe and check out our First 25 Signs video. This is a great first step in learning your first signs. Until next time keep learning how to sign!

Channel: Learn How to Sign

Views: 31,449

Keywords: coda movie, coda, coda breeakdown, coda movie breakdown, coda review, coda analysis, asl expert, asl teacher, asl expert coda movie, child of deaf adults, what we learn in the movie coda, coda lessons, coda teaching, learn from coda, school appropriate, home life of coda, what is coda, what does coda mean, coda asl, meredith asl, deaf can, coda story, deaf culture, deaf accomodations, coda takeaways, asl in coda, asl lesson, asl culture, sign language, apple

Id: 3j3eP-fJUAw

Length: 12min 50sec (770 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 24 2022