{"id":2932,"date":"2020-02-21T09:23:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T09:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mta-tkk.hu\/?p=2932"},"modified":"2020-02-21T09:23:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T09:23:00","slug":"ivan-vasak-passed-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edulingua.net\/edupage\/2020\/02\/21\/ivan-vasak-passed-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Iv\u00e1n Vas\u00e1k passed away"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Iv\u00e1n Vas\u00e1k<\/strong>
1945 \u2013 2020<\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The\ncolleagues of the Research Centre for Multilingualism of the Research Institute\nfor Linguistics were greatly saddened and grieved by the news that Iv\u00e1n Vas\u00e1k\npassed away at the age of 75. He was a former general secretary of the Hungarian\nAssociation of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, fighting for Deaf people\u2019s right\nto their mother tongue, for the ratification of Hungarian Sing Language. He\ninitiated and spearheaded the struggle that has been going on for decades for\nbilingual education. He was a champion athlete and sports leader. His passing\naway is a huge loss to the Hungarian and international Deaf community, to the\nworld of sports, to the experts of sign language research and education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was among\nthe first Deaf rights activists, who contributed to the identity shaping\nprocess of the Hungarian Deaf community, raising awareness to Deaf rights and\nstrengthening them within the community and in society as a whole. He fought\nalongside Deaf and hearing people for the cause with great faith and\nperseverance, step by step, or by applying radical solutions when necessary, to\nensure the visibility of the marginalised and to advocate for them, to shed\nlight on the political and societal responsibilities. He has worked tirelessly\nfor years, his efforts manifested in the proposal and ratification of the Sign\nLanguage Act of 2009. He initiated the research of Hungarian Sign Language and\npublished fundamental books, such as Theory\nand methodology of sign language, About the Deaf, or The world through the Deaf\nperspective. <\/em>With an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and understanding he\ncontinuously searched for the place, roles and tasks of his community.  He learned continuously, received a degree, redefined\nhis and the association\u2019s responsibility and role with regard to Deaf history,\nculture, the Deaf and the hearing world, and the Deaf-integrated in-Hearing and Hearing-integrated\nin-Deaf world.\nHe fought especially hard for Deaf children\u2019s future, opportunities,\neducation, the nurturing of their talents, sports. For his Deaf brothers and\nsisters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iv\u00e1n Vas\u00e1k\nwas a pioneer. His understanding on what it is \u201cto be Deaf\u201d, his thoughts were\ninnovative, modern, complex, and reflexive. The foundation of his critical\nunderstanding was rooted in a life well lived from within, a visual perception\nof the world, a culturally natural, complex yet diverse Deaf identity that is\nrooted in shared history, traditions, activities, and communicational modes.\nHis approach reflected his knowledge on both the Deaf and the hearing world,\nthe naturalness of equal opportunities and mutual acceptance, and another\ncornerstone: sign language and its use as the most natural and innate source\nfor Deaf people in the same way and with equal rights to the spoken language\nuse of hearing people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He made his\nfinal reckoning a couple of months ago:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI consistently fought for the recognition of Sign Language as a real\nand independent language. In my work, I emphasised the cultural importance of\nDeafness, highlighting our belonging to a language minority, rather than the disability\naspects pertaining to deafness. It was a struggle, but I successfully managed\nto organise water polo\nat the international level, and contributed to the development and continuation\nof the Deaf sports community.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nconsistent \u2013 slowly becoming\ngentler from year to year \u2013 fight defined his work philosophy. The\nResearch Institute for Linguistics, and colleagues that later founded the\nResearch Centre for Multilingualism have worked with Iv\u00e1n Vas\u00e1k since the\nbeginning. With his help and support the world of research learned how to\ninvolve stakeholders as equal partners in mutual learning, and in cooperative,\nsocially responsible research. Two decades ago they imagined and developed the\nfoundations of bilingual education of Deaf children together (the word\n\u201cbilingv\u00e1lis\u201d was kept as the official term to honour him). It is an efficient\nmodel that builds on full accessibility and interoperability between worlds,\nexperts worldwide have thought of similar models. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Iv\u00e1n\nVas\u00e1k\u2019s passing, we have lost a brilliant expert, a fellow warrior, a\nrole-model true to his beliefs. It is with deep sadness and a heavy heart that\nwe say goodbye to him and share the grief of his family and the Deaf community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Csilla Bartha and colleagues<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n