poiqwepoi
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2013
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My Name is Eric, I am 45.
Almost two years ago, while on a ski trip with friends and family, I went to sleep at around 11, and at 3 am, I woke up and knew that this was wrong. I went back to sleep pretty certain that it was permanent. It sounded permanent and still sounds permanent. I still went to doctors, nothing could be done. I have suffered an 85-90 dB loss on the left side, in a matter of hours or minutes. Now, all I hear is tinnitus. A quite complex one with thousands of frequencies sounding pretty much like a constant buzzer accompanied by fingernails screeching on a blackboard; it is the sound of silence. But I don’t suffer from it.
My right ear? It has a 40dB loss at mid high frequencies, I hear everything as muffled. I do wear hearing aids that help my right ear and transmits the sound from left to right so that I can hear from the left side as well. It is far from perfect but I can at least function quite easily as a hearing individual in an office setting, or at home.
When I go to restaurants, it’s different, I cannot have an interesting conversation anymore. I have to make everyone repeat 5 times, even with all the technology available/suggested to me so far. My social life has suffered because of this. Even at home, when there are more than 4 people, I find it hard to follow conversation when everyone is speaking at once. I kind of let myself out of conversations sometimes because I get tired of making everyone repeat. But I like going to restaurants in good company, and I love having dinner with friends, solving the world’s problems, making everything right…. But more and more I feel like a blind man sitting with his friends, trying to enjoy a Charlie Chaplin movie. But I don’t really suffer from that either, at least not deeply.
Even at home, I make my wife and kids repeat all the time. It has become a fact of life.
But then I thought, if my wife and I, are to have more and more problems understanding each other, our communications will be greatly impaired. I love to talk to my wife. So I decided that we should start learning sign language classes together. I know that practice makes a huge difference as in everything else, so it I would have a learning partner hanging with me every day, in everyday situations. Plus, when my children were younger we used to switch to English to discuss privately but now they are both way better than I will ever be with the English language. Now, we will regain our strategic advantage and start learning a new encrypted communication channel.
And on top of that, looking all around, I recently found out that there is a community of deaf people. I thought that taking classes, going to various events and contribute to some cause, I could meet people that also like to save the world while having a great meal that unfortunately is taken in a loud environment. I assume that with sign language, noise is not a problem anymore and that the meal might be taken a little slower, although, speaking with food in your mouth is not such a problem anymore.
So here I am, on a forum for deaf people wondering if I sound over optimistic or plainly crazy but hell, just trying will be worth it, no matter what the end is.
But then I have other questions that I still need to investigate. Since I live in Montreal, an officially French city in an officially French province, but living in the west island in a quite large and vibrant English community, how does it work with languages and sign language? I have read somewhere that sign language is different in English and in French. But I fail to believe that English and French people failed to agree on a common sign code. I am not certain in what way that would makes any difference at all besides for spelling out a word. The letters are sign language but not the information that you translate. Maybe it is regional, which would make more sense. Everyone tries to use the same code but the farther the person, the more likely that her code would be different.
I have much to learn. I love to learn.
-Eric
Almost two years ago, while on a ski trip with friends and family, I went to sleep at around 11, and at 3 am, I woke up and knew that this was wrong. I went back to sleep pretty certain that it was permanent. It sounded permanent and still sounds permanent. I still went to doctors, nothing could be done. I have suffered an 85-90 dB loss on the left side, in a matter of hours or minutes. Now, all I hear is tinnitus. A quite complex one with thousands of frequencies sounding pretty much like a constant buzzer accompanied by fingernails screeching on a blackboard; it is the sound of silence. But I don’t suffer from it.
My right ear? It has a 40dB loss at mid high frequencies, I hear everything as muffled. I do wear hearing aids that help my right ear and transmits the sound from left to right so that I can hear from the left side as well. It is far from perfect but I can at least function quite easily as a hearing individual in an office setting, or at home.
When I go to restaurants, it’s different, I cannot have an interesting conversation anymore. I have to make everyone repeat 5 times, even with all the technology available/suggested to me so far. My social life has suffered because of this. Even at home, when there are more than 4 people, I find it hard to follow conversation when everyone is speaking at once. I kind of let myself out of conversations sometimes because I get tired of making everyone repeat. But I like going to restaurants in good company, and I love having dinner with friends, solving the world’s problems, making everything right…. But more and more I feel like a blind man sitting with his friends, trying to enjoy a Charlie Chaplin movie. But I don’t really suffer from that either, at least not deeply.
Even at home, I make my wife and kids repeat all the time. It has become a fact of life.
But then I thought, if my wife and I, are to have more and more problems understanding each other, our communications will be greatly impaired. I love to talk to my wife. So I decided that we should start learning sign language classes together. I know that practice makes a huge difference as in everything else, so it I would have a learning partner hanging with me every day, in everyday situations. Plus, when my children were younger we used to switch to English to discuss privately but now they are both way better than I will ever be with the English language. Now, we will regain our strategic advantage and start learning a new encrypted communication channel.
And on top of that, looking all around, I recently found out that there is a community of deaf people. I thought that taking classes, going to various events and contribute to some cause, I could meet people that also like to save the world while having a great meal that unfortunately is taken in a loud environment. I assume that with sign language, noise is not a problem anymore and that the meal might be taken a little slower, although, speaking with food in your mouth is not such a problem anymore.
So here I am, on a forum for deaf people wondering if I sound over optimistic or plainly crazy but hell, just trying will be worth it, no matter what the end is.
But then I have other questions that I still need to investigate. Since I live in Montreal, an officially French city in an officially French province, but living in the west island in a quite large and vibrant English community, how does it work with languages and sign language? I have read somewhere that sign language is different in English and in French. But I fail to believe that English and French people failed to agree on a common sign code. I am not certain in what way that would makes any difference at all besides for spelling out a word. The letters are sign language but not the information that you translate. Maybe it is regional, which would make more sense. Everyone tries to use the same code but the farther the person, the more likely that her code would be different.
I have much to learn. I love to learn.
-Eric
to AllDeaf Forum. I was a resident of Ontario, Canada. Just enjoy reading and posting here and have fun. 
