Posts Tagged ‘stutter’

It's Labour Day today...

... But do you know that this year's New Zealand Labour Day coincides with International Stuttering Awareness Day?

Started in 1998, this day is aiming to "recognizes the growing alliance between speech-language professionals and consumers, who are learning from each other and working together to share, give support, and educate one another and the general public on the impact that stuttering has on individuals' lives."

I'm very open about this. I suffered from stutter since the day I started to talk (in Chinese), and still, today, though significantly improved.

In early years I was laughed by nearly every people in my life, even my relatives. I never lable those laughters "discrimination" because it's not their fault: there was very little public awareness on stutter, and people don't treat it as a clinical disorder, especially in a Chinese society where most eldlies (including my grandparents) believe that give their children a slap on the face everytime they stutter will cure the disorder.

This sort of things happended in my life in just about 15 years ago.

I settled right here in New Zealand around 2003. What I really enjoyed about New Zealand society you feel far less discriminated because of your speech difficulty. Most people will wait quietly to let you to finish the sentence without any laughter.

But in most of the cases, people who waitted me to finish the sentence are not awared of that I'm a stutter; based on my Asian apperance, most of people thought that I just have a very bad English.

This International Stuttering Awareness Day is not well observed in New Zealand. Stutter happens only in less than 1% of population. In a small population such as in New Zealand, this 1% can be easily ignored.

However, I'm very grateful that I had the experience of being ignored and discriminated. Because of this, I treat every person in my life, whether they are physically or mentally disabled, fairly, and in the same respect that I would give to everyone else.