Learning to Speak a Foreign Language as a Deaf Person

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DavidLawson1989

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I'm profoundly Deaf, fluent in ASL, I can lipread and can speak spoken English. I want to learn to speak another language.

Has anyone here been in my position and done this successfully? How did you do it? What language did you learn? I want advice for my own language learning project!!
 
Two languages in your position come to mind: Italian and Spanish, because they are the most oral and visable on the mouth. French, German, Mandarin are hard to see on the mouth (Cantonese is very visable, like Spanish and Italian). Japanese can be seen easily too. They're are options but learning always depends on severity of hearing loss and determination.

Laura
 
if being able to lipread is your requirement, I would be prepared for a big challenge when it comes to Japanese and Korean. Those two languages take pride in the fact that you can even understand everything through gritted teeth and minimal lip movement. Not to mention, they're some of the harder languages to master if your dominant language is English ;)
 
DavidLawson1989 said:
I'm profoundly Deaf, fluent in ASL, I can lipread and can speak spoken English. I want to learn to speak another language.

Has anyone here been in my position and done this successfully? How did you do it? What language did you learn? I want advice for my own language learning project!!
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I took two years German in high school. It wasn't easy and my grades were not good.

I would start with the phonetic key in the German-English dictionary and try to match them to English sounds you already know how to pronounce. There are German sounds that are not found in English, but you can get close to it. The best solution probably would be a face-to-face teacher who can coach your pronunciation of German (or whatever language you're interested in).

However, you can start with learning to read and write your chosen language anytime. Start by printing out a news article in your target language and translate word by word. Make flash cards with the word on one side and the definition on the other side.

Practice practice practice. :)
 
DeafBadger said:
I took two years German in high school. It wasn't easy and my grades were not good.

I would start with the phonetic key in the German-English dictionary and try to match them to English sounds you already know how to pronounce. There are German sounds that are not found in English, but you can get close to it. The best solution probably would be a face-to-face teacher who can coach your pronunciation of German (or whatever language you're interested in).

However, you can start with learning to read and write your chosen language anytime. Start by printing out a news article in your target language and translate word by word. Make flash cards with the word on one side and the definition on the other side.

Practice practice practice. :)
Click to expand...

You know, I'm very surprised by the number of deaf students I've met trying to learn German. I've got to ask - why?? What is the attraction to this language exactly? Spanish/Italian/Latin are by far the most visable on the mouth and I would think easier to see and learn. German is very gutteral sounding and like English, the sounds lip movements aren't always clear.

Laura
 
Lau2046 said:
You know, I'm very surprised by the number of deaf students I've met trying to learn German. I've got to ask - why?? What is the attraction to this language exactly? Spanish/Italian/Latin are by far the most visable on the mouth and I would think easier to see and learn. German is very gutteral sounding and like English, the sounds lip movements aren't always clear.

Laura
Click to expand...

In my case, it was because it was either German or French and my family heritage is partially German. So that's what I went with.

German seems a little more 'clipped' to me and easier to determine the words.

Certain British accents are similar.
 
Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Bold )

This is actually one of the situations in which I think Cued Speech is helpful - since it can help those already fluent in one language, learn sounds for another language.

It might be something worth looking into.
 
I was born with a normal hearing and everything else, and became hard of hearing in one ear and deaf in the other all of a sudden at the age of 10.
By then, I already mastered my native language (Italian) and thus I speak it fluently, at the point that nobody understand I have a hearing problem until they spend with me a few days.

Being a young hard of hearing I caught up lip reading very easily and quick. I hear sounds through a hearing aid, but I am not able to track the words if I cannot see the speaker.

So I continued to attend normal school even after the loss, and although I was helped by a special need teacher, she was no help (mostly for lack of training for my specific condition).
So I went on studying up to the university like anybody else.

I started taking English classes at school at the age of 12 - I really loved the English language and always dreamt of being able to speak it fluently.
Teachers spoke English very bad as they were Italians who studied English as a foreign language, but never actually lived abroad or practiced extensively the language.
I picked up all of the wrong things from them, both in word choice and pronunciation.

At the age of 19 I no longer had English classes at school so I started to practice the language on my own watching subtitled movies. Meanwhile, the Internet became widespread and I was able to access to English resources.

I write and read English very well, but I speak it badly and - most of all - I understand very little of spoken English.
Since I am going to move to the US in 2013-2014, I should really improve my oral skills.
Given my previous experience with special-needs teachers, I'd like to avoid one-to-one lessons with a private language tutor. I want someone that knows how to teach the sounds to a hard of hearing person.

One thing that is hard is that there is no rule for sounds in English and too many variants.
For example "schedule" said the US way or the British way, "turbine" said "turbine" or "turbIne", etc.
In Italian and Spanish, what you read is what you say and hear. Once you learn those few sounds, you're set with the whole vocabulary.

I am lucky that most of the sounds on the English are in some ways similar to Italian sounds, except some (gh, th). I was exposed to some Spanish since my boyfriend is bilingual Spanish-Italian, and I agree with those who suggest it as a second language for a hearing impaired. Spaniards tend to speak very fast, but other than that I see no issue in learning it.
I also think that Italian and Spanish grammar are awful to learn for an English speaker. English is so easy and simple, and the English vocabulary to go on is extremely limited.
Italian, Spanish and French tend to have a word for anything.


Is there a directory of language experts able to deal with my issue? I really need to be able to communicate orally in English otherwise I am never going to be able to find a job in the USA.
I used a dictionary with phonetics, but it takes longer to learn.
 
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