Anybody deaf who can speak multiple languages?

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sheila022

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Hi everybody,

I am a deaf American-born Chinese myself raised in a Chinese speaking household (but family decided to teach/speak to me in English only) . I was implanted when I was 3 years old and had learned to speak English only at that time, but lately, I've started to learn to speak and listen in Chinese. Many times I wished my parents would teach me to speak Chinese when I was a lot younger because it's no fun when you go back to China and people randomly walk up to you in the street and ask me questions in Chinese and that there is a major language barrier between my grandmother, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, and cousins who can't speak English.

So, I'm planning to take Chinese classes at my college and see how it goes, although I do have some rudimentary knowledge of Chinese and are able to speak whatever I have passably, but I want to be able to speak Chinese near fluently. I also had 5 years of experience of learning Spanish in high school and excelling in it...but not much emphasis on conversational aspect in classes, so I just end up acing all of those paper translation/reading/writing part. (Chinese is soo much harder than Spanish!!!!)

I am wondering if there is anybody else deaf and oral who can speak another language fluently or near fluently besides English (no, I don't count ASL). Especially someone at older age like me and learning from scratch.
 
i can speak italian and a bit of french and spanish..how old are you?try rosetta stone chinese version...i've heard great things about their programs for the computer
 
My severe/profound deaf sister, wore hearing aids (no CIs) , can speak Spanish. She took 5 years of Spanish in middle/high school.
 
I took a semester of French in college. Did not become fluent, but was a bit more advanced than basic. It was a hell of a task to learn. I would go to my professor's office every week and work intensively on pronunciation. I failed all the listening tests. LOL. It was never as good as my ASL is now, but I did go to France and I could communicate with people and read signs and menus and directions and stuff. That was 5 years ago though. I've barely used it since and my hearing has gotten a lot worse.
 
Did 5 years of French at school and it was better than my english even in oral exams!! although not fluent since i haven't practiced for over 14 years. I do speak basic german in Austria. Can read french and german okayish.
 
My case is different as my hearing loss is only mild to moderate. But I can speak Chinese (Cantonese) but not read/write. I will probably try to learn Mandarin and how to write Chinese in the next year.
 
huh, i thought i had replied to this already, but i guess not.
I speak English and French and I'm learning ASL.
I grew up hearing and was in French Immersion (i am 'officially bilingual')
I can no longer understand french that is spoken to me, but if the person writes their question i can respond in french. My hearing no longer permits me to understand spoken french.
*EQL*
 
hearing people also like to talk about what they do for a living. But I was told that's an American thing. Other countries don't care what people do for a living, in fact some of them think it is rude.
 
I am moderately-severe to severely deaf, I speak some Thai and I find that learning to read first is a great help. My private tutor would write my conversation/dialogue lesson down as if it were a script. We would read it together. But unfortunately, I was only able to have a few months of lessons, she had to quit due to family matters. That is the extent of my foreign language learning. Having to learn it by "hearing and speaking" method as hearing people do, doesn't work for me. I have to get someone to write the word down first. Rosetta Stone is great because it uses all - written, audio, and visual aids. So, you can use the written and visual aids to learn.
 
I speak English, Spanish, Sanskrt and bits and peices of other languges like Pali and I am Deaf. I'd suggest taking Sanskrit to any Deafie since the pronunciation rules are so so well defined it will help with just about any other language. I had a very patient Prof for the Sanskrit in Uni, who just never realized learning a language while Deaf could be a problem. Sanskrit does interesting things like tell you where to put your tongue and whether to breathe or not breathe, and voice or not voice. It might take a while but it's difinately do-able !
 
when i drink enuff i speak a different language that only i understand. does that count?
 
DDU said:
when i drink enuff i speak a different language that only i understand. does that count?
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Or a Pentecostal deaf person (not me!) who spokes in different languages while praying... does that count, too??? :giggle:
 
I read and sign near fluently (self taught) in Danish. Speaking? Yes, but with a deaf accent. My first language is English. ASL is my second language.
 
AlleyCat said:
Oh! I didn't realize you were deaf.

(the title of this thread was "Anybody deaf who can speak multiple languages?")

Sorry I didn't realize that earlier.
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LOL...No, you are correct... I am not deaf...I misread the title of this thread...then again...I may also have misread the name of the website as well...sorry Sheila022...that's what I get for being on the internet at work :)
 
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BecLak said:
I am moderately-severe to severely deaf, I speak some Thai and I find that learning to read first is a great help. My private tutor would write my conversation/dialogue lesson down as if it were a script. We would read it together. But unfortunately, I was only able to have a few months of lessons, she had to quit due to family matters. That is the extent of my foreign language learning. Having to learn it by "hearing and speaking" method as hearing people do, doesn't work for me. I have to get someone to write the word down first. Rosetta Stone is great because it uses all - written, audio, and visual aids. So, you can use the written and visual aids to learn.
Click to expand...

I agree with you Rosetta Stone is excellent.
 
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