ESL teacher and/or friend wanted

I live in Brussels, but visiting the US several times a year. My mother tongue is French and, besides (my average) English, I understand and speak a bit of Spanish.

I'm HOH since birth and, sadly enough, never had yet the opportunity to learn the (A)SL as I've always been living and working with the hearies. I'm not too bad at lip reading however.

Learning or improving a foreign language when you are hearing impaired is far from being easy. Well hearing people who are not sensitive to this problem tend to be poor teachers.

So, I wonder if someone here can play that role. My preference would be to develop a lasting friendship with someone in the US, but I’m open to any proposal. So, for once, it’s ok “to contact me with services or other commercial interests”.

How much would you pay for someone teaching you the ASL, and depends on the location; where do you usually visit in the US?

Well, I think I’ve been misunderstood. Already! Ok, I must admit that my ad was not clear enough.

Actually, I’m not looking for an ASL teacher. I’m willing to improve my English listening and lip reading skills with a teacher who is accustomed to HOH.

Ok. How much do you pay to someone who allows you to lipread them?

trajan said:

Actually, I’m not looking for an ASL teacher. I’m willing to improve my English listening and lip reading skills with a teacher who is accustomed to HOH.

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Hello trajan- Is the Free University of Brussels close to you?

Hi Mr Merrill,

Puzzling and interesting question. It couldn’t be closer. I live within walking distance of this University. Besides, I’ve graduated from there by attending normal classes. Do they have something specific I’m obviously not aware of?

trajan said:

Hi Mr Merrill,

Puzzling and interesting question. It couldn’t be closer. I live within walking distance of this University. Besides, I’ve graduated from there by attending normal classes. Do they have something specific I’m obviously not aware of?

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Hello trajan- I apologise for having caused confusion. I am not Mr. Merrill, Mr. Merrill, is the person I have quoted. I am simply loml.

Are you familiar with these two individuals? Dr. Jacqueline Leybaert and Dr. Jesus Alegria, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.

Hey Loml,
No, I don’t know those two researchers personally. They work in another department. Why are you asking me this? Can I help you?

trajan said:

Hey Loml,
No, I don’t know those two researchers personally. They work in another department. Why are you asking me this? Can I help you?

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Hi trajan - Thank you for your offer of help, however that is not why I ask. Please, let me explain.

These two individuals are versed regarding the system of Cued Speech, a multi-sensory system (visual, kinesthetic and auditory) for the learning of the phonemes of spoken languages, one of them being English. Here is a website, where you will find information.

National Cued Speech Association

Perhaps the two Drs. would provide you with some guidance.

I am happy to discuss this with you further if you so desire.

Hi Loml,

Thank you ever so much for these “scattered clues” Now that I can see the big picture it all makes sense to me. And, of course, it’ll be quite straightforward for me to go and see these two Drs.

I’m sure you see the irony of the situation: having traveled so far so many times, to be told afterward that a possible solution could be found at the corner of my street!

Unfortunately, for what I’ve seen till now (that is, not much indeed), I don’t think cued speech can be the right solution for me. It looks like a perfect solution for parent-children interactions. But, as an adult, my goal is to better interact with the hearing, whoever they are. And the vast majority of them know nothing about cued speech, as it was also my case only a few hours ago, although I am HOH.

I do think however that people at the NSCA schools can be the kind of teachers I’m looking for, even when they are not using “cued speech”. They should be used to the issues I’m faced with and could probably help me to fix my English listening flaws.

I will contact them to see if they can help. So, thanks again for directing me there.

Btw, are you related to them in some way? And, yes, of course, I’ll be glad to discuss this further with you.

Trajan - You are most welcome. Thank you for your response. I apologise if my posts read evasively.

My hope is that Dr. Jacqueline Leybaert and Dr. Jesus Alegria can provide you with some guidance which is of benefit to you. Indeed, if this is the case, then there is definately an element of irony to it.

On my profile, which you may have looked at, it shows my "home page" as National Cued Speech Association. Yes, I am a member of the NCSA and proud to be associated with them here in Canada.

Regards,
loml

hi, my name is garrett stuart and from a idaho. then i am deaf and asl. then i saw a reading on your post and i am enjoy.

