Embarassing lip reading moments!

[FadedRose]

I figured I'd start a thread on this since I had one particular embarrassing one today this morning. Well, I went to work this morning and saw a co-worker who appeared to have a "new" tattoo in the shape of a heart on his arm. Curious about the tattoo which in question was black I said " I didn't know you had a tattoo there". The person responded and this is what my ears, lip reading and body langauge from the person said to me " I was stabbed ". He pointed to his arm and made a stabbing motion with it as though he had a knife stabbing his arm. Since this person is rather difficult to understand to begin with I put the puzzle together as usual since I relied on lip reading and his body gestures to know what he was saying and came up with this scenerio that made the most sense to me. I thought " well I guess he was stabbed several years ago and put a tatoo there to cover the scar ".

WRONG! He actually said " I was stamped ". We have stamps with different shapes on it and I guess he was bored and stamped a heart on his arm :roll:.

Another co-worker had heard what he said and I went to her to clarify I had heard correctly and she informed me of what was actually said. Thankfully I didn't say outloud to the person " oh my god, when were you stabbed?!" and just said "oh" and went back to my job.

Finding this funny I decided to tell the person who stabbed, stamped his arm :roll: what had happened since he appears to be rather open minded when it comes to my Deafness and I also figured it'd be a good lesson for him too about lip reading. I enjoy showing people how words can be misunderstood due to how they look on the lips and afterwards if the hearing person is open minded enough they will be nicer to me if I misunderstand them at a later date. I explained to him my intital impression, especially with the stabbing motion he did-that sealed the deal and then showed him how stamped and stabbed looked the same on the lips. Of course he found it funny, who wouldn't and decided to do the stabbing motion with his hand again, this time making the god awful noise of what sounded to be squishing with this gleeful look on his face-at that point I was kind of creeped out and pictured an actual knife in his hand. While laughing about it I just said "um, yeah...that threw me off" and walked away but hey, I threw in a lesson in there which was the point. Sometimes people don't realize just how much I rely on lip reading and the combo of body language that goes along with it to socialize until I explain it the way I did this morning.

I'm proud to have taught a lesson but it was one that came out of embarrassment and typically that is how it happens for me.

What are you stories? How did you explain a mix up with a hearie? Was that hearie understanding, rude or just a plain asshole who didn't get it?

Thankfully I didn't walk away feeling like an idiot I think this one "got it". Some don't. Yay!

 

[GrayEagle]

I think it is great you have such a positive attitude, can laugh and educate others as well! I make some mistakes, too, and have learned to laugh, when I repeat what I thought I heard (I am not skilled at lip reading at all; just took a beginner class, so I deeply respect those who can do it! ). Until I explain, people have no clue that my brain fills in the blanks for sounds that don't match a word, trying to put it in context with the rest of the sentence or topic, with like you found, some hilarious results. Hearing people, unless they are taught, have no idea what effort can go into trying to communicate.

 

[RoseRodent]

Oh I have too many to count. Like the time I thought I saw/heard "Empress in a box" which didn't make sense, and actually it had been "Interesting thought". There was the time I thought someone had done the splits in the garden but actually her garden fence had broken. "She's a total cow" instead of "She's got an awesome car"... Oh how very many there always are! I did a blog article about how dhh folks are always doing a mental crossword, and that sometimes there are plenty of clues and context and other times it's total mush. I sat next to another hearing aid wearer today (milder loss I assume by his smaller aids and moulds) but nearly burst out laughing at the same expression of strained confusion and intense concentration on his face as we tried to have a conversation around a table in a high ceilinged room full of other tables of people getting tea and coffee. He and I sat watching lips move and racked our collective brains and tried so hard to nod in all the right places, but I knew he also didn't have the vaguest clue what was going on.

 

[rockin'robin]

One incident sticks out in my memory....I went to Church several times a week when I was young and never missed Bible School...(those cookies & kool aide were too tempting).......anyhow, I was HOH /read lips and one Sunday, the Preacher stopped me and asked "How are you?"...I misread him, thought he said "How old are you"? and I replied...."11 and 1/2"!...(that 1/2 was so important to me!)

 

[green427]

One moment stands out for me....I was a start-up technician for a temperature controls company, and was assigned to a building which happened to be a detention center for children that have been arrested for various crimes.

