Being profoundly deaf, growing up in Hong Kong to performing alongside the Wiggles with Elvin Lam
In this week's episode, I had the humbling pleasure of speaking with dancer and performer Elvin Lam. We have an interpreter for our interview with Elvin as he is profoundly deaf and uses Auslan for communication.
We discuss growing up in Hong Kong and how he did his best navigating through the mainstream education system. We highlight Elvin’s passion for movement and performing arts, which has seen him train in figure skating and various forms of dance both traditional and contemporary. His meeting with Emma from The Wiggles, has led him to feature in their stage shows and DVD’s. Elvin also shares finding love and his hopes for having his own photography business. However, since this interview, Elvin has now been working alongside Emma in singing, dance and sign videos and national tours.
Let’s get into this truly inspiring interview.
Links:
Follow @thebraingamechanger on Instagram
Email: thebraingamechanger@gmail.com
Follow Elvin Lam @elvinlam12 and @elvinmelvinofficial
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Melissa Gough 0:05
Welcome to The Brain Game Changer, where heartfelt stories, awareness and education can change the game. My name is Melissa and in each episode, I talk with inspiring humans and organisations from across the globe, who share significant adversities, triumphs after tragedy, and those game changing moments to provide you with some useful tools and resources to take with you into your everyday life.
In this week's episode, I had the humbled pleasure of speaking with dancer and performer Elvin Lam. We have an interpreter for our interview with Elvin as he is profoundly deaf and uses Auslan for communication. We discussed growing up in Hong Kong, and how he did his best navigating through the mainstream education system. We highlight Elvin's passion for movement and performing arts and how that has steered him in the direction of meeting with Emma from The Wiggles, which then led him to feature in their stage shows and DVDs. Elvin also shares finding love and his hopes for having his own photography business. However, I must say since this interview, Elvin has also been working alongside Emma in singing, dance, and sign videos, as well as national tours. Let's get into this truly inspiring interview.
Melissa Gough 1:25
Good evening, Elvin and welcome to The Brain Game Changer podcast. It is great to have you with us.
Elvin / Interpreter 1:30
I'm really excited to be here. Let's see what happens.
Melissa Gough 1:35
This is a real first for me, and I'm just really honoured that you allowed me the opportunity to speak with you and to give our listeners a little bit of a lens of what it's like in your world.
Elvin / Interpreter 1:48
That sounds great. Yeah, I'm happy to share that and to give some insight into what it's like to be deaf.
Melissa Gough 1:55
Can you tell us where you're born? A little bit about your upbringing, and what growing up as a small boy, and even in the education system was like for you being profoundly deaf?
Elvin / Interpreter 2:09
Sure. I was born in Hong Kong. I was born profoundly deaf. I was diagnosed as a baby after one particular incident where I was playing with dolls, a plate dropped and smashed, and I didn't turn around or react. At this point, mum took me to a doctor, we did some hearing tests and found that I was profoundly deaf. At that point, my mum panicked a bit, there'd been no people with disability or deaf people in our family. She had to look into the best way to educate me and raise me as a deaf person. At that point, when the parent is sort of floundering a bit for advice, it's a professional who gives them the suggestions. The professionals said, "oh, you should raise your child with speech and lip reading and hearing aids and go to a mainstream school." So that's what we did. I was taught to use speech and lip reading. But, that experience was very difficult for me, being with hearing people having a teacher using speech, I wasn't getting everything. When the other children were playing together in the playground, or when we were doing sport, instead, I had to go to speech therapy sessions. So I missed out on that opportunity for social connection with other kids. I am talking about primary school at this stage, and yeah, that was a really difficult time. I was studying Chinese language, Cantonese, and English, and also Mandarin. I found these languages really difficult, my mum could only support me with Cantonese. I was getting additional support from her at home after school in Cantonese, but she didn't know English or Mandarin. I failed those subjects, English and Mandarin, and the music subject. The teacher had said, "you're deaf, you can sing," it doesn't matter! I was encouraged to make sounds, but the other kids were laughing. I had no idea what I sounded like, and I ended up with very bad marks in a lot of failed subjects, and I attribute that to the barriers around being deaf in a mainstream school.
