- Joined
- Sep 7, 2006
- Messages
- 45,079
- Reaction score
- 322
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.
Hey, dont apologize..u are not the only one. My brother is a complete ass to hearing people who just learned sign and come up to him interrupting his conversations with his friends just to show off their signs. He really gets mean wtih them and I have to yell at him to tell them politely that it was rude of them to interrupt him and his friends like that. I have been rude to some hearing people who ask me questions about deafness and sign language a few times myself. Oh well, we are not perfect but I really dont want to be mean lkike my brother is cuz that may give hearing people the wrong impression of all deaf people, ya know?