Nachtschleicher

Hello everyone!

I’m hard of hearing myself, and I’m just interested in seeing if there are any deaf or hard of hearing people here. Even if you just know sign language (American Sign Language, or Singing Exact English), another dead/hard of hearing person, or am just interested in the deaf culture, just give a “What’s up” or whatever. No special reason other than my curiosity.

Thank you, have a good ‘un.

feelgood

Sup. I used to sign but I relearn how to speak and hear so, it kinda worn out its use.

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Looking out the window, that's an act of war. Staring at my shoes, that's an act of war. Committing an act of war? Oh you better believe that's an act of war

rogue49

I used love & live with a Deaf girl for 2 years in San Diego (which has a large deaf community)
So I'm fluent in ASL. (you know you're fluent if you can argue with it.)
Unfortunately it didn't work out, however even to this day I find myself signing while I'm talking sometimes,
even to a hearing person. (they are like what are you doing with your hands?)
hmm...or is that my dates that say that?


Welcome to the TFP guy, I'm glad you asked,
I've always wondered how many of our members are a part of deaf culture.

Randerolf

Hello,

I'm not deaf, but the family the bought my old hosue has a deaf girl a year couple of years younger then me. I learned some ASL in kindergarded but I forgot most of it.

I feel kind of unsure what to do. I just kind of wave and smile. Talk sometimes on AIM.

There was a deaf couple at a party they went to. They were AWESOME. They were funny and playful. I can't remember what we "talked" about, but I remmeber how cool they were.

I'd love to learn more about deaf culture.

em1014

My 5th grade teacher taught for NC's school for the deaf for many years before she decided to move to public school. She signed to us quite often not realizing what she was doing. Ever since then I've wanted to learn more. I'm taking a SL course in school now but it wasn't what I was hoping for. It's more sign recognition then conversational skills. I was also hoping to learn more ASL then signed eng. I guess I can't expect too much considering it is a big class and we only meet once a week for a semester.

Speed_Gibson

I know some sign language as I do work with a few hearing impaired clients. But the higher functioning clients that actually use it tend to have their own small variations that would be considered wrong by most official standards.

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Started talking to yourself I see.
Yes, it's the only way I can be certain of an intelligent conversation.

Black Adder

oberon

I have a profound hearing loss (since birth in both ears). In June 2002 I got a cochlear implant, and ever since my hearing has improved quite a bit.

By the way, I never learned a single bit of ASL. I read lips instead. Much easier to find people to communicate with that way, or so I think.

Deaf culture? Guess I haven't really gotten into that. Most of my life I've gone to school with people who could hear just fine. There are like a dozen of us out of 40,000 students at Purdue University, where I am working on my degree. Suits me fine.

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"There are finer fish in the sea than have ever been caught." -- Irish proverb

water_boy1999

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Doh!!!!


-Homer Simpson

cj22009

Im 100% deaf in left ear but can hear fine in right ear

amonkie

Hmm... we're not alone! I'm completely deaf in left ear, 80% deaf in right, so have an over the ear. I was a fluent signer until I was about ten, then moved into a big public school where they didn't like me signing, so I stopped. Mostly read lips now, I don't think I'll ever perfect it, but most people don't notice

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Calling from deep in the heart, from where the eyes can't see and the ears can't hear, from where the mountain trails end and only love can go... ~~~ Three Rivers Hare Krishna

Averett

Rogue, did you know how to sign beofre you met her, or did you learn as a result? Thats pretty cool I think.

I went to school with a girl who was hearing impaired. She was one of the nicest girls I've ever known. It affected her speach a bit, so sometimes it was hard to understand her, and we would have to make sure to face her as we talked to her since she read lips.

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Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

Vyk

I am hearing. I work for Sprint Relay and relay calls for the deaf and hard of hearing as my job. It's a fun job and I love helping folks.

I have started taking ASL classes at my university and am really enjoying them. I've always had a hard time learning 'foreign languages' but am learning ASL very easily. It just 'feels' right.

My boss Matthew is Hard of Hearing and is like the girl Averett described. He can read lips and has partial hearing so as long as you make sure and face him, he can understand you. He's helping me learn sign which is great.

His friend organizes meetings of Deaf people through the web site www.deafcoffee.com here in Ohio. The Deaf people I've met have all been very supportive about me learning sign and very friendly. Great people.

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"Courage of the heart is very rare"

Nachtschleicher

How’s it going everyone?

It’s cool to see so many people who are/know/like deaf people and the community. I think it’s really cool. Thanks for the replies.

Rogue49, believe it or not, I wouldn’t be surprised are more fluent in ASL than I am. I depend on reading lips, talking and hearing more than sign. I’m still in high school (had to take a “deaf” kindergarten, then be mainstreamed the next year into regular kindergarten), and while I have interpreters, I really don’t use them, so basically I sign only when talking to other deaf friends. Other than that, I talk. I know what you mean about the signing/talking to a hearing person, but I am usually doing the opposite; I talk instead of signing. The Deaf people hate me for that. (