Quote:
Originally Posted by AquaBlue
Etoile, do not look at what I said in the negative. interpreter said that a hearie needs to have thick skin. That automatically tells me that the Deaf are easily angered by what seems to be, as you said, insensitive, comments/actions of the hearing people. So are they (Deaf folks) sensitive to what hearies say or do about them?
Understand?
I never meant anything bad by it...unless, of course, this is another one of those needed adjustments on my part (I think not in this case).
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I still don't understand your question, I'm afraid. It still seems insensitive, or at least misinformed, to me. But I think I see where you're coming from, anyway.
I think you misunderstood the statement. The "school of hard knocks" comment wasn't meant to refer to how deaf people treat hearing people or vice versa. It was about how consumers of interpreting services treat interpreters. This applies to deaf and hearing consumers alike. It's a customer service oriented profession, and you can't learn in a classroom how to serve every individual customer. Yes, deaf people sometimes criticize interpreters, but it's based on their skills as an interpreter, not based on being a hearing person.
I think the key flaw in your question is that there is no way to answer it in general terms. Yes, some deaf people are sensitive. So are some hearing people. So are some blind people, or black people, or disabled people, or gay people. It's important to treat deaf people like you would treat any other person, with courtesy and respect.
Does the place you are taking ASL also offer Deaf Studies classes, or deaf culture 101, or anything like that? It sounds like you would benefit from them. You might want to pick up the book "For Hearing People Only" from Amazon or something - it's a good start for understanding deaf culture. Also, don't be shy about asking your ASL teacher where you can socialize with deaf people!