Totally new to sign language!!

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Megan19

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Hello everyone! My name is Megan and I just turned 24! I have a 1 &1/2 year old son named Gavin, who is totally amazing! :) I am not deaf, and my son isn't either. In fact, I don't know anyone who is deaf or hard of hearing. I have such a huge interest to hopefully properly learn one day. I think the launguage is so beautiful and I have such admiration for those who who are so natural and fluent in it! i live in an extremely small city, and there are no support groups or sign language classes. I've just been learning from apps and YouTube for now. Again I am extremely new to it. I don't wish to offend anyone, I was just looking for some support because I'm trying to learn a new language and everyone I'm surrounded by is very ignorant to it. The only person I practice signing to is my son because I know some other people won't understand why I want to learn. I would also sign to my mom because she also knows a little bit. She works in a daycare and they had a few deaf children over the years. I know deep down this is something I want to learn, even if it takes me until I'm 40 :laugh2:
 
What I don't understand is why hearing people have to take sign language to communicate with hearing children? I was never learn how to sign primary ASL until I was an adult at 20 years old. I was very frustrated and unhappy when I could not understand what hearing people said in mainstream schools. I learned to sign at 20 or 21 years old. It just make my life much better and feeling my shoulder lift all my bad energy up. I was so happy to be able to sign with Deaf community and going for the first time into college for the Deaf program which meant that I could sign with ASL interpreters and sign with Deaf people in the college dormitory. I belong to the Deaf community.

You don't understand about different degrees of deafness at all. You think sign language is beautiful. We need to use visual when we can not hear the sounds, not even the voices and environment sounds. Hearing aids and/or CIs are not perfect hearing devices to make hearing becoming 100% perfect.

Almost all hearing parents refused to teach us to sign ASL with the advice from doctors and school authorities like AGBell Foundation. The mainstream schools refuse to let d/Deaf learn ASL and have ASL interpreters in hearing classrooms. Some schools have change now to have ASL interpreters. It is hard when I could not have accommodations to get what I need to know what is going on in the classrooms and public places.

You have no idea what d/Deaf and hard of hearing have gone through trying to make out in the hearing world.

Pardon for my rant. I need to get off my chest and express my disappointment in the hearing society. :(
 
Bebonang said:
What I don't understand is why hearing people have to take sign language to communicate with hearing children? I was never learn how to sign primary ASL until I was an adult at 20 years old. I was very frustrated and unhappy when I could not understand what hearing people said in mainstream schools. I learned to sign at 20 or 21 years old. It just make my life much better and feeling my shoulder lift all my bad energy up. I was so happy to be able to sign with Deaf community and going for the first time into college for the Deaf program which meant that I could sign with ASL interpreters and sign with Deaf people in the college dormitory. I belong to the Deaf community.

You don't understand about different degrees of deafness at all. You think sign language is beautiful. We need to use visual when we can not hear the sounds, not even the voices and environment sounds. Hearing aids and/or CIs are not perfect hearing devices to make hearing becoming 100% perfect.

Almost all hearing parents refused to teach us to sign ASL with the advice from doctors and school authorities like AGBell Foundation. The mainstream schools refuse to let d/Deaf learn ASL and have ASL interpreters in hearing classrooms. Some schools have change now to have ASL interpreters. It is hard when I could not have accommodations to get what I need to know what is going on in the classrooms and public places.

You have no idea what d/Deaf and hard of hearing have gone through trying to make out in the hearing world.

Pardon for my rant. I need to get off my chest and express my disappointment in the hearing society. :(
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Speak for your self rudeness. I'm HoH and just now learning to sign. I lost my hearing cause of an accident in the military and I'm not down and ranting because someone wants to be able to communicate with me the only way I can fully understand. Yes Asl is a beautiful language with emotion just like Spanish and French. What's the difference. When af each person goes to a English school they don't get an interpreter they just go to the Esl classes and they still have a beautiful language people want to know because thing are always more interesting when you know little about it. I hate ignorance. It would be great if everyone knew more than one language then there might be less problems and nonsense in the world cause then we can all communicate.

Anyway after my rant. Welcome to alldeaf huh.
 
aweet_princess198925 said:
Speak for your self rudeness. I'm HoH and just now learning to sign. I lost my hearing cause of an accident in the military and I'm not down and ranting because someone wants to be able to communicate with me the only way I can fully understand. Yes Asl is a beautiful language with emotion just like Spanish and French. What's the difference. When af each person goes to a English school they don't get an interpreter they just go to the Esl classes and they still have a beautiful language people want to know because thing are always more interesting when you know little about it. I hate ignorance. It would be great if everyone knew more than one language then there might be less problems and nonsense in the world cause then we can all communicate.

