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Hello. My name is Erin McCluskey.
This is a Wee BSL Blethers video on role models.
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You will see I have somebody with me.
Could you introduce yourself please?
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My name is Margaret McLean.
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Marvellous! Do you have a sign name, Margaret?
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Just MML.
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I’ll call you this sign name today if
that’s alright? Okay. So I am going to
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interview Margaret about her childhood.
Find out what it was like for her growing up,
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getting her first job and so on.
I’m really looking forward to finding out more.
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Margaret, firstly, can I ask what it
was like for you growing up?
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Well I come from a Deaf family so BSL
was used every day at home.
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I only have a ran into issues outside
of home, with hearing people.
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It did make me a bit reluctant to mix.
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So growing up things were pretty easy
and comfortable in terms of accessible
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communication, at home at least?
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Easy, yes. Everybody signed every day
within my family so there were no issues at all.
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So your family were all Deaf then?
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Yes.
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Parents? Your siblings?
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Yes, all Deaf.
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And were you all close?
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Yes, we were a close family I would
say, because of BSL. I was closest to
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my father because he would tell me
a lot of stuff. I think he was my
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role model growing up.
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How lovely. Your dad was your role model.
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Yes.
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He encouraged and supported you growing up?
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Yes.
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Marvellous. And that’s a perfect link into
what I want to ask you about next
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because I want to talk about school.
When you first went to school, what was it like?
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I first went to a local school. One I could
walk to from home. I think it was only about
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five minutes away. My parents wanted
me to go there so I was nearby.
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They did not want to send me away
to boarding school.
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Unfortunately, the focus was very much
on speaking and listening so my parents
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eventually decided to send me to a
school in Glasgow where they used sign language.
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Makes sense. So your parents decided
to remove you from that local school
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because it did not suit you and they
had to send you away.
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Were you happy at your school in Glasgow?
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It was okay. They used sign language
there, but the teachers couldn’t really
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sign very well. They would speak and
throw in a few signs here in there, but not many.
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And at that time I guess sign language was
very much seen as undesirable, am I right?
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Yes. It was a long time ago now and there
were very old-fashioned views.
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There was no real awareness of the
language or its importance.
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I think things are very different now of course.
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Yes.
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So, thinking about school, what was your
favourite topic and what did
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you really hate learning about?
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I really loved arithmetic. Nobody calls it
that anymore. It’s become maths hasn’t it.
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But we used to call it arithmetic.
