Mixed environments, advice for a hearing person?

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kdl88

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Hello,

I'm new to AD. I'm not a student quizzing anyone. :) I would like to ask a question regarding being in mixed (both hearing and Deaf) environments. I understand some ASL (probably the college equivalent of ASL 102). If I were together with both a Deaf friend/coworker, etc (nobody specific) and hearing people, I would want to help interpret whatever I could from English to sign for my friend though I am not an interpreter. However the speed at which I sign (as well as my receptive skills) might make it so by the time I got the point across, the conversation could be on the next subject. I could speed that up by speaking "broken ASL" rather than making sure my syntax was OK (kind of like typing without worrying about typos), but I'm not sure if that would just be more frustrating, or if the person would appreciate it regardless.

Alternatively, when I sign to Deaf people, I try my darnedest to use actual ASL syntax. I know that some Deaf can lipread to varying degrees. I am seeing in other threads that if a Deaf person can lipread, they need you to speak normally and face them to facilitate the understanding. I (strangely for a hearing person) find it difficult to mouth words while signing. If I mouth while signing at the same time, I find it messes me up for both, or becomes some sort of messed version of SEE/PSE/CSE and can imagine the frustration on the recipient's part! So I'm trying to make sure I am helping in any way I can (I've already had many many hours of studying) and want to make sure I am doing the best I can to keep my friend(s) involved as well as not frustrate them with my lack of interpreting skills.

I'm curious as to what the thoughts of Deaf/HH people are here. I really am trying to be as understanding as I can.

Thanks! :ty:
Keith
 
With me, mouthing the words along with some ASL (by hearing people) works best for me since I'm oral deaf....But not everyone reads lips, so there will be different situations with different people......I'd suggest to ask ur deafie friends what works best for them!...And know it's appreciated, all the way around.
 
Thank you for your reply! Anyone else, feel free to chime in as well.

A question: If I mouth words while signing, the only way I think I can do it is to "switch" to CSE (which is probably what I end up doing anyway even though I think I'm using ASL... lol) Would you rather me use proper ASL syntax (as much as I can anyway), a hybrid of CSE accompanied by mouthing, or maybe even ASL and just mouth the occasional words regardless of the order they come in? For instance, should I mouth the words YESTERDAY ME WALK SCHOOL while signing it?

Part of the reason I am asking ahead of time is at my local WalMart there are a couple of Deaf workers that I can speak with, however my wife, etc may not be able to. I'm not sure that's a situation I would have time to stop and ask the best way for me to sign... :) I'm sure there will be other situations like this in the future as well so I'm doing my research ahead of time to be prepared.
 
it all depends on the person. What do you feel more comfortable with?....Some deafies read lips along with signing...some cannot read lips so they look to ur hands....As for myself, I read lips and watch the hands at the same time....(since I'm oral deaf)...And as for myself, I use SEE (signed exact English)...some deafies don't, they use ASL....

Perhaps get to know the deafie employees. Surely, they will appreciate any method of communication that's understandable to them to get the job done and converse with more ease.
 
Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Bold )

Honestly - if you just know ASL 102 then you don't know enough to be able to interpret a conversation.

The rule is ALWAYS to ask the hoh/deaf people if they WANT you to try to explain in ASL what's being said orally (being clear that you only know very basic ASL vocabulary). You aren't "interpreting", you're using a few signs and fingerspelling to help supplement understanding. That's a very important distinction to make.

If you run into a ASL user in a store/work environment then you can say that you understand a little bit of ASL and would they prefer if you tried signing, or used another mode of communication (paper&pen, typing on a cell phone etc).

In all cases, you need to be upfront about your signing abilities and then it should be up to the ASLer how they feel they want to proceed.
 
Hi Anij,

Thank you for your candid response. I did mention above that I know I am not an interpreter. I am not fooling myself to think I can be a full interpreter, I am just thinking that if I can help in any way to bridge the gap with what I do know (whatever level that is) if the opportunity arises, that it might be useful. I would always preface it with the fact that I know "some" sign. I'm not even sure myself how much I know to be honest, that's hard to quantify. I like helping people, be them hearing, Deaf or anything else. I also like communicating with people. I am learning ASL on my own specifically to be able to communicate with Deaf people. If the person I was communicating with wanted me to only write down what I was saying, I imagine that would be just as tiring for me as it would be for that person to try to understand me. :) I will be sure to be honest with what I know as I have on this forum (which is improving every day). Thanks again!
 
What is CSE? Are you talking about CASE? Conceptually Accurate Signed English? That term is pretty much synonymous with PSE.
 
I've been told it is Contact Sign Language... CSL I guess? For some reason I thought it was Contact Signed English, but I think I mixed that up with PSE somehow :Oops: (Or more to the point I probably don't know what I'm talking about... lol)

That's why I'm asking questions, to learn! :)
 
Ironically, CASE (first time I've heard of it) sounds like what I probably do when I sign without realizing it now that I think about it. I try to avoid SEE (no offense to whoever uses it) and to use ASL as much as I know how. I'm sure I'm somewhere in between the two and it is probably a form of CASE as you mention. Ultimately I'm trying, and learning sign language and Deaf culture on my own, unprompted by any agenda. I won't be able to avoid making mistakes, I can only hope people are sympathetic to my efforts. :)
 
kdl88 said:
I've been told it is Contact Sign Language... CSL I guess? For some reason I thought it was Contact Signed English, but I think I mixed that up with PSE somehow :Oops: (Or more to the point I probably don't know what I'm talking about... lol)

That's why I'm asking questions, to learn! :)
Click to expand...



Good luck with improving on your skills.
 
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CSign said:
Contact sign is typically reserved for individuals who are Deaf-Blind.

Good luck with improving on your skills.
Click to expand...

kdl88 said:
I guess I'm confused then. Here is where I am getting my reference. I'm just making sure I'm talking about the right thing.

Contact sign - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
contact signing / pidgin signed english

I don't think it is for Deaf-Blind based on the above, but I don't pretend to be an expert either. I think for clarity-sake, I will just say PSE to avoid any confusion.
Click to expand...

Tactile signing is the term for sign used with deaf/blind persons.
 
That's quite OK. I thought I was messed up for a minute there. Thanks everyone for their input, I appreciate it!
 
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