Hello, everyone!
As I've posted before (a while ago), my aunt is HoH and I'm hearing. Her hearing loss is degenerative, so we're learning ASL together in order to help her "cope" better in social situations (as long as I'm with her). At first she was learning in order to give me someone to practice signing with, but now she LOVES it and encourages our sessions with great enthusiasm.
When we go shopping or to lunch, we suppliment our conversation with signs.We get many confused looks and often some compliments. We generally have a great time whenever we're together, and signing just seems to make things even MORE fun!
Here's the annoying part: her husband, my uncle. He's a punster and a jokester. He WANTS to be in on the "Signing Act", but will NOT take the time to bother learning anything. He "makes up" his own signs and thinks he's so clever. I'm happy he wants to be a part of what we're doing, but sometimes his made-up signs are just plain confusing. I will try to teach him signs and he'll just say, "NO! It's like THIS:" (and proceed to show another made-up sign he thinks is so clever).
I don't actively discourage him. He's an extremely large man and has given up trying to sign the alphabet because his fingers are too large to be able to sign "M" with any success.
I am probably being too harsh in my internal judgement of this wonderful and kind-hearted man...but when he yells his "NO! It's like THIS:" it sends my blood to boiling! I'm trying to learn accepted ASL signs and he's trying to make a big joke out of this.
Also, I desperately would love to find an ASL buddy (hearing, HoH, or deaf) to sign with, but I don't want anyone to feel "used" by me. I'm unsure as to how to go about it. Any suggestions? (If you've stuck with this thread long enough to even GET to this question...thank you!)
Sincerely,
MellyBell
As I've posted before (a while ago), my aunt is HoH and I'm hearing. Her hearing loss is degenerative, so we're learning ASL together in order to help her "cope" better in social situations (as long as I'm with her). At first she was learning in order to give me someone to practice signing with, but now she LOVES it and encourages our sessions with great enthusiasm.
When we go shopping or to lunch, we suppliment our conversation with signs.We get many confused looks and often some compliments. We generally have a great time whenever we're together, and signing just seems to make things even MORE fun!
Here's the annoying part: her husband, my uncle. He's a punster and a jokester. He WANTS to be in on the "Signing Act", but will NOT take the time to bother learning anything. He "makes up" his own signs and thinks he's so clever. I'm happy he wants to be a part of what we're doing, but sometimes his made-up signs are just plain confusing. I will try to teach him signs and he'll just say, "NO! It's like THIS:" (and proceed to show another made-up sign he thinks is so clever).
I don't actively discourage him. He's an extremely large man and has given up trying to sign the alphabet because his fingers are too large to be able to sign "M" with any success.
I am probably being too harsh in my internal judgement of this wonderful and kind-hearted man...but when he yells his "NO! It's like THIS:" it sends my blood to boiling! I'm trying to learn accepted ASL signs and he's trying to make a big joke out of this.
Also, I desperately would love to find an ASL buddy (hearing, HoH, or deaf) to sign with, but I don't want anyone to feel "used" by me. I'm unsure as to how to go about it. Any suggestions? (If you've stuck with this thread long enough to even GET to this question...thank you!)
Sincerely,
MellyBell
