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The Importance of Communicating to Others in their Terms

Zoltan was a survivor of the abortive 1956 Hungarian Revolution.  This young freedom fighter spoke no English and was perceived at the immigration point in New York City as suffering from schizophrenia.  He was sent to Westborough (MA) State Hospital where one of the doctors was Hungarian.  The doctor, however, whose specialty was treating patients with TB, refused to see Zoltan because he wasn’t a medical case.

Zoltan got into fights, primarily because, I believe, he could not understand a word of English, and therefore could not do what he was asked to do.  I first met Zoltan when I and a number of other attendants were called to the “back” ward where Zoltan was angrily faced off against anybody and everybody.  I was very impressed with the attendant who by tone and action calmed Zoltan down, treating him as a person, not a monster.

A short time later, he was transferred to my ward, a continuing treatment ward, and with his shy, wistful manner I took a liking to him. We played chess, a non-verbal interaction, and slowly I learned Hungarian words for the chess pieces; he, the English.  I also took him on passes for walks on the grounds, and he would try to teach me the words for “rock”, and “water”, etc.  He had a very nice smile, a wry gleam in his eyes, and, judging from the way he played chess, very bright.

As I was preparing to go back to college at the end of the summer, I arranged for a Hungarian exchange student from the International House in Boston to be brought in as an interpreter.  Zoltan was discharged within six months.  About a year later, I received a Christmas card from him, thanking me (in English) and letting me know that he was gainfully employed and moving ahead with his life.

The importance of how one communicates was further emphasized for me when, as an US Army enlisted man, I volunteered at the Army Education Center located at my post in Korea.  I helped prepare young men for their GED certificate exams.  Many of the students had not had much formal education, so it was imperative to develop ways to make subjects such as math relevant for them. Geometry became real when one of the students, who had a talent with the use of graph paper, was able to show how to find the difference in the areas of a rectangle versus a parallelogram having the same lengths in the four sides but of different shapes.  By drawing the two figures and then counting the graph squares contained in each, it became clear how the areas are different. Percentages became real, when students compared the differences in price for goods at the Post Exchange vs. stateside, and the amount of money saved in beer at the Enlisted Men’s club, compared to regular bars.

I applied this paradigm to my work at Fountain House, as I found ways for members to understand the purpose of being in the clubhouse by using their own terms.  In 1969, Fountain House was asked by the staff at Rockland State Hospital to provide openings for patients from their Deaf Unit.  The prospects of providing opportunities for this very special group excited us, but we were also very clear of the obstacles we had to address, especially the fact that not one of us knew American Sign Language (ASL).  Over the ensuing years, with the help of interpreters and by some of us (although not me) learning ASL a robust and successful project evolved.  We came to understand that in discussions about the core values and programs offered at the clubhouse, our language had to be expressed in terms that the deaf could easily understand.  By and large, translating these ideas into physical images, rather than metaphysical terms proved to be most successful.  On the other hand, we had to learn to translate their questions or comments expressed in physical images into language that were used to, in order to respond usefully.

Mark described how he came to understand the process by calling it a “Transformation.”
“ I credit my transformation to an awakening I had about how the clubhouse could work for me. I came to understand that to be transformed I had to go through the clubhouse process, where before I was trying to go around it. I had to do the work of the units, do the placements, take advantage of the housing and bond with my fellow members and the staff to become who I wanted to be, a strong and independent person in the world.”

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