i hate when peeps do this to me....

[50x7_Z]

Since i do not know sign language and i can speak orally perfectly (all thanks to 12 years of speech therapy).

whenever i talked to people or anyone that i communicate, they see my hearing aids and started doing sign language. I really hate that! Because i talked to them in first place and i read their lips as well as i hear them, they started to do sign language (whoever knows it, hearing people especially).



but i am talking about those hearing people. here's what really happened:

i was at the mall with my friends eating and chillin in the food court. All of a sudden, this woman came outta nowwhere and started doing sign language at me. I saw this woman sitting on the table near us and i am sure she was fully aware that i was speaking orally with my friends. Yet she has the nerve to come to me and started doing sign language. my friend has to tell her that i do not know them and i told her that too. She said oh im sry, i have a son who is deaf so i thought you probably know them too since you're deaf as well.

GOD!!!!!!! :rl::rl:


sorry for the rant

 

[rockdrummer]

were you born deaf or hoh? Just curious.

 

[JClarke]

Since i do not know sign language and i can speak orally perfectly (all thanks to 12 years of speech therapy).

whenever i talked to people or anyone that i communicate, they see my hearing aids and started doing sign language. I really hate that! Because i talked to them in first place and i read their lips as well as i hear them, they started to do sign language (whoever knows it, hearing people especially).



but i am talking about those hearing people. here's what really happened:

i was at the mall with my friends eating and chillin in the food court. All of a sudden, this woman came outta nowwhere and started doing sign language at me. I saw this woman sitting on the table near us and i am sure she was fully aware that i was speaking orally with my friends. Yet she has the nerve to come to me and started doing sign language. my friend has to tell her that i do not know them and i told her that too. She said oh im sry, i have a son who is deaf so i thought you probably know them too since you're deaf as well.

GOD!!!!!!! :rl::rl:


sorry for the rant

Maybe you could start learning sign language, that might add to your experience, and make more friends than you can expect? Just an suggestion

 

[50x7_Z]

i think i was hard of hearing, lost 'em few month after birth due to fever?

don't really know what really happen. i had this sensineural hearing loss.

 

[50x7_Z]

Maybe you could start learning sign language, that might add to your experience, and make more friends than you can expect? Just an suggestion

ya, but i could never find the time to do so. they have ASL classes in my university, but with the major that i am doing, Biology, i couldn't fit that class into it. its too late for that. i have to complete all the required science electives.

but i have deaf friends in india since childhood. (i'll post a thread about it, really amazing success i had)

 

[shel90]

I am sorry that u feel that way.

I just learned sign myself after growing up orally and I have to agree with jclark..I made more friends than I ever did when I was oral only. Just a suggestion but if u dont feel comfortable with signing then like many deaf people, have to keep reminding hearing people what we can or cant do. Like hearing people assume I can hear better than I really do cuz of my good speech so they start talking fast or looking away from me and I have to keep reminding them that they need to look at me while talking so I can read their lips. I am patient with them most of the time but there are some times I just dont feel like dealing with it.


Good luck!

 

[Dixie]

just make retarded signs back at em' - dont use actual ASL just flap your hands around in their face. I think it might make them think twice that not every deaf person grew up learning sign, and this will make them realize they dont know it all as they believe.

 

[shel90]

just make retarded signs back at em' - dont use actual ASL just flap your hands around in their face. I think it might make them think twice that not every deaf person grew up learning sign, and this will make them realize they dont know it all as they believe.

Think that would really help? Most people dont do it to be mean..just that they make wrong assumptions and it is either we be mean to them and make deaf people look bad or just try to educate them and leave with a nice feeling?

I learned that by being mean to hearing people who are niave about deaf people and deafness really made me feel worse about myself. It is not the education I want to pass along..that all deaf people are mean. Already in many threads hearing parents have said that people in the Deaf community are mean..maybe it is time to stop that image?

What do u think?

 

[Dixie]

also adding that I am all for bi-lingual approach, but it irritates me when someone comes up to a person wearing hearing aids and either starts signing right off the bat or starts yelling.

I know the person was only trying to be nice - and it falls into the "meant well but lack direction" catagory.

