I have to agree with Shel90. Why do we have to communicate with hearing people/family members who refused to learn sign language with us? They expected us to talk to them orally. That was a one-way street connection to the hearing family members because we get lost or left out for not understanding what they are talking about. They did not take the time to communicate with us by signing or writing down on papers if we don't understand what the conversation was taking place. If I asked what are they talking about and one or another told me "never mind". That really pissed me off but I managed to keep it bottle up and not show my feeling of emotion. If I had a conversation with my Mom or Dad. That will work okay, but not in a group. I had asked my family mostly my mom and my dad if they can learn sign language to communicate with me. They said "no", because I talked and I can lipread well but to me it is not one hundred percent accurate to understand someone's lips. I asked my sister if she can learned sign language with me. She said she will try but I learned later that she can only fingerspell but not sign the sign language like See or ASL. When I am with hearing people especially family members, I still get left out. I am only lucky that I have a hearing son who is in his 30ish and still able to sign ASL with me. I taught him to sign when he was a toddler. We communicate better with signs than oral. Of course I talked oral with him sometimes. He never left me out and I am very happy with him. But orally with family members, the answer is no.