Melissa Gough 4:42
Elvin, thank you for giving us an insight through the first couple of years of your life. There's many layers to it. Obviously, your journey in school and being around other children and trying to discover the world through the way that you were, it must have been very confusing for you. As part of your process in education, you were given the support of speech therapy. However, the times when they used to organise these sessions or lessons, were usually around the time of the PE or sports lessons. As you described, this was a subject that required less verbal communication and was physical. You thought it was an opportunity where you could succeed more, that must have been really hard for you, because you liked sports. What sports did you like, at the time when you're young?
Elvin / Interpreter 5:40
When I was young, I loved to play badminton. I wasn't particularly good as a student, and in terms of socialising, with the other kids as well, communication barriers. So team sports were tricky, because they require a lot of social connection and communication, but I felt with badminton, at least I can play by myself without needing that social connection and communication.
Melissa Gough 6:11
You also describe that your mum used to take you to the ballet, and you fell in love with ballet, and you fell in love with movement and with dance. However, you were not encouraged to pursue this type of field. It was stated to you, ‘you can't hear the music, so how can you make a career out of it?’ Although your mum would allow you to go ice skating, and you found it funny that your mum would say yes to ice skating, but not yes to dancing. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey getting into ice skating?
Elvin / Interpreter 6:46
Yeah, I can. I was around eight years old, and you're right, my mum said, ‘you won't be able to hear the music. ‘You can't go to dance class, and I sort of put it out of my mind at the time. It was some years later as a teenager, maybe 16/17 years old, that my mum was looking in a brochure about an ice skating centre, and she thought it might be just something to do for fun. I don't think she was thinking of it as a serious thing for me, but more of a time killer through the summer holidays. I wanted to go, I had another friend who was deaf who also communicated using speech and lip reading, and they agreed to come with me. We went to a class where the teacher was really good, and we were able to communicate. As you said earlier about sport, it's very visual. So you're watching people and copying them, and over time, I asked mum if she would consider paying for me to go for some classes. She said, "Well, you're a teenager, you're almost an adult, it's okay for you to pursue this, if that's what you want." So I did get seriously into ice skating at that time.
Melissa Gough 8:10
I'm going to segue where ice skating took you a little bit later into the interview. Elvin, you state high school in Hong Kong was hard. This is where you're also becoming aware of your sexuality, and when you were feeling scared of not being accepted, you weren't getting exposed to education workshops or support groups or discussions about, I guess, sex education and homosexuality. This was the time where you knew you were having feelings for other boys, but could not fully understand why. Can you give us a little bit of an idea about what that time was like for you?
Elvin / Interpreter 8:50
I think, questions for me started at the age of 16. I wasn't sure whether I was attracted to boys or girls, I felt that I was more attracted to boys. I mean, I knew what it meant to be gay. But you're right, I didn't know much more than that. There were no support groups, I certainly wasn't connected to gay community. I think at the time the gay community was living in the shadows in Hong Kong, it was a secretive world. But yeah, I was connected to the deaf community, which is small in Hong Kong, and the gay and lesbian community is perhaps even smaller, so the overlap is tiny. Most of those older, deaf, gay and lesbians, they would have been over 30. They were quite 'out' and they were giving the message that I should be 'out' too. We should all be proud and not hide, but I wasn't ready to come out, and that was part of my motivation to move to Australia. I thought that the culture here was more open and I could be away from of my family a little bit and explore what it meant to be gay. That was certainly how things went for me, I found my first boyfriend here, and I was continuing with the ice skating. This was the year 2000, where Australia was hosting the Gay Games, and I thought I can enter as a figure skater and I was lucky enough to get a silver, and a bronze medal in two different figure skating events. So I wasn't expecting that, to be honest!
Elvin / Interpreter 9:05
What an amazing achievement as hearing people or the community, we don't know what this lens is like. You do figure skating, competing against athletes who are able hearers. Is there music playing during your routine? How does it all work?