While checking out some systems to make sure they work, some guy with a "I am awesome, you are not" attitude came up to me and asked me a question in a noisy environment. It was hard to read his lips and my HA was only picking up mechanical sounds, and I thought he was a social worker and said "Are you in control of yourself?", to which I replied "Oh yes, I am okay so far. I know I look like I have issues, but I am fine". He looked at me like WTF???....

Turns out he was asking me if I was the "controls guy" checking my work since he was the architect and checking on the renovation progress. Took him awhile to figure out I was not really a mental case....

 

[green427]

Oh, yeah, another one....back in NTID we had to take at least one phys ed course to graduate, and the only class left was bowling.

I showed up late, and there was a teacher giving a lecture, so I stood way in the back leaning against the wall. I noticed a few deaf students, the rest were hearing, and there was no interpreter.

The teacher looked at me and said what I thought was "Do you need an interpreter?", to which I said "Yes".

She asked me to come stand next to her, so I did. After 5 minutes of talking to the class while I am standing next to her, she looked at me like there was something wrong with me. The whole class was looking at me like there was something wrong. I was too stupid to figure out what was going on.

The interpreter finally showed up and said "I am the interpreter"

Teacher said to her "That's okay, we have one right here...." and pointed to me.

It was then that I realized she asked me if I was the interpreter, not "do you need one".

I was the butt of everyone's joke for a long time....

 

[MintyOreo]

Oh gosh, TOO MANY stories to tell... But I'll share a few that happened today.

This afternoon, I thought that my brother said "a**hole!", and I scolded him for talking like that on a Sunday, especially around his mother on Mother's Day.

It turns out that he said "Dad's home!", not "a**hole!" Apparently, my father had returned from his afternoon motorcycle ride, and my brother was announcing that fact to the world.

Another one that happened about an hour or two ago: We went out to eat for Mother's Day. Everyone was talking about who-knows-what, and I was just kind of awkwardly sitting there and violently stabbing my salad to death. Suddenly, my father turned to me and said something. I thought that my father said "-blank, blank, blank- your mother -blank, blank, blank- put -blank, blank, blank- nursing home". For some reason, I thought that my father had said to me that we were going to put my mother in a nursing home. I was so confused, because my mother is NOT old enough to be sent to a nursing home, and there's no reason why she should be. In fact, she WORKS at a nursing home!

So I said, in a voice that I didn't realize was rather loud, "What?!? Why are you putting her in a nursing home?!?". Everyone stared at me, then burst out laughing. My father wrote a note to me which said "I didn't say that we're putting your mother in a nursing home. I said that last night at work, your mother saw that there is an opening for a full-time position on her floor, so she wants to stop on the way home and put her application in at the nursing home."

OOPS.

I stink at lip-reading!

 

[FadedRose]

Had a great chuckle reading the other lip reading stories gone awry!
keep it going! I've gotta get back to bed-it's 3 am here.

later!

 

[eirlys]

Nothing specific comes to mind. It happens too often. I get lazy in the mornings and don't put in my HA until I take a shower, which can happen hours later. My boyfriend gets to put up with me till then.

Him: "We've got to unicorn lotion cracker today"
Me:
Him: "Here.. let me get those for you *hands me my ha and batteries*. We've got to wash the motorcycle today"
Me: :Oops:

 

[GrayEagle]

Nothing specific comes to mind. It happens too often. I get lazy in the mornings and don't put in my HA until I take a shower, which can happen hours later. My boyfriend gets to put up with me till then.

Him: "We've got to unicorn lotion cracker today"
Me:
Him: "Here.. let me get those for you *hands me my ha and batteries*. We've got to wash the motorcycle today"
Me: :Oops:

My husband knows not to talk to me 'til my aids are in. And if we're in bed reading, and of course I've taken out my aids for the night, he knows to forget about any serious conversation or telling me something important he forgot to say before I took them out.

 

[green427]

....Everyone stared at me, then burst out laughing. My father wrote a note to me which said "I didn't say that we're putting your mother in a nursing home. I said that last night at work, your mother saw that there is an opening for a full-time position on her floor, so she wants to stop on the way home and put her application in at the nursing home."

The way I see it, at least your Dad was willing to write down what he said. My father would never do that...he would continue to mock me for misunderstanding....