Anyway after my rant. Welcome to alldeaf huh.
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You are late deafened. I was born deaf but did not get all those accommodations except in Special Education which offered Oral-only method and forced us to use FM (Teachers only speaking on microphone, we hear sounds from teachers but not from deaf and hard of hearing students). We had a hard time trying to make out but it was frustrating and difficult to pick that up. That is why we need ASL to help us understand what is going on in the classroom. I don't like Special Education at all. I hate mainstream schools without accommodations. It is okay for you to rant and so am I. :naughty:
 
My parents didn’t provide me a chance to learn ASL while growing up either, let alone my exposure to the Deaf community is null. I received my first HAs at 27 (I’m 30 now).
However, I do find that those who are willing to learn a new language, opens up to a type of understanding. I applaud you for at least taking a step to broaden your horizons and reduce the stigma that we, d/Deaf and HOH individuals endure. I know that I don’t represent anyone but myself. I enjoy signing with others and educating the “hearies” in what I do know. There is more than just the language, there is the culture, which is proud and clings on to the traditions. To my understanding, d/Deaf and HOH struggle among the hearing world to make themselves known, not to be pushed aside and labeled as anything less than human.
 
I know how hard it was for deafies in mainstream I knew a few. And the times have changed as well. Yes I'm a late HoH but I would love for people who have no deafness or deaf people in their family take the time and patients to learn to communicate with me. It's nothing negative about it. It's a language. There is nothing wrong with being deaf or HoH you are who you are and if some people didn't care then we would be all alone and no hearing person would try to communicate with us and then in mainstream deafies would no get a good education. But times have changed. Sorry you had a hard time but I don't see anything wrong with her wanting to learn a new language. And for me it is really hard cause I went 23 years with perfect hearing then I basically lost my career I wanted my whole life. I'm in between and that's hard not knowing where I belong and feel like I'm in isolation cause I have no one to talk to.
 
Megan19 said:
Hello everyone! My name is Megan and I just turned 24! I have a 1 &1/2 year old son named Gavin, who is totally amazing! :) I am not deaf, and my son isn't either. In fact, I don't know anyone who is deaf or hard of hearing. I have such a huge interest to hopefully properly learn one day. I think the launguage is so beautiful and I have such admiration for those who who are so natural and fluent in it! i live in an extremely small city, and there are no support groups or sign language classes. I've just been learning from apps and YouTube for now. Again I am extremely new to it. I don't wish to offend anyone, I was just looking for some support because I'm trying to learn a new language and everyone I'm surrounded by is very ignorant to it. The only person I practice signing to is my son because I know some other people won't understand why I want to learn. I would also sign to my mom because she also knows a little bit. She works in a daycare and they had a few deaf children over the years. I know deep down this is something I want to learn, even if it takes me until I'm 40 :laugh2:
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By the way, Hi! :wave: and welcome. :)
 
Hi there. I joined this forum a while ago and then didn't post for ages so I feel pretty new myself.

I'm sure not everyone agrees about stuff but there is still a place for people who want to learn about us. I'm a native English speaker but I also speak Spanish as my second language and yes I find the Spanish language beautiful and South American cultures fascinating. Whenever I meet people whose first language is Spanish they are invariably happy and flattered that someone not from their culture wants to bother to learn about it.

I feel similarly when a good Skype friend of mine from New Zealand takes an active interest and has started learning Auslan after I told him that my hearing is getting worse and that I am starting to learn it. He cares enough to ensure that we will still be able to video Skype when (my audiologist considers it when not if) my hearing is too bad to do this verbally.

As for people who are foreigners to deaf culture wanting to learn to sign... I guess that's how interpreters often start out? Some tolerance wouldn't go astray especially if we want the rest of society to be tolerant of us.

End of rant.
 
aweet_princess198925 said:
I know how hard it was for deafies in mainstream I knew a few. And the times have changed as well. Yes I'm a late HoH but I would love for people who have no deafness or deaf people in their family take the time and patients to learn to communicate with me. It's nothing negative about it. It's a language. There is nothing wrong with being deaf or HoH you are who you are and if some people didn't care then we would be all alone and no hearing person would try to communicate with us and then in mainstream deafies would no get a good education. But times have changed. Sorry you had a hard time but I don't see anything wrong with her wanting to learn a new language. And for me it is really hard cause I went 23 years with perfect hearing then I basically lost my career I wanted my whole life. I'm in between and that's hard not knowing where I belong and feel like I'm in isolation cause I have no one to talk to.
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No you don't. You have no idea if you didn't experience it yourself.