Elvin / Interpreter 10:52
Definitely,very challenging! I mean, I can't hear the music. If I was at home, and I had the music on, I could hear it a little bit. But for whatever reason, when I'm on the rink, I couldn't hear a thing. I couldn't tie my jumps or spins to the music. So I would need a visual signal. We would have a coach gesture with their hand that it was time to start as soon as the music started, and then I would just go and hope that it matched. I would often find out afterwards whether I had been on time or not. Sometimes I could hear that the music had stopped. But often I didn't even hear that, and I went past the point when the music had finished. So it's hard. It's really hard to gauge the speed without those cues. But you know, it was fun for me. I really enjoyed it.
Melissa Gough 11:47
I'm hearing perseverance. I'm hearing determination and just the will to give things a go and to challenge yourself.
Elvin / Interpreter 11:55
Yeah, I believe we should stand up for ourselves,we should give anything a go, and deaf people can do things, I guess that's my philosophy. The only thing we can't do is hear, sometimes we need a little support, but competing with hearing figure skaters for me was just that, it was my life.
Melissa Gough 12:16
That's amazing!
Melissa Gough 12:24
I know when we met you mentioned that you also got a cochlear implant. Can you share with us how old you were when you got it? Did things change for you? Also, one thing that I want to make clear is I'm not here to tell anybody what they should and shouldn't do in their personal circumstances in regards to hearing. This is just a conversation to share the experience of what it was like there Elvin.
Elvin / Interpreter 12:53
So I was 19 years old, I was studying at college. My mom had heard from some medical professional about this new technology, the cochlear implant, and had suggested I might want to try it. I mean, given the message at the time, which was that I'd be almost like a hearing person, I thought, I'll give it a go, and it was a big operation. Afterwards, I was covered in blood all down the back and side of my head, my neck and my shoulder. I couldn't rest my head on the pillow on that side for a month. But, after the operation heals, you turn it on, and you can start your training. So I have a hearing aid on my left ear and a cochlear on my right, yeah. Then, you get used to the sounds of what a doorbell sounds like? What does a voice sound like? What do footsteps sound like? Those are things that I hadn't really heard before, as well as certain speech sounds. The high pitch speech sounds like the S, the F the T sounds, and so I am certainly hearing more than I had before, however I was getting terrible headaches.
My brain wasn't used to getting this much input from the ear, they put it on a low level, and slowly they turn it up. However,what I found was that it didn't end up giving me better comprehension of speech. I did try and I asked people to speak slowly, I did the training, but it didn't really improve my comprehension of speech, which is the main thing that the cochlear implant is offering. I tried it for a few years when I was studying. I studied at RMIT but it wasn't working for me and I haven't really used it since I prefer to use my hearing aid these days. So my other ear it's a little bit more comfortable for me in regard to your comments about other people. I have seen it work for people typically if it's implanted young, but yeah, it didn't end up being right for me.
Melissa Gough 15:02
So this occurs when you're 19, you go through the process of recovery, you have also started really feeling your desires and your urge in different types of movement and dance. Can you tell us about the next couple of years? What were you studying at RMIT? What sort of dance were you learning? Because I mean, I've got the list here. It's quite a big list. It's amazing. However, I want to hear it through your lens.
Elvin / Interpreter 15:33
Yeah, absolutely. You remember that my mum had said no to dance classes. This was back in Hong Kong. I'd started studying at college in Hong Kong, it was set design and costume design,so it was theatre related skills. Obviously, I couldn't do the sound design that was also part of the course. But I think this was probably my link back into dance because I was in the theatre world and was around dancers. I did some dance for fun ballet, contemporary Chinese dance, and some other styles. But I only did three classes in each style at that time. It was just about having some fun getting the basics. What I found to my surprise was that I was able to keep up with the hearing dancers, it actually wasn't as hard as my mum and I had imagined. I was really disappointed when those introductory classes came to an end.
