Weird night.....

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tegumi

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I also said the same thing in another thread under Seattle, Tacoma... but I thought I would mention it here since that is an old thread that is probably not viewed.

Wierd night.....

I went to the Bellevue Starbucks tonite for the Deaf get together, and I felt rather wierd and left after only 5 or 10 minutes. As far as I could tell, I didnt see any Deaf or HoH people, only ASL students. The students I did see though werent using ASL properly. For example, I watched two hearing girls "signing" when all they really did was fingerspell every word. One girl asked her friend "w-h-a-t k-i-n-d o-f c-o-f-f-e-e d-o y-o-u w-a-n-t?" and she fingerspelled every single word.... wierd... From what I could tell, nobody there was Deaf, although one of the two girls fingerspelling every word had a slight monotone voice, so I believed her to be Deaf or HoH, and then I saw her fingerspelling everything and not signing. Strange... I did see a small group of people signing, but I felt like I would feel akward and out of place if I joined them since I didnt know them. Did I leave too early and some Deafies showed up later? Not to mention my father wanted to go, so he went with me, and he knows absolutely NO sign, and doesnt understand Deaf culture, manners, etc. so I felt wierd with him being there. I plan on finding someone from my class to go with me next friday to the one in Seattle, and maybe there will be some native signers or at least people who use signs at this one? LoL

Teg
 
:lol: I know what you mean there, I had an interpreter once at my son's school meeting, and all she did was finger spell the entire converation during a hour meeting with the teacher....I thought it will take me at least two or three hours before the meeting will be over with :ugh: , but I did called the Board of Education about the interpreter that the school hired, and she told me that they couldn't find anyone to interpreter that day, and they knew of a high school student's mother that knew sign language....I told them next time they can't find an interpreter cancelled the meeting instead of providing one that may know sign language...

I don't blame you one bit on how you felt when you were around those who only knew finger spelling, it takes forever for someone to finished what they're trying to say....I might would have left too if I was there... :aw:
 
yeah, it was wierd...... I signed to one of the girls "where do you live? I live in Oak Harbor." and she gave me this wierd look and then she fingerspelled "w-h-a-t?" and she wanted me to fingerspell everything I just signed... :wtf: and that is when I left.... LoL

If you read this Sequoias, did you go last night? Any other Deaf people in Seattle? I think my first experience was just a bad one, I still want to go to the one next friday at the Starbucks in Seattle.
 
I didn't go, did u read my post about my brother's death? That's why I didn't go. That social in Bellevue was ASL night for mostly hearing people, they are learning to sign, that's why u don't see many deaf there, sometimes. It was a event created by BCC ASL club (Bellevue Community College)
 
Awwwww man..... Im sorry to hear about that, I hope you are alright... my best friend just lost her mom to cancer, my friend is only 18, mom was only 40.....

Yeah, I didnt like that very much at the Bellevue Starbucks... I understand that they are hearing students learning sign, just like me, but it seemed like they didnt have much appreciation for learning ANY signs, since all they did was fingerspell everything, or they surely seemed to not know anything about the culture or manners. Alot of them were talking at the same time they were signing, which was another :wtf: ... LoL...

Those wierd girls fingerspelling reminded me of what hearing girls in my high school did... they basically made their own language similar to pig latin. Thats all those girls were doing, they didnt care about learning signs, just wanted to fingerspell every single word, in english word order, and full complete sentences so they could talk about people behind their backs, and they people didnt know what they were saying.

Anyway, are any of the other ones have a Deaf majority, or at least some Deaf people? No offense to any other hearing people, because I am hearing myself, but they best way to learn any language is from a native speaker, and I am excited about signing with Deaf people, because I only have 1 Deaf person in my city I sign with.

Teg
 
I went to a deaf catholic church back years ago and the Priest signed fingers spelling too but instead of fingers spelling to your face he does it the other way around "to himself" I was sitting there thinking should we sit behind him to read his fingers spelling? :laugh2:


I know how you feel tegumi :hug:
 
what do they think they are doing just fingerspelling everything? Do they not want to learn signs? Plus, if you learn signs, it is easier and faster to say what you want. It is pretty funny that I know what they are doing is wrong, and I have only been learning sign since December.

Teg
 
That was so strange -tegumi. Interesting...maybe that night happened to be full of ASL students all eager to meet deafies at the event at Starbucks. I go to the local pub, AleWorks, for a deaf gathering that happens every Wednesday and I do run in to people who are ASL students there.
 
but if you want to meet deafies, shouldnt you use signs and not just fingerspell every single word? LoL
 
Cheri said:
I went to a deaf catholic church back years ago and the Priest signed fingers spelling too but instead of fingers spelling to your face he does it the other way around "to himself" I was sitting there thinking should we sit behind him to read his fingers spelling? :laugh2:
Click to expand...

:laugh2:
 
Maybe, you could tell them that they need to learn how to use sign language instead of the spellings. Or, wouldn't you be glad to teach them to do the right thing so that they would appreciate it? They need to know that. Maybe, they would give you free coffee every time you come to the store. :lol:
 
I was doing that..... I showed them "what kind of coffee do you want" in sign, and they wanted me to fingerspell it... :lol: ... its not the people who work at the starbucks, its the people who go there so I dont think i would get free coffee. Plus, i dont really like correcting peoples signs or signing abilites, because I have only been signing 6 months. But, I do know way more signs that the average newbie. :lol:
 
I'm seeing the same thing at Starbucks in Orange in which 90% of the people going to the deaf social to be hearing ASL students. Most of the ASL deafs have gone somewhere else.

I've been put in charge of 2 Oral Deaf Orange County bowling leagues with the deaf kids playing in Norwalk in Sunday afternoons and the deaf adults playing in Lake Forest later on the evening.

ASL students are welcome to see the evolutionary phases of deaf society at any of our ODOC leagues.

Richard
 
If the ASL Deafs don't show up, and the hearing ASL signers leave early, then who will teach the students the proper way to sign, and who will teach the students about Deaf culture? Maybe the fingerspellers were very new students and didn't yet know anything about "signs." It takes a lot of courage for a new signer to even show up at these meetings, so I hope they don't get discouraged.
 
I have friends who are my sources for Deaf culture and learning more signs, but from what I saw Reba, these girls had no interest in learning signs, they were just using ASL fingerspelling as their code language to talk about people. I didnt see them use a single sign, and they would fingerspell an entire sentence, they would even fingerspell "the" "is" and "a". I even showed them some signs for the words they were fingerspelling and they completely blew me off. :crazy: I knew they were talking about people because they were trying to hide their fingerspelling sometimes too.

Teg
 
Thanks for clarifying the situation. :)
 
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