I've got some q's for hoh and deaf people who know asl

panda22

panda22

New Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2017
Messages
8
Reaction score
1
I've been taking ASL for a year now in college and I know a good amount of signs. I'm just pretty slow at understanding people when they sign to me. Do you get annoyed when you're asked to repeat yourself more than once? Also do you get annoyed when asked to slow down?

I've always wondered. Most of the time get extremely nervous when I do sign, outside of a class room.
 
It is usually expect to have to repeat myself or slow down when I am interacting with a new signer. I would rather have someone ask for me to repeat or sign slower than pretend to understand especially when it so obvious they didn't.
 
zephren said:
It is usually expect to have to repeat myself or slow down when I am interacting with a new signer. I would rather have someone ask for me to repeat or sign slower than pretend to understand especially when it so obvious they didn't.
Click to expand...
Yeah, you can usually tell when someone is fake understanding.. they're just nodding and smiling when they should be responding to something.

I don't mind having to repeat myself or sign slower, I would much rather have to do that than have my time wasted signing when the other person doesn't seem to care what I'm saying.. just nodding and smiling as if they understand.

If someone asks me to slow down, I figure they're probably a new signer trying to learn.. and I always respect someone who is trying to learn ASL.
 
Ian MacGregor said:
If someone asks me to slow down, I figure they're probably a new signer trying to learn.. and I always respect someone who is trying to learn ASL.
Click to expand...


For me it's either that or could very well be a deafblind person (with limited or no vision). So.. I'd rather be clear and make sure the person knows what I'm saying. I sometimes ask for people to repeat as well- or at least say it another way even though I've been signing since I was 18.
 
zephren said:
It is usually expect to have to repeat myself or slow down when I am interacting with a new signer. I would rather have someone ask for me to repeat or sign slower than pretend to understand especially when it so obvious they didn't.
Click to expand...
Thank you for answering my question :)
Now I won't feel so bad asking them to slow down.
I'm so eager to use my sign in the real world, but whenever I get the chance I get really nervous and I always end up messing up. Sometimes I forget what I have learned. lol
 
Ian MacGregor said:
Yeah, you can usually tell when someone is fake understanding.. they're just nodding and smiling when they should be responding to something.

I don't mind having to repeat myself or sign slower, I would much rather have to do that than have my time wasted signing when the other person doesn't seem to care what I'm saying.. just nodding and smiling as if they understand.

If someone asks me to slow down, I figure they're probably a new signer trying to learn.. and I always respect someone who is trying to learn ASL.
Click to expand...
That totally makes sense. I appreciate you answering my question. Sometimes when I ask multiple times I feel like I might be annoying them. So sometimes I give up. I give up, not to be rude in any way, I just don't want to annoy anyone with my slowness. But from now on if I truly don't understand I'll have them write it down for me.
 
I've always wondered this myself. I actually had an encounter with a deaf person at my job who got pretty frustrated with me. I needed to see her drivers license and i kept signing it to her again and again, and she kept repeating this one sign that i took to mean she didnt understand me. So i signed license, drivers license, ID, name card, i fingered spelled, i must have looked stupid. It wasnt until after she left that i remembered the sign she was using was the sign for "forgot." She was trying to tell me she forgot to bring her license. Oops.
 
Dolores said:
I've always wondered this myself. I actually had an encounter with a deaf person at my job who got pretty frustrated with me. I needed to see her drivers license and i kept signing it to her again and again, and she kept repeating this one sign that i took to mean she didnt understand me. So i signed license, drivers license, ID, name card, i fingered spelled, i must have looked stupid. It wasnt until after she left that i remembered the sign she was using was the sign for "forgot." She was trying to tell me she forgot to bring her license. Oops.
Click to expand...
That really sucks. Literally that's one of my fears. I don't want to frustrate someone if I don't know (or forgot) a sign. When that does happen, I usually get frustrated with myself because I know I knew that sign.
 
Yeah, it bummed me out for a few days. Went home feeling like a failure. But it made me want to practice more. Only thing about practicing is it isnt enough to do it by yourself, you also need to practice reading other people when they sign. I want to go to the deaf events in my area but they're all at very inconvient times for me. Plus im so scared to go alone!
 
Just remember to tell them to you are new at signing and offer them paper if you don't understand.
 
Dolores said:
Yeah, it bummed me out for a few days. Went home feeling like a failure. But it made me want to practice more. Only thing about practicing is it isnt enough to do it by yourself, you also need to practice reading other people when they sign. I want to go to the deaf events in my area but they're all at very inconvient times for me. Plus im so scared to go alone!
Click to expand...
I'm in the same boat as you. In my city, most of the deaf events are just students. It's not exactly what I'm looking for because I want to actually met and hang out with Deaf people, ya know.
 
Back
Top