When I moved to Australia, and I was focusing on ice skating, I hadn't taken up the dance beyond that introduction I'd done in Hong Kong. But a friend of mine who is deaf was doing a style called, Le Bop. So I joined this friend again, just for fun and for company and learned this dance style and life took over. I didn't pursue dance even then, it was quite a late age, before I really got into it. I'd been looking in a newspaper, saw something about ballet classes, sent an email to inquire, and they said you won't be able to participate because you're deaf and you can't hear the music. So I contacted a few other schools, and I got the same response! I am not the kind of person that gives up easily, so I eventually did find a ballet teacher willing to accept me in their class. That was a real confidence boost for me once they'd been given their sort of stamp of approval, I was going regularly to classes, I really enjoyed it. At the time, there was a deaf dance group set up in Melbourne called Deaf Can Dance.d It’s deaf community connections, and they knew that I was interested, so I got involved in this new group. We were doing hip hop at the time.
Melissa Gough 18:04
Wow!
Elvin / Interpreter 18:05
We were performing, and at this stage, I think this is when I really felt like I had become really connected to the dance world. We moved on to ballroom contemporary and other styles, yeah, we learned everything. It was an enormous learning curve, and great to be in a group where they were all deaf dancers, it morphed into another group called The Delta Project, which included deaf dancers and hearing dancers. There was a deaf hip hop dancer who's very skilled, there was a deaf choreographer from the UK, who made some performance pieces that we performed. We had some hearing choreographers and hearing professional dancers, which helped us all learn from them as well. This was about mentoring and sharing skills. And yeah, I've kept it up from then until now.
Melissa Gough 19:02
Thank you so much, Elvin. Thank you for sharing all that wonderful insight into what it was like for you. When you were learning these different forms of dance, were you working in paid employment? Were you eligible to get any funding? Were you able to get any supportive services as part of your journey?
Elvin / Interpreter 19:26
So I've worked full time through this whole period and still do, which yeah, it's demanding, finding the time, after hours and weekends, taking time off work to do performances. It was funded on and off with projects, so we'd get arts grants, and we would have interpreters, we'd have mentorships and this helped my ballet skills. The one on one was actually working better for me than a group. I am watching the teacher, and you know, trying to keep up but having that one on one that follows my pace and communication needs, really polishes some of the rough edges up. I became a much more technical dancer from those one on one sessions.
Melissa Gough 20:15
It's brilliant that those one to one sessions became available and helped you sort of continue excelling in your skills. I'm going to bring up something else that we talked about, you said your dream was to attend the Australian Ballet however you felt you were too old at 29! Although looking at you now, I mean, what a beautiful face! When I met you, you just have this energy and you have this gift to make everyone else around you feel really comfortable, and you certainly don't look your age, you look 20 years younger than your age! I'm going to ask you, you had the opportunity to work alongside Emma Watkins, who was the yellow Wiggle? However, she's now taking a step back into a new direction and new projects, you would have to be hiding under a rock, if you have not heard of the Wiggles! Everybody has heard of the Wiggles no matter what age you are, there is an awareness. Can you explain to us how that opportunity came about to work with her?
Elvin / Interpreter 21:20
It was a coincidence, actually. It was through the ballet mentorship that we were just referring to, because Emma has a background in ballet and dance as well, and an interest in Auslan. She was looking for a deaf dancer, she was based in Sydney and couldn't find anyone but knew my ballet teacher, she said, "oh, I have just the person for you, " and she made the introduction. Emma was doing a show at the Sydney Festival, and had invited some people with disabilities to perform alongside her, so I got the invitation and agreed to it. I was really interested in this opportunity just as a one off, but from that she invited me to perform alongside The Wiggles which of course, I was thrilled to do. It led to a number of other performances, both with The Wiggles and with Emma in some other capacities. I wasn't sure before meeting her whether we'd be able to communicate, but in fact, her Auslan is great, and we got along brilliantly. We were able to dispense with interpreters and really work together on creating some choreography together. We did a dance show at the Sydney Festival, which was amazing. Just to be able to talk with another performer without going through interpreters just felt so light and easy, and the energy really propelled us through the show. We did some circus performances, and it was really popular with audiences.