Mod Note: Email address removed.

GARRETT STUART said:

hi, my name is garrett stuart and from a idaho. then i am deaf and asl. then i saw a reading on your post and i am enjoy.

Mod Note: Email address removed.

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Hi Garret,

I’m glad you enjoyed this post as much as I did.

Have a good day,
Trajan

PS.
You’d better not use your real name and personal e-mail address on the Internet. People can be bad sometimes.

loml said:

Trajan - You are most welcome. Thank you for your response. I apologise if my posts read evasively.

My hope is that Dr. Jacqueline Leybaert and Dr. Jesus Alegria can provide you with some guidance which is of benefit to you. Indeed, if this is the case, then there is definately an element of irony to it.

On my profile, which you may have looked at, it shows my "home page" as National Cued Speech Association. Yes, I am a member of the NCSA and proud to be associated with them here in Canada.

Regards,
loml

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Dear Loml,

I’ll call Ms Leybart tomorrow morning to fix an appointment with her or one of her colleague.

Thus, I’ll see what they can do here in Belgium, even though I don’t think there is a native English speaker among them, which is an important point. Even if they have a reached a high level of fluency, people who have learnt English as a secondary language often have a different vocabulary, pronunciation, speaking pace, way to move their lips, ... I rarely experience difficulties with them while I’m almost always lost with the native speakers.

Anyway, I let you know and share my experiences with everyone here.

In the meantime, the more I think about it the more I’m convinced that NSCA teachers could be what I’m looking for. At least they won’t make the same mistakes that most “normal” English teachers usually do, such as, only to name a few:

• 
  To walk forth and back in the classroom, showing their back more often than their face.:roll:

• 
  To put a cassette into a more than an average cassette player; getting out for a coffee, and then coming back to ask questions about what all the other students have heard and that you have not.

• 
  To rephrase their original sentence when you ask them to repeat, thinking you have not understood while in fact you have not heard one or two words, which puzzles you a little more since you have to start again from scratch.

• 
  To get irritated when you ask them to repeat more than once.

• 
  And so on…

As I mentioned in my first post, I often go to the US. I usually stay in SF. So, do you know a NSCA teacher around there? I’ve seen that you have a school in Vacaville. That could be Ok, although the BART doesn’t go till there, which implies that I’ll have to rent a car.

If you feel like it, you can also reach me trough xtrajan@gmail.com; or by using the e-mail service provided here.

Thanks a lot in advance,
Trajan

To avoid any misunderstanding, even if I’m quite sure you already know all those acronyms: ESL= English as a Secondary Language; SF= San Francisco; BART= Bay Area Transit, the public transportation of the SF Bay area.

I am not trained to teach but could talk with you for practice. I live in SF and am hearing.

sarasf said:

I am not trained to teach but could talk with you for practice. I live in SF and am hearing.

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Hi Sarasf,

Sounds great to me! That’s very thoughtful and I really appreciate it. For sure, I’ll be glad to meet you in SF. I should be back there by the end of next month for one or two weeks depending on what will happen again with those dammed English classes.

Since I don’t want to bother you with the usual pen pal stuff, I propose to get in touch with you a week before I depart. We can see then if you are free during these dates and if we can arrange something.

Is that Ok for you?

Kind regards,
Trajan.

trajan said:

Hi Sarasf,

Sounds great to me! That’s very thoughtful and I really appreciate it. For sure, I’ll be glad to meet you in SF. I should be back there by the end of next month for one or two weeks depending on what will happen again with those dammed English classes.

Since I don’t want to bother you with the usual pen pal stuff, I propose to get in touch with you a week before I depart. We can see then if you are free during these dates and if we can arrange something.

Is that Ok for you?

Kind regards,
Trajan.

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Yes, that works for me. Looking forward to meeting you.

Good Morning trajan -

I hope that you have been successful in booking an appt. with Dr. Jacqueline Leybaert.

loml said:

Good Morning trajan -

I hope that you have been successful in booking an appt. with Dr. Jacqueline Leybaert.

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Hi Loml - We already had a brief phone chat and I meet her Friday morning at her office.

Hello trajan -

Good to know.