A Deafie's Pet Peeve About Living Among The Hearies

[Jennypho]

'What's it like being deaf then?'

Seriously - how can you explain that if you've got no understanding of what its like to hear? I normally give them a light hearted answer along the lines of 'heyyy its great! You should try it sometime - Snoring husband? Pah. Crying babies on airplanes? *click* and the noise is gone (the amount of times I've been on the receiving end of some seriously filthy looks when I'm happily engrossed in my book or lightly snoozing! )

If they persist and say 'No, really, what IS it like?!' I have to reiterate that I can't answer that question and give my stock sample reply - ''Look at that grass. Now do you think the green you're seeing is the same green that I'm seeing? Hmm? Think about that for a moment. Ha - that made you think didn't it?! Now try to explain to me why your colour green is different to mine.... you can't? Really? Now ask me again what is it like being deaf and you might see why that it is a little hard for me to explain to you having never experienced 'normal' hearing''

Reading this immediately made me think of the question "What is (name_of_colour) like?" from a blind person. How DO you do that?? I do not have a fulfilling answer to that :T Some colours, maybe, but people will describe the same colour differently...

One thing I do find that hearing people can never understand nor appreciate is the blissful wonderful experience of total and absolute peaceful glorious silence. I occasionally, when I can, go for a day or two without wearing my hearing aids just to give my brain a rest - its heaven!

It is not the same but, the equivalent for the hearing is to put on headphones. Big bulky ones, or even the inserts, doesn't matter. You don't even need to have anything playing, it's normally understood that it means you are not to be talked to.
Unfortunately, whether or not that we do play music, we could still hear everything we don't want to. Even if we really focus on tuning it all out. So, you got me there.
Deaf: 1 Jenny: 0


Seriously though, a coworker of mine(gonna call her Sue) is deaf and she is absolutely amazing. She doesn't take any ignorance, has great sarcastic remarks/responses, and makes it really hard for me to keep a straight face when I'm helping a different costumer. My favourite response from her is (after she tells a customer that she's deaf) "I see your lips is flapping but I am not hearing anything"

Sue and I were serving hot food one day when this woman came in with a strong attitude problem. (I was with my own customer) She would talk fast, be VERY peculiar on which specific piece of food she wanted: "I want the crispy one" *grabs one* "behind that one!", point to everything but not face my coworker. Then after learning that Sue was deaf, she would lean in as close as she could while flailing her arms about what it is she wanted. Sue was done. She started laughing. Still serving her, but laughed and smiled the rest of the time. Customer raised her voice hoping our manager would overhear. When he did peek around the corner to see what was up, he walked away shaking his head, smiling.
Later, when I asked Sue if she was okay, her response was "She looked like she was having a tantrum fit."
Oh.

 

[Beowulf]

What's the sound of one hand clapping? Only the inscrutable Chinese know.
Or us deafies.

 

[BecLak]

Its been over 40 years for me and I had to learn how to read lips at an early age, not that I had a choice. If I did... It wouldn't be a spoken language, sorry hearing folks, this is just me. I like my ASL where I can FEEL ... LIKE ME. I know most hearing folks will not understand this. We are not broken. The man upstairs made us this way, IF he said we are good this way, why can't you hearing people feel the same? *sighs*

I agree 100% - Same for me. I wish I had access to Sign Language when I was young. It is now my preferred language.

 

[peekaboo]

I agree 100% - Same for me. I wish I had access to Sign Language when I was young. It is now my preferred language.

I learned some signs when I had to learn how to speak and wear them HUGE hearing aid thingy they made us wear all the way to high school. Gosh, How EMBARRASSING!!!! And then I forgot some of the signs as I was being transferred to school to school after I finally went to a special ed class for the deaf and HOH in mainstream schools, however, I didnt know any signs, all of them knew but me. Talk about AWKKward! I had to relearn ASL through them, after that, I went to another school adn forgot signs again, then went to another school, fnally was able to use ASL, only this time I didnt forget. ha ha

 

[BecLak]

Im self-taught in Auslan (Australian Sign Language) that is because due to my medical condition, Im mostly house-bound. Im the only one who is dhh in my family. The internet has been my life-saver in regards to utilizing better modes of communication. Ive found however, that using sign language in public, actually makes people aware to accomodate you, as it is visual and your deafness is no longer invisible.