Skip to main content

How did Helen realize she was different from other people?

In her autobiography, Helen Keller wrote that she did not remember when she came to the realization that she "was different from other people."  She did realize this fact before Anne Sullivan, her teacher, came to stay when Helen was almost seven-years-old.


Helen used hand signs to communicate with her family and others in the household.  Even though she was blind and deaf, she was an incredibly intelligent and observant little girl.  At some point, young Helen "noticed that [her] mother and [her] friends did not use signs as [she] did when they wanted anything done, but talked with their mouths."  As a little girl, Helen was fascinated with people communicating with their months.  At times, she "stood between two persons who were conversing and touched their lips."  Despite her fascination, Helen found it frustrating that she was not able to understand exactly what was happening.  She tried moving her own lips to communicate, but nothing happened.  It made her extremely angry that she could not participate in this form of communication.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more