cultural differences
In MY experience, I have found that Hearing GENERALLY equate what Deaf call "blunt" with RUDE. It is "polite" in Hearing culture to HINT or "beat around the bush" or to expect people to "read between the lines." To be INDIRECT. HOWEVER, it is considered NORMAL (expected?) in Deaf culture to be very direct. I have met a few Deaf/HOH people who are much more "indirect." They also tend to voice when they sign, use signing that is more PSE than ASL, and use English mouthings when no Hearing people (who don't sign) are present. I, myself, am much more comfortable with Deaf people who use ASL (or even gesture), and observe the "traditional" social rules of Deaf culture. Probably because these Deaf people were the first ones I met. I did not learn to sign until I was twenty, and then I felt like I "came alive." I experienced genuine caring, warmth, kindness and patience, and true friendship at a time in my life when I had been UTTERLY REJECTED by "the Hearing world." Looking back, I realize NOW that I became "enculturated" into the local Deaf world a long time ago. I have thought about this stuff for a very long time, but I have decided "to come out" as Deaf/HOH. I feel MUCH MORE "settled" about who I am now.