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- Jan 22, 2012
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I've had a funny experience with Deaf people in my area. When I would go to the Deaf club (and many times be the only hearing person there) to practice my ASL, once in a while another hearing person would show up. And then my Deaf friends would come up to me all excited and say "Hey! There's another hearing person! You can talk to them!" Like I was going to be really thrilled to talk to another hearie.
Of course I have no interest in talking (literally talking) to a hearing person - I drove to the Deaf club to sign and interact with Deaf people. At first I would get frustrated when that would happen, but then it occurred to me, this is probably their gut reaction from their own experience maybe? Like if you're Deaf and you come across another Deaf person out in the world and you both use ASL, it's probably nice to sign with them and have some decent communication? That's my guess.
I would try to explain this (that I'm not there to talk (voice)) but back then my ASL might not have been good enough to get my point across, or maybe they didn't care, or maybe I should focus on the fact that by "club" I basically mean "bar with membership", so people might not have been processing information at their optimal levels.
Anyway, last night I was in a hearing bar with three Deaf friends in a part of town with a decent number of people who know some sign. I met a guy (hearing) who has been learning to sign and was really excited to get some more practice. So we were signing to each other, and one of my Deaf friends stopped us. He looked at me and pointed at the guy and said (very emphatically) "Hearing!" Then he looked at him and stressed that I was hearing. Then he told us that we can talk to each other. Then he basically told us to start talking.
I just started to laugh. I told him that it's not the same as it is for Deaf people. I told him that hearing people who don't sign are everywhere, there are more of us than anyone could possibly want, that there's nothing appealing to me about talking. I told him the guy wanted to practice so we were practicing. I don't know if he really got it (I do know that he was pretty drunk, so I'll cut him a break if he didn't) but he did let us sign after that.
Of course I have no interest in talking (literally talking) to a hearing person - I drove to the Deaf club to sign and interact with Deaf people. At first I would get frustrated when that would happen, but then it occurred to me, this is probably their gut reaction from their own experience maybe? Like if you're Deaf and you come across another Deaf person out in the world and you both use ASL, it's probably nice to sign with them and have some decent communication? That's my guess.
I would try to explain this (that I'm not there to talk (voice)) but back then my ASL might not have been good enough to get my point across, or maybe they didn't care, or maybe I should focus on the fact that by "club" I basically mean "bar with membership", so people might not have been processing information at their optimal levels.
Anyway, last night I was in a hearing bar with three Deaf friends in a part of town with a decent number of people who know some sign. I met a guy (hearing) who has been learning to sign and was really excited to get some more practice. So we were signing to each other, and one of my Deaf friends stopped us. He looked at me and pointed at the guy and said (very emphatically) "Hearing!" Then he looked at him and stressed that I was hearing. Then he told us that we can talk to each other. Then he basically told us to start talking.
I just started to laugh. I told him that it's not the same as it is for Deaf people. I told him that hearing people who don't sign are everywhere, there are more of us than anyone could possibly want, that there's nothing appealing to me about talking. I told him the guy wanted to practice so we were practicing. I don't know if he really got it (I do know that he was pretty drunk, so I'll cut him a break if he didn't) but he did let us sign after that.