After the Sydney Festival, I did some filming with The Wiggles, which was a great experience. For that, we had interpreters. I was given a script and lyrics to a song, and we talked about what the words might mean, how we might translate that into Auslan, and keep it appropriate for children so that we're using the right sort of bright and simple language in Auslan. I'm on a couple of Wiggles DVDs, and I'm really proud to be part of it. It's one of these things where you don't set out to make a connection, but when one lands in your lap, you make the most of it. We've become good friends, we keep in touch now, and I'm sure that when another project comes up, she will, you know, give me a wave and I'll go up to Sydney and work on it with her.
Melissa Gough 23:57
I love the fact that she's got an invested interest in Auslan in the deaf community. Is that something that she's always been interested in or she has a personal connection to the deaf community from a personal experience. It's so amazing that she's advocating and promoting amazing artists and performers to shine and showcase their work.
Elvin / Interpreter 24:20
Yeah, it is. The connection for her started in childhood. She had a neighbour who was deaf and they became friends. So she grew up with a little bit of Auslan and retained it and retained the interest. She had a connection to the deaf community. As you say she is a bit of an advocate for disability inclusion and for visibility of Auslan. She saw the opportunity with The Wiggles to really bring that into what they do so that deaf and disabled kids can enjoy their work as well. So yeah, it's interesting to think of her as an advocate like you say and I've noticed that all the videos include Auslan in some form.
Melissa Gough 25:04
That's amazing that this has created that foundation going forward. You mentioned earlier about using the appropriate Auslan language for young children, and you've also explained the connection for Emma when she was younger. I'm also going to share the story, which I think I've already explained to you.
Before I had my brain haemorrhage, back in 2021, I was teaching full time, as a primary school teacher. I remember I was teaching Year One. In the morning, we would do circle time and say good morning to each other, and we would look at each other and say,"good morning." I had this beautiful assistant Chris, who would come in and help support the teachers with some of the children and support some of the children who needed it with their work and their social interactions. Chris, and one of my children went to say, "good morning, Chris." She responded in sign language, and I asked the class, what do you think's happening? One of my other students said, "I know, she's using sign language," and made a connection about how his dad has some friends who use Auslan sign language. This spearheaded us into a year long project of Chris starting to teach the children Auslan sign language. They learned how to say their name, how to say good morning, how are you, how to say numbers, days of the week. Also, as part of our end of year performance, we learnt the lyrics of the chorus to Elton John's, I'm Still Standing, because it's been a crazy year with COVID. It was so beautiful! The kids were going home and telling the parents, they were so excited, they were so curious to learn, there was nothing about it being different, or were different, everyone was the same, and we were all learning together and parents were coming in a ecstatic. I feel like it personally needs to be taught in all education settings.
Elvin / Interpreter 27:18
I have heard that at least the Victoria State Government has been really supportive in the last few years of Auslan as a LOTE so there's some funding for early childhood Auslan and Primary School Auslan. I think the issue at the moment is a shortage of teachers who are proficient in Auslan, but hopefully we will see more of that, as the language gets more exposure and more recognition. If it gets some official status that might enable the funding to flow. I mean, I'd really love to see more kids signing. Like you say, and to just have Auslan on an equal status with French or German or whatever they're learning in schools, I think it's really really valuable in case they come across a deaf person, because that's going to be the language that they will use to communicate.
Melissa Gough 28:09
So, true. Even though I went through my adversity last year, the thirst and the interest and the curiosity, it's still a lifelong goal for me to learn Auslan. After that experience that I had with Chris and the children in my class, it's still ingrained in me, and it's still a goal for me to learn it. I think it's beautiful. And we can learn so much.
Elvin / Interpreter 28:34
Yeah, that's great. I really encourage you too and the government in Victoria has announced free Auslan courses in TAFE. So get onto it!
Melissa Gough 28:42
I sort of heard something along those lines, but now that you've confirmed that, that's really exciting. I also want to share it through the lens of being neurodiverse, because I've got a brain injury. According to research, learning a new language is so valuable for your brain and cognitive functioning.