For me having grown up in a mainstream world - this is like me and a friend eating at Subway then a stranger neither of us knows comes up and starts talking to us - it just feels incredibly awkward.

 

[50x7_Z]

I am sorry that u feel that way.

I just learned sign myself after growing up orally and I have to agree with jclark..I made more friends than I ever did when I was oral only. Just a suggestion but if u dont feel comfortable with signing then like many deaf people, have to keep reminding hearing people what we can or cant do. Like hearing people assume I can hear better than I really do cuz of my good speech so they start talking fast or looking away from me and I have to keep reminding them that they need to look at me while talking so I can read their lips. I am patient with them most of the time but there are some times I just dont feel like dealing with it.


Good luck!

ya i wasn't in the mood at that time as i was really having fun with my friends.

but whatever, normally, i just let them do it and dont even bother with it.

 

[50x7_Z]

also adding that I am all for bi-lingual approach, but it irritates me when someone comes up to a person wearing hearing aids and either starts signing right off the bat or starts yelling.

I know the person was only trying to be nice - and it falls into the "meant well but lack direction" catagory.

For me having grown up in a mainstream world - this is like me and a friend eating at Subway then a stranger neither of us knows comes up and starts talking to us - it just feels incredibly awkward.

ya it does feel awkward! that's what im saying. Wow some peeps like that have the nerves or the guts to do that lolz. but hmm, whatever. sometime it is funny because i make them do it all over again and again and then tell them i don't know sign language and they feel stupid.

 

[shel90]

also adding that I am all for bi-lingual approach, but it irritates me when someone comes up to a person wearing hearing aids and either starts signing right off the bat or starts yelling.


We cant win can we? I have accepted the fact that it is something I will have to deal with for the rest of my life. Oh well..
I know the person was only trying to be nice - and it falls into the "meant well but lack direction" catagory.

For me having grown up in a mainstream world - this is like me and a friend eating at Subway then a stranger neither of us knows comes up and starts talking to us - it just feels incredibly awkward.

Heck even today when I went to the IEP meeting for my son (he is language delayed so he will get special ed services) all the teachers and specialists kept bringing up how good my speech is and I had to do my best to smile and try to redirect the topic back to my son's goals not my speech skills. It gets annoying but I guess they have never encountered a profoundly deaf person who has good speech skills like mine. They say they work with many deaf and hoh children in their program. They all said that they were unable to get them to speak to the level I do...I told them that they are still young and still have a long ways to go before speaking well like I do. They said they never thought of it that way..sometimes patience and a little education can go a long way.

For the millionth time, my speech skills were made a big fuss about..and I felt very uncomfortable about it.

 

[Cheri]

Think that would really help? Most people dont do it to be mean..just that they make wrong assumptions and it is either we be mean to them and make deaf people look bad or just try to educate them and leave with a nice feeling?

I agreed with Shel here, I think that's a little too harsh to do forward hearing people when hearing people learned sign language for the Deaf because they're interesting in learning to communicate, we owe it all to them a greatly appreciation for learning signs.


And, For 50x7_Z, Don't take it personal, Be grateful that there are some hearing people who learned signs because they want to learn something from Deaf people, Understand their language, their culture. I can understand you only know oral method, but not every hearing people are aware of that. Just be kind and say that you don't know any sign language. I'm almost positive they would understand.

 

[shel90]

I agreed with Shel here, I think that's a little too harsh to do forward hearing people when hearing people learned sign language for the Deaf because they're interesting in learning to communicate, we owe it all to them a greatly appreciation for learning signs.

So true too!!! I am SO grateful for any hearing people who took the time to learn sign language. I would rather have a hearing person sign to me than yell at me. LOL!

 

[JClarke]

also adding that I am all for bi-lingual approach, but it irritates me when someone comes up to a person wearing hearing aids and either starts signing right off the bat or starts yelling.

I know the person was only trying to be nice - and it falls into the "meant well but lack direction" catagory.

For me having grown up in a mainstream world - this is like me and a friend eating at Subway then a stranger neither of us knows comes up and starts talking to us - it just feels incredibly awkward.

Yeah it happens to me, I feel awkward, but I just pretend to listen. I suggest you could take summer classes of ASL learning, maybe? For the newbie.

