shel90

For those who grew up not knowing any sign language or any other deaf people, did this happen to you as a child?

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lucas

everyday

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shel90

That was how I learned to fool my teachers, my peers, and especially my parents into thinking that I was doing great as an oral-only deaf. I mastered that skill so well so I know what kinds of expressions to use by judging other hearing people's expression on what the topic was about. lol

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lucas

yep where amazing actors

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"Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band
Pretty eyed, pirate smile, you'll marry a music man
Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand
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Frisky Feline

LOL of course!!! I tend to NOD when they ask me if i understood. eh. Wait a minute, Except deaf school or deaf events.

I am an ASL user all my life but not exaclty ASL but still a form of sign language when i was a kid. I am in the hearing world all my life because I lived with my hearing family.

AJWSmith

Always! <smiles>

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AlleyCat

Yep. Goes hand-in-hand with the smile-and-nod feature we have!

mbrek

Of course, some of us use that technique around fluent signers.

(Cough, cough) well, not me personally, of course... hee hee.

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KristinaB

Goodness me!! That was me all along and still sometimes now when trying to lip-read.

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waterdreamer

Umm...don't know if you consider me part of this group. My parent didn't find out that I was deaf until I was 2.5 years old. They did oral method until family moved to where they live now; and somehow my cool aunt convict them let me learn some form of sign language (SEE later become more of PSE signer). Interesting thing is I was allow sign at school, but not at home. So home always has been "oral ground". But I know I do that a lot of nodding at home regardless if I fully understand what going on around me or not. LOL

Bottesini

I must be the only disagreeable deaf person. I keep telling people I don't understand.

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green427

Yep, been pretending to be happy most of my life, but was very lonely.

I thought everyone around me was happy and when I see hearing people all mingling and laughing, they must be talking about something interesting.

Now that I can participate in conversations better, I realize things are not what they seem. It may seem like everyone is smiling and happy, but what they really are doing is complaining about how stupid other people are.

Trust me, y'all are not missing much, but, still, it would have been nice to know what they were saying.

Cheetah

I too am an expert at this. It's hard sometimes to know when to ask for a repeat because by the time I figure out if I understood or not they moved on. I've never met a herring person that could understand this.

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waterdreamer

Yep, I do understand that BIG TIME!!! I tell my family that usually I don't reliazed that I am not understand the topic the right way (especially the jokes). Nor do I want to ruin the joke or mood of the room by asking them same old song "what I didn't get that. Mind repeat what just said".

Also how often do you get "Oh it's not important" or "Never mind" when you ask people to repeat. GRRR!!! Sad thing it still happening and I have been an adult with full time job for quite some time now. Sigh...

LDNanna

I mastered the "masking" technique a decade ago. sigh.

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BecLak

Yes, all the time, master at fooling people into thinking I understand what they just said. I understand people well, but not their speech. I read body language and facial expressions, anything visual. Not anything new under the sun for those of us who are Deaf. Born deaf, no sign language for 45.5 years, began learning sign language 2.5 years ago. Raised in a hearing family, married hearing, children all hearing, immerged in hearing world, still finding my footing in local Deaf community.

Get people saying: You speak very well, you seem to follow the conversation, so you're ok right?

Tired, so tired in fact, I am still fighting for my right to be completely voice off.

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Speedy Hawk

So true, I nod right time and shake my head right time and I usually can do this by body language of hearing person and face expression. If they look positive side I nod, if they look negative side I shake. I do get timing wrong sometimes but amazed get it right most of time that I don't have clue what they saying.

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Banjo

I'm just curious, do you know anyone who is either deaf or hard of hearing?

Lavender

no deaf friend here. just me n' 1 other.

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Lissa

of course I do!!

Cheetah

You do what?

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Dixie

Very much so. Every day.

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JenniferLyn

Haha, I really enjoyed reading these replies.

I was always considered "in my own world," which was either attributed to my not being too bright (when I was very young) or my being very bright (when I got older), because I couldn't keep with the conversation. This was especially true when I'd get bored of the conversation I didn't understand and start looking around at other things.

Ultimately, of course, I just became quite skilled at pretending and "reading people" like everyone here. "She's such a happy child- always smiling!"

doglover9

Yep, that's me. I didn't learn sign language until high school, and didn't learn any amount of real ASL until university. It was only a handful of years ago that I vowed to stop pretending to understand and to stop making the burden of communication my sole responsibility. Often, other people will just give up and not even write when I've suggested nicely that they could write down what they're trying to tell me. That's OK. If it's not important enough for them to communicate to me, then it's not my problem any more. I'm only concerned with the people who care enough to value communication above the convenience of "voice-or-nothing". Life's too short for everything else.

Lissa

I was referring to Shel's pic, nodding and pretending to know what's going on and smiling

Beowulf

I just talked an hour ago with a couple interpreters who are against forcing implants on children.
Let the livid outcries commence.

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Bottesini

I am not at all surprised to hear that interpreters would be against CI implantation.

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Beowulf

Hah. I hasten to say they are against FORCED implantation. They told me stories but I will spare you that.

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Bottesini

It's ok, I know enough actual CI implantees.

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lucas

Nope

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"Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band
Pretty eyed, pirate smile, you'll marry a music man
Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand
And now she's in me, always with me, tiny dancer in my hand"

Follow me http://luke4thewin.tumblr.com/