Late deafened are a completely different kettle of fish.
 
Hi, I am just starting to learn ASL although I am not deaf or hard of hearing. I'm actually visually impaired, oddly enough. I live in Wisconsin and am on here to try to make friends who will help me learn sign language better. I live in the country and will for the next year, so there aren't a whole lot of opportunities for me to get out and meet people. I will need to learn the language for the occupation i am going into and i will help me next summer with the job the i hope to get.
Let me know if anyone wants to talk! :)
 
Maryssa said:
Hi, I am just starting to learn ASL although I am not deaf or hard of hearing. I'm actually visually impaired, oddly enough. I live in Wisconsin and am on here to try to make friends who will help me learn sign language better. I live in the country and will for the next year, so there aren't a whole lot of opportunities for me to get out and meet people. I will need to learn the language for the occupation i am going into and i will help me next summer with the job the i hope to get.
Let me know if anyone wants to talk! :)
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If you have snapchat or glide I can chat with you.
 
Bottesini said:
No you don't. You have no idea if you didn't experience it yourself.



Late deafened are a completely different kettle of fish.
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So your saying just because I'm late in it I have no struggles. <snip> Your born into it and you growing up with it should know or have some sense that for anyone it's a struggle. I have some idea of it like back in the day kids hands were tied down to stop them from signing cause stupid hearing people said it was lazy to sign. Now days in mainstream some schools have sign and kids can sign in school. Like I said times have changed.
 
I'm a person of color and I didn't live through slavery but I still have an idea of that struggle too and I'm mostly Indian and I didn't go through people coming to my homeland taking it over and getting my family sick but neither of those make me less than who I am now.
 
aweet_princess198925 said:
So your saying just because I'm late in it I have no struggles. Your born into it and you growing up with it should know or have some sense that for anyone it's a struggle. I have some idea of it like back in the day kids hands were tied down to stop them from signing cause stupid hearing people said it was lazy to sign. Now days in mainstream some schools have sign and kids can sign in school. Like I said times have changed.
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I am telling you you have no idea what it is to learn from scratch when you are deaf, and sign is forbidden.

It's close to an impossibility.

Late deaf always have the advantage of learning the language of the majority before .

I wonder why you are calling everyone names?

No one here has done that to you.
 
aweet_princess198925 said:
So your saying just because I'm late in it I have no struggles. Your born into it and you growing up with it should know or have some sense that for anyone it's a struggle. I have some idea of it like back in the day kids hands were tied down to stop them from signing cause stupid hearing people said it was lazy to sign. Now days in mainstream some schools have sign and kids can sign in school. Like I said times have changed.
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There are differences between born deaf, and late deafened. Each have their own struggles. When you have to go through the school system like many of us here early-deafened have, and I, it is a horrendous experience that no one can understand without experiencing it themselves. It is not enough just "knowing of some who did". Please don't put yourself in shoes you don't fit in, same as we don't for late deafened. It is hard all-around.
 
AlleyCat said:
There are differences between born deaf, and late deafened. Each have their own struggles. When you have to go through the school system like many of us here early-deafened have, and I, it is a horrendous experience that no one can understand without experiencing it themselves. It is not enough just "knowing of some who did". Please don't put yourself in shoes you don't fit in, same as we don't for late deafened. It is hard all-around.
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That's the point I'm trying to make. No one knows a anyone struggle so don't down anyone cause you think your worse that the other person. At the of it all a struggle is a struggle. I would never say someone else's struggle is not as bad as mine since I don't know how it effected them some people are stronger than others so some take situations easier than others.
 
Bottesini said:
I am telling you you have no idea what it is to learn from scratch when you are deaf, and sign is forbidden.



It's close to an impossibility.



Late deaf always have the advantage of learning the language of the majority before .



I wonder why you are calling everyone names?



No one here has done that to you.
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Cause you should never say your struggle is worse than a late deaf persons. My career is over because of mine and I have to live with my mom again cause I have nothing. So yes a struggle is a struggle. I have a traumatic brain injury that caused it so I have lots of effects that make it hard to learn a new language and some people just can't learn new languages at all.
 
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