Elvin / Interpreter 29:05
I'm not aware of the research, but it sounds great. And any language is just going to enrich your life.
Melissa Gough 29:11
So true, Auslan. Let's do it. Let's get it happening!
Melissa Gough 29:19
I'm going to segue a little bit more into a personal lens. You met your partner, David, a couple of years ago, and this is your first relationship with a hearing abled partner. What was that experience like for you starting to date and then establish a relationship in that type of scenario?
Elvin / Interpreter 29:41
It was really challenging at first. There are a lot of cultural issues and language issues and dating was just really, really tricky. I was learning Auslan at the time, and I felt a little embarrassed to be seen to be signing with other deaf friends and I just wasn't connecting with the hearing gay community. Like in Hong Kong, there is an overlap, there's a deaf and gay community and I met all of them, one of them became my boyfriend. So that's the only other relationship I've really had. When that ended, I thought, I'm a little bit better in terms of Australian culture and communication, and I might try again with a hearing boyfriend.
I went on the dating apps, and not only as a deaf person, but as an Asian guy, I found that I wasn't getting a lot of interest or people would, when I would then say that I'm deaf in a message, because that wasn't in my profile, they would end the conversation or back off. I think that the word 'deaf' means different things to different people. They might be thinking, "oh, I just speak loudly,"and you know, 'I will just use my hands a bit, and we'll be fine." For me, it's about writing notes, and using written communication, which isn't always super romantic. So yeah, it was really challenging to make connections with hearing guys, but you know, eventually I did. I think we were both a little unsure at first, but as we started talking, he made it clear that my being deaf wasn't an issue for him. I thought, oh, you know, people say this, but we'll see. We'll see! We met, and he had brought a laptop to facilitate our communication. He'd already learnt a couple of signs from YouTube, he could say, 'how are you' and 'thank you', which was a great sign. We had a conversation while typing on his laptop, and it just seemed to me that he was serious about coming halfway through the communication gap, and yeah, we fell in love.
He started learning Auslan formally last year, he was doing it online, because classes weren't meeting face to face. He studied at Melbourne Polytechnic at TAFE, doing Certificate 3 in Auslan. It certainly helped our communication at home, I mean, writing all the time has its limits. So yeah, it's much better, the more we can use Auslan, the better it is, for us as a couple.
Elvin / Interpreter 32:26
It's a beautiful story about, you know, relationships that need to meet halfway and compromise, and I think that's important in all relationships, whether you're hearing impaired, or deaf or other factors, it's just an important value that you've highlighted, and thank you for sharing that. David's parents have also started learning Auslan and the family are teaching the grandkids and the nieces, that is just so beautiful. That is just so encouraging, and so accepting.
Elvin / Interpreter 32:55
It is! His family are lovely, they are very accepting, and they've really taken Auslan on board. His sister and his mum signed with the kids, there's a two or three year old who's already signing, it's super cute. In the early days, whenever we were around his family, he'd be interpreting for me, and helping us communicate. So that also takes the pressure off. The more that they are used to communicating with me, the more they can sign. It's really interesting that the family of a hearing partner will learn to sign but my own family wouldn't and expect me to communicate using speech and lip reading. I always felt like I was falling short or like I wasn't doing enough, but yeah, sign language is the thing for me.
Melissa Gough 33:45
Yeah, it's amazing that you now feel that you feel embraced by your partner's family, and everyone wants to come together and communicate effectively for everyone, so everyone feels comfortable. It's a natural organic process of correspondence. You met David about three years ago, and then after that, in the last couple of years, we've had COVID. You know, we've had the pandemic, the lockdown and the mandatory government requirements. Having the daily news reports, it created the opportunity for interpreters to be used on a daily basis by doing sign language, and if anything, through that sort of crazy time, it created more awareness in that capacity. You know, I was having children come into school saying, "oh, there's always interpreters on the TV now." So it sort of created more awareness.
