Colorful Silence, Filipino Deaf Photographer

May 9, 2013 in Famous Filipino Deaf, Notable Filipino Deaf. Leave a Comment
Tags: Emil Zion Punzalan

Colorful Silence – Manila Bulletin Article about Emil Zion Punzalan’s Photography Works

Guys, may I interest you again with another successful Filipino deaf entrepreneur, Emil Zion Punzalan. As one of the proud products of MCCID, he has ventured into a field where communication is a non-issue and the entire world is his portrait. He was recently featured in Manila Bulletin. I reposted the article below.

Colorful Silence
By Jojie Alcantara
Published: May 7, 2013

In history, many hearing-impaired people have worked professionally as photographers for decades. Several of them have stood out with their eye for details and visual impact while living in a silent world.

Emil Zion Punzalan from Sampaloc, Manila accepted his diploma in Business Technology at the Manila Christian Computer Institute of the Deaf back in 2003.

“When I graduated college with a computer course, my grandparents were a little worried about what job I would get since I am deaf,” he explains. “They pushed me to photography, encouraged me to attend seminars. With the course I finished, plus photography which complemented it, I ended up as a photographer. I found pleasure in it and made a career out of it.”

He has no particular favorite subject or theme. “Ideas are everywhere. I love to capture still life, animals, food, landscape, aerial, people, travel, seascapes, and more. The possibilities are endless and I do a little bit of everything to keep myself shooting.”

For Zion, an effective photography is when the photographer transforms lifeless shots to amazing images.

“The photographer’s mood is important in coming out with good pictures. It sets the atmosphere of the piece, evokes happiness or sadness, creating an emotion. The moods of my shots are varied.”

He has joined several photo contests and won: gold medal in NCR Abilympics Skills Competition in 2005; bronze medal in the 12th National Skills Competition in 2005; and Pixoto hailed him as one of the Best Photographers of the Year 2012.

“My goal as a visual artist is to be able to create an image that is even better and beautiful than the actual subject I am shooting,” he says.

“Creativity is the best thing about being a photographer. How you compose a shot will tell the whole story – showing faces, expressions, movements, moods, situations, and experiences. For me, the most basic and most important factors are good lighting and exposure. I create the mood with lighting.”

He continues, “Exposure is the amount of light entering my camera. It describes how light or how dark the photographs are. Underexposure is when photos come out too dark, overexposure is when photos come out too light or washed out. However, slightly underexposed and overexposed images can be great for artistic or stylistic reasons. They may be visually appealing.”

Appealing may be more than one way to describe Zion’s images. Adjusting above auditory disabilities, he creates and composes images as though they were paintings infused with vivid hues that jump out from a canvas. In a silent but colorful world, he soars beyond his limits.

“For me, photography is beyond capturing family memories or documenting an event. It offers a chance to be creative. It is an expression using lighting, color, depth, content, and composition to make photographs into more than snapshots,” he says.

Now at 30, Zion looks forward to his coming inspiration with eager anticipation, the birth of his first born baby this June.

The original article appears Picture Perfect Special Lifestyle Section and the Mania Bulletin website.

For those who are in need of professional photography and other related services, I highly recommend his services. Go to his Official Facebook page to know more about how to get in touch with Zion.

Make Your Vote Count

May 8, 2013 in Deaf Video. Leave a Comment
Tags: Dianne Salazar, election 2013

To all my Filipino Deaf brothers and sisters who will be voting this May 13, here are some reminders and procedures that you may want to know. The sign language presentation is done by MCCID Alumna and one of the best deaf graduates we have, Ms. Dianne Barcelona Salazar. She currently works at Link Center for the Deaf. Cheers!

Interpreting from a Cellphone

May 7, 2013 in Deaf Experiences, Interpreting Issues. Leave a Comment
Tags: Jerome Marzan, Jonah Gucila, mark joseph quijano

One of my deaf students tagged me in her Facebook photo. In one of our House Visits wherein we interview the families of our deaf students in the comfort of their homes, a hearing parent who works in Dubai requested me to interpret her message appealing to her daughter to focus more on her studies. Since I cannot sign while holding the phone, one of my students volunteered to hold it for me. Cool!

Have you thanked your interpreters today?

April 30, 2013 in Deaf Experiences, Interpreting Issues, Sign Language. Leave a Comment
Tags: Deafness, facebook, Joshua Jones, Labor Day, Language interpretation, Philippines, Seattle, Sign Language

One of my Facebook friends and now my “kumare” since I’m the Godson of her baby daughter Dean Nicky Templo – Perez of College of St. Benilde, tagged me in his post about sign language interpreter’s day.  I didn’t know there is one? It turns out that Mr. Joshua Jones, a deaf-blind from Seattle, created a Facebook Group Account called “Official Interpreter Appreciation Day 2013” honoring sign language interpreters.  I was approved as a member a few minutes ago.