It happens often enough to the point where I stopped participating in conversations and stopped asking questions.... Then I get accused of being antisocial....:roll:

 

[MintyOreo]

The way I see it, at least your Dad was willing to write down what he said. My father would never do that...he would continue to mock me for misunderstanding....

It could be considered a good thing that he wrote for me, yes. (It is a BIG, BIG improvement, trust me. Actually, this is one of the only times that he has written for me. He usually just screams at me.) However, my father posted the incident on Facebook and told everyone about it... So I'm quite embarrassed. I'm dreading seeing my friends soon, coz he told them, too - and I KNOW that they will be mocking me for the next few weeks (or months...)

It happens often enough to the point where I stopped participating in conversations and stopped asking questions.... Then I get accused of being antisocial....:roll:

Same here. Then people want to know why I don't like going out places and why I don't talk much...

 

[green427]

.... He usually just screams at me..

Don't you just love that? :roll:

One thing my parents NEVER, EVER asked me: What can you hear with your hearing aids?

I get yelled at for hearing one thing but not another....

Sorry for ranting...but these topics are bringing up all kinds of suppressed anger in me. Time to see a psychiatrist.....my left eyelid is twitching again...

 

[MintyOreo]

Don't you just love that? :roll:

Oh, totally! :roll:

...I get yelled at for hearing one thing but not another....

Same here. Everyone says "Well, you hear me sometimes..." Uhh, not really. It's called "guessing and lip-reading". Then they accuse me of ignoring them!

My mother yelled at me yesterday for not hearing her call my name from across the house. I was asleep. And my bedroom door was shut. I mean, really?!? Come on!

Sorry for ranting...but these topics are bringing up all kinds of suppressed anger in me.

It's fine. We all need to rant sometimes. It's actually good to rant. (Or shoot a pillow to death with a handgun. Not that I've ever done that... )

 

[green427]

It's fine. We all need to rant sometimes. It's actually good to rant. (Or shoot a pillow to death with a handgun. Not that I've ever done that...

Thanks for the tip!! I stopped by the gun shop on my way home and got me an antique M-16 submachine gun with 1000 rounds. You are a genius.

 

[LoveBlue]

Thanks for the tip!! I stopped by the gun shop on my way home and got me an antique M-16 submachine gun with 1000 rounds. You are a genius.

Well, I think it will be a lot longer (than after my Step 4 ASL classes) before I'll be comfortable meeting you.

Will you be at Newark Day (formerly Newark Nite)? Wondering if I should buy a bullet proof vest.

 

[CrazyPaul]

Everytime a person asks me if I can read lips (like "can you read my lips" with a finger pointing to his/her lips), I say no, rather than saying so-so because I don't want to misunderstand what is being said. I can tell that in the back of his/her mind, thinking "oh shit, I have to write it down for him".

 

[RoseRodent]

I get yelled at for hearing one thing but not another....

Oh, the famous "She's selectively deaf" that they said all the way through my primary school years, even though I'd clearly never passed a hearing test. Really? Why would I select not to go to a show my parents had paid for and instead stay in the classroom for extra maths? Why would I not go to auditions for violin lessons when it was my life's dream to learn? Why would I not respond to offers of cake and ice cream?

I tried to make a bit more sense out of my blog article. The rest of my blog is not very deaf-specific, it's more about general disability issues, but this one is specifically about this topic.

roserodent | Mummy, what's a "nonfleur"?

 

[RBDShadow]

I wear two hearing aids and I remember one time, I had just gotten out of the shower and was relaxing, I don't remember doing what but my roommate had started talking to me for some reason to tell me something, and all I got out of the whole sentence was "..... monday." And I give my roommate a nod and blank stare, and she totally forgot that I have not put in my hearing aids in yet... She felt dumb at that point but I felt embarrassed because I couldn't understand her lol. What she had said was, "This sucks, I cannot set up an appointment with a doctor until Monday!"

So from that point on, when I get out of the shower, or when I wake up, she doesn't talk to me until I do. Lol.
But she still tries to talk to me when she forgets.. I get a good laugh out of it.

 

[GrayEagle]

YUP! My husband has learned that if he wants to have any kind of conversation with me, to let me know before I take out my aids to go to bed. Or to check I have them in after I shower & dry my hair. Besides making sure I am in the same room, he is close, has my attention and is facing me. All of the above, please! :P