Elvin / Interpreter 34:38
Yeah, I agree. It was an amazing exposure for Auslan. There was a lot of news that needed to be made quickly and needed to connect to the deaf community, so they were really on to it. The interpreters on screen and I'm really appreciative that they did that. So this was right from the start, and my experience in terms of access to information, and it's better than it had ever been before.They used to live caption these things, but the captions are pretty inaccurate, and there was a big delay. It's just much more effective for the deaf community to get this news in Auslan. It was really amazing for all of us to see that too, and to feel included on an equal basis with the rest of society.
Elvin / Interpreter 35:28
The irony of having to go through a pandemic to raise that awareness!
Elvin / Interpreter 35:33
I agree. I know they should have done it long ago, like they have in other countries. Europe in particular is years ahead of us. You have interpreters on the nightly news routinely.
Melissa Gough 35:45
WOW!
Elvin / Interpreter 35:46
Yeah, Australia's a bit late to the party.
Melissa Gough 35:52
So David describes you Elvin, as generous, humble and persistent, you like to choose challenging things to show people that there's nothing a deaf person cannot do.
Elvin / Interpreter 36:03
I mean, that's his view! (Elvin laughs). It sounds nice to me! I can't see myself through his eyes, but it's nice to hear that feedback. I think he's thinking of my love for animals, I am concerned for their welfare and wellbeing. I like photography, and I guess I do listen to people when they have problems and try to be supportive. In terms of that determination, I would agree with that. He's seen me not let the barriers stop me from pursuing ice skating, dance, or whatever else. I for whatever reason, am a person that yeah, that doesn't give up. I persevere!
Melissa Gough 36:45
That has certainly come through. It's funny you also mentioned your love of animals. You are a proud fur baby father. Is it just one dog or two dogs that you have?
Elvin / Interpreter 36:57
Two
Melissa Gough 36:57
Two dogs! Tell us all about them because the photos you always put up of them. They're just adorable!
Elvin / Interpreter 37:04
Okay, so the first dog is named Blue. Blue has one blue eye and is a Maltese cross. He is 10 years old. The other dog is called Bugsy, and Bugsy is a Chihuahua, and is six years old.
Melissa Gough 37:20
Aww bless.
Elvin / Interpreter 37:21
I'm working on my photography skills, so the dogs have been great models for me. I've got a lot of great pictures of them, and I want to have a pet photography business one day. So whenever I get a chance, David and I will go to the country where we're going to a farm. I'll be always taking hundreds of photos of animals. Yeah, I love it.
Melissa Gough 37:44
That's awesome. What else is on the horizon for you? You've achieved such amazing things I almost see like it's almost like world domination! (chuckles).
Melissa Gough 37:51
Not sure if it's world domination, I want to travel, but I like where I am placed in the world. I recently got the Lesley Hall Scholarship for Disabled Artists. We'll be doing some more photography, some skill development there and working with a deaf photographer and a hearing photographer as mentors. I've only taken up photography in the last year or two, so it's still new to me. This scholarship is really going to help me pick up photography, do some visual art as well. I want to develop this pet photography business, so I guess they are the things on the cards for me over the next little while.
Melissa Gough 38:37
All right. Well, this is the final question that I asked everyone I have interviewed. The name of this podcast is called the Brain Game Changer, where heartfelt stories, awareness and education can change the game. If there's one piece of golden information that you could pass on to our listeners, what would it be?
Elvin / Interpreter 38:59
If I had any piece of advice, it would be that I hope people treat deaf people like they treat anyone else, and just keep in mind that deaf people can do anything.
Melissa Gough 39:12
That is such great advice. Elvin, thank you so much. It has been such a blessing and an honour to have you with us today. Thank you for also allowing me the opportunity. I'm also on this journey about learning more about the deaf community and Auslan and and I hope one day I can sit next to you, in front of you and be able to sign and have a conversation with you.
Elvin / Interpreter 39:36
I really hope so too.
Melissa Gough 39:38
All right. Thanks very much, Elvin.
Melissa Gough 39:42
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