This is what appears on their page which currently has more than 1,800 members:

We should show our appreciation to the interpreters. They work hard to help people to communicate via different languages. It is time for us to give the shout outs for their hard works. We did the polls here. We decided to do first Monday of May every year. May 1st will be our very first official Interpreter Appreciation Day.

The group declared that:

We celebrate our nurses on May 6, our Armed Forces on May 18, our teachers on May 7, and even our bosses on October 16. Today (Apr 24), it just so happens to be Administrative Professionals Day. But what about appreciation for the nimble-fingered professionals who break down communication barriers with the hearing world?

I have been a sign language interpreter in the Philippines since 1991. I love this work, although most of the time, I considered this as a thankless career. Living in a developing country such as the Philippines, sign language interpreters are “thought” to be just a helper or “Personal Assistant” of a deaf person and not a service provider. Interpreting, from the perspective of my countrymen, is not a profession but rather a mission or vocation and you must not expect any compensation from your work except, the “crown in heaven”.  View my entire post on another blog here.

That is why our Deaf citizens who are in need of interpreters are often being served by half-baked, unskilled and even unprofessional interpreters. Their reason for not rendering a better service is that they do this for free so don’t expect an excellent work.

My primary goal in blogging for the past five years is in order for people to become more aware and sensitive about the needs of the deaf while at the same time appreciate the work being done by service providers like us TERPS.

Deafview.com has a wonderful list of suggestions a deaf person might want to do in order to show his appreciation to his sign language interpreter. Come visit their page. Among those are educating your friends about what sign language interpreter does, small gifts or flowers and vlog them.

So it’s “official”. Sign Language Interpreter’s Day will be held every 1st Wednesday of May. Since the first Wednesday falls on May 1, which fittingly coincides with my country’s Labor Day, then, May 1, 2013 is SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETERS‘ DAY. Happy TERPS Day to all my colleagues in the sign language interpreting world.

Government health workers in Metro Manila given sign language training

April 24, 2013 in Filipino Sign Language, Notable Filipino Deaf Institution, Notable Filipino Helping the Deaf, Sign Language. Leave a Comment
Tags: CAP College Foundation

This is a repost from Business Mirror.

THE regional office of the Department of Health (DOH) started on Wednesday training health-care providers on Basic Filipino Sign Language (BFSL) for them to use in communicating and understanding patients in health-care facilities with hearing disabilities.

“This is the first phase of our development program for our health workers who are involved with patients with disabilities [PWDs]. We want to make health services to better serve those who have disabilities and make it easier for them to go to a health center and tell a health worker what they need without worries,” Regional Director Eduardo Janairo said.

Janairo said the training will also increase their knowledge and understanding about PWDs and how they can improve their attitudes towards patients who are disabled.

“These improvements are not so difficult or expensive to do. All we need is determination and dedication and the proper skill to make it possible,” Janairo emphasized.

The first batch of trainees will be provided with a module that will familiarize them with the basic signs for communication with deaf patients. These includes the alphabet, numbers, greetings, time, days, months and commonly asked questions inside the emergency room. After memorizing simple gestures and facial expressions, trainees can interact with hearing impaired patients.

Among the 25 participants included in the training are health workers from the Lung Center of the Philippines, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Philippine Heart Center, Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital, Las Piñas General and Satellite Trauma Center, San Lorenzo Ruiz Women’s Hospital, Valenzuela Medical Center,  San Lazaro Hospital, Ospital ng Makati, Mandaluyong City Medical Center, Philippine General Hospital and Region 4A.

Media practitioners from the Philippine News Agency, Philippine Information Agency, LOQAL.ph-Filquest Media Concepts and Public Information Office of Marikina were also invited to join the training.

The DOH-NCR launched the first BFSL Module for Health Workers on November 13, 2012, with the objective of educating health workers with basic sign language for them to better communicate and understand deaf patients in their care.

It was developed through the support of the University of the University of the Philippines-PGH, CAP College for the Deaf, De La Salle University’s College of Saint Benilde and the Department of Education-National Capital Region.

Janairo said health workers provide treatment and care to many people daily and some patients are not fortunate to communicate the normal way.

“We want to help the patient but we do not speak his language and he on his part cannot convey to us what he needs. Some of these patients are not accompanied by relatives. That is why it is imperative for us educate ourselves with their language to be able to communicate with them and give them the proper health care treatment,” he added

“We will extend this training to all health providers in the region until most health workers are taught how to communicate using signs. This skill is essential as we do not want to commit errors and prescribe the wrong treatment just because we lack the knowledge to communicate with our patients,” Janairo added.