communication....

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Julia

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Hi!

I'm new to this site. I just stumbled across it yesterday as I was browsing the net....

basically, I'm a social work student at the university of Leeds (UK). I've been asked to give a presentation on anything I'd like to do with communication (with an more detailed write-up to follow). I have decided to do it on communicating with Deaf people, and it is going to be given to other social work students, all of whom are hearing (including myself).

As a hearing person, and with minimal personal experience meeting anyone who is deaf or HoH, this website has been a real eye-opener for me. I was mostly interested by the stereotypes thread - do people really think a deaf person cannot drive?!?! or uses braille?!?! I was quite surprised by this!

Anyway, if anyone feels they would like to give me any pointers or suggestions, that would be great. My focus is primarily on stereotypes and the medical perspective of deafness and how this influences peoples communication. However, any input on your experiences/thoughts on communication would also be great - especially "professionals" like social workers.

thanks!

Julia
 
NVC..
I find that facial expression and eye contact are the main ways I commmunicate on a daily basis.. I never try and talk as Im told I sound like a retard :D

you should bring me along... Ive never had a whole room laugh at me before..oh wait yes I have...
 
Valuablelesson said:
NVC..


you should bring me along... Ive never had a whole room laugh at me before..oh wait yes I have...
Click to expand...


:welcome: to AD!


Yep..I have had a whole room laugh at me when doing presentations while in elementary and middle school cuz I mumbled. That is why I have a fear of speaking in front of a large audience.

I can communicate with hearing people most of the time usually on a one-on-one basis. If I am in a large group of hearing people chattering away, I am totally lost. Also, I can speak well and it would lead to people thinking I can hear better than I really do so they would start talking to me without facing me and they usually cant grasp the concept that I am profoundly deaf (stone deaf) and still can speak good. I need the person to look at me while they are talking. Another thing, I need the hearing people to maintain eye contact with me while I am talking and if they turn away, I stop. They say that they can still hear me talk but I just seem to need them to look at me while I am talking. Maybe it is cuz I need to look at them while they are talking to me?

Now, I am more comfortable in a signing environment whether the people are deaf or hearing. ASL is now my primary mode of communication but I still will use my speechreading and speech skills to communicate with the hearing world when needed.

I had a lot of bitterness and resentment towards hearing people growing up cuz I was treated like someone who had less intelligence than them, making fun of me, and looking down on me but now I am getting better about it. I just wished I knew ASL growing up and had some deaf friends to relate to.

Hope that helps! :)
 
thanks!

Thanks! :) It is good to get first hand experiences :)

And thank you for the link! I've read the summary part and it looks really interesting! Call me naive, but I had never even thought about if deaf people would prefer to have deaf children themselves or not..... I guess this is a big debate, huh?

Another question - how different is BSL from ASL? I can do finger-spelling, and know a few bits of BSL, but I've heard that even in English speaking countries (USA, UK and Australia), sometimes the language can be quite different. And that there are dialect differences too? (I don't know what this should be surprising tho, as there are different dialects in spoken language....)

P.S Sorry if I sound totally naive, but I'm just being inquisitive :)
 
Julia said:
Thanks! :) It is good to get first hand experiences :)

And thank you for the link! I've read the summary part and it looks really interesting! Call me naive, but I had never even thought about if deaf people would prefer to have deaf children themselves or not..... I guess this is a big debate, huh?



P.S Sorry if I sound totally naive, but I'm just being inquisitive :)
Click to expand...

For me, it doesnt matter as long as my child are healthy. I have 2 hearing children. If they were born deaf, it wouldnt bother me but to wish that my children could be born deaf, that never been a wish of mine. I wouldnt mind adopting a deaf child in the future. :)
 
If you want to see what ASL signs and fingerspelling look like, compared to BSL, check out ASLPRO.com. :)
 
GalaxyAngel said:
Valuablesson, you've got wrong wording...
It's LSQ = Langues De Signe Quebec
This is French.
Click to expand...

Sorry I dont remember saying I was French..
She is a student, Im sure she would find out for her self. Just pointing her in that direction.
 
I'm severely HOH in both ears. I do speak and lip-reading others. The most importation communication for me is others to face to face at me while they are talking. If they are talking behind me, I can't understand to well what they are saying. I only know very ASL. As for telephone, I use VCO(voice carry over) relay: see link below: this is what I have.

Ameriphone VCO Phone Speak and then read telephone

Oh, BTW, welcome to AD!! :)
 
Welcome to AD.. I hope you will find what you are looking for.. Good luck and enjoy posting away... :)
 
Julia said:
Thanks! :) It is good to get first hand experiences :)

And thank you for the link! I've read the summary part and it looks really interesting! Call me naive, but I had never even thought about if deaf people would prefer to have deaf children themselves or not..... I guess this is a big debate, huh?

Another question - how different is BSL from ASL? I can do finger-spelling, and know a few bits of BSL, but I've heard that even in English speaking countries (USA, UK and Australia), sometimes the language can be quite different. And that there are dialect differences too? (I don't know what this should be surprising tho, as there are different dialects in spoken language....)

P.S Sorry if I sound totally naive, but I'm just being inquisitive :)
Click to expand...

Hi Julia, welcome to Alldeaf! I am from Australia. I am profoundly deaf since birth from rubella and I can speak well to be understood by the hearing people. I also use Auslan to communicates with many of my deaf friends. You said how different is BSL from ASL? BSL use two hands to fingerspell letters while ASL use one hand to fingerspell letters. We use Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and we are like BSL for fingerspelling except some signing are different. That is like in all country that we have different way of signing but we have same facial expression and body language. :)
 
Welcome to ALL DEAF!!!!!!!
I lost my hearing due to cancer complications;however, I am now cancer free 4 1/2 years as of 28-June-2002.
As I'm from the USA, I use body language,eye contact,& facial expressions to convey my thoughts more so than ASL.
My wife who is hearing,is trying to learn ASL,but for her,it's not easy. she tries so hard to learn, and God Bless her for loving me the way she does.

I wish you well in life;may you be a shining beacon in the darkness for all to see.

Cheers!

James J.Reynolds
 
BSL and ASL are VERY different :)
For starters, BSL uses a two handed alphabet while ASL uses just one handed alphabet. Ironically, Norwegian sign language is a bit similar to ASL; it uses one handed alphabet, unless one lives in some areas near Oslo - that is where people use two handed alphabet version of Norwegian sign language.

Naturally, like having accents... I think, we have our regional signs within the same language. As for speed of signing, I think fluent signers in the east coast sign faster than the ones in the west coast! Unless I'm wrong..

One big stereotype is that people often think there is only one sign language in the world, and that Deaf people from different countries can automatically understand each other. I've learned that the middle finger in Japan sign language simply means *L* of the alphabet so as a joke, I say my name is *L*iza.. if only I could spell the rest of my name in Japanese!

Well if one thinks it's weird to sign, imagine having to make clicking sounds in an African dialect! I don't remember which region in Africa does that, though. That's supposed to make sense to the ones who are pretty fluent. Imagine that.

Take care! :)
 
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