 

[50x7_Z]

same here! peeps won't leave my speech alone. they are like " dang, you're good at speaking!". im like "...thanx?"



have you ever had a deaf person getting pissed at you for not knowing sign language? i gave him a paper and he started flicking at me and all that badwords

so i wrote on paper, saying " i am trying to help you here!". apparently he got offended because i don't know sign language and he has to resort to writing on paper??

so much for trying to be nice!

by the way, i do really appreciate that they took the time to do that. so most of the time i don't get pissed.

sry bro, i can't do asl classes as i stated that i am overwhelmed with science classes over summer and for the rest of the year. Geez how bad can molecular biology, histology, biochemistry, genetics and physiology gets in one semester????

 

[Dixie]

I apologize - you are right being nice can go a long way. But at the same time it grows more and more irritating the more it happens.

Like you I get the "Oh you speak so well" comment from people when I tell them I am deaf/hoh. Then the conversation is launched into my speech skills rather than the original conversation was to be about.

But still if I were done the same way as 50x - I would be incredibly annoyed, especially now since I dont know a whole lot of sign.

Does this mean Im oralist? Absolutely not, Im just saying this particular situation for me would be incredibly awkward to be sitting there conversing with my friends then somone comes over whom we dont know and starts immediately signing.

I guess the best reaction would be to stop them mid-sign and explain to them that you can speak, and do not know sign that well because you grew up orally.

I apologize if I have offended anyone, but perhaps I don't always have the best reaction to strange situations.

 

[shel90]

same here! peeps won't leave my speech alone. they are like " dang, you're good at speaking!". im like "...thanx?"



have you ever had a deaf person getting pissed at you for not knowing sign language? i gave him a paper and he started flicking at me and all that badwords

so i wrote on paper, saying " i am trying to help you here!". apparently he got offended because i don't know sign language and he has to resort to writing on paper??

so much for trying to be nice!

by the way, i do really appreciate that they took the time to do that. so most of the time i don't get pissed.

sry bro, i can't do asl classes as i stated that i am overwhelmed with science classes over summer and for the rest of the year. Geez how bad can molecular biology, histology, biochemistry, genetics and physiology gets in one semester????

When I first started learning sign and tried to socialize with deaf people, I was rejected but I didnt let that stop me. Sure there are some deaf people that have a bad attitude about deaf people not knowing sign but there are many of us in the Deaf community now that have grown up orally and learned sign. Those are the ones that I clicked with. Nope, I am not friends with everyone in the Deaf community just like hearing people are not friends with everyone in the hearing community. There are some great people and not so great people in the Deaf community. Just ignore those who put u down for not learning sign..they have to get over it.

Dang! All those classes sound very demanding! Good luck with your classes!

 

[Dixie]

Yeah it happens to me, I feel awkward, but I just pretend to listen. I suggest you could take summer classes of ASL learning, maybe? For the newbie.

actually I am learning ASL via the internet on lifeprint.com, so I have absolutely no objection to learning ASL.

 

[50x7_Z]

I apologize - you are right being nice can go a long way. But at the same time it grows more and more irritating the more it happens.

Like you I get the "Oh you speak so well" comment from people when I tell them I am deaf/hoh. Then the conversation is launched into my speech skills rather than the original conversation was to be about.

But still if I were done the same way as 50x - I would be incredibly annoyed, especially now since I dont know a whole lot of sign.

Does this mean Im oralist? Absolutely not, Im just saying this particular situation for me would be incredibly awkward to be sitting there conversing with my friends then somone comes over whom we dont know and starts immediately signing.

I guess the best reaction would be to stop them mid-sign and explain to them that you can speak, and do not know sign that well because you grew up orally.

I apologize if I have offended anyone, but perhaps I don't always have the best reaction to strange situations.

its all good!

what is even annoying is that sometime when you are in a group of people, they all are talking. sometime i have to tell them what they are talking about or they have to slow down on the talking. Sometime i get the feeling they don't like me being the center of attention since they have to make sure i am included in the conversation.

but im used to it and they are. But whenever, i make new hearing friends, i have to tell them the pros and cons of my hearing and what they should do and not to do.

it doesn't bother me to tell them once and they understand. BUt if they do forget overtime, then it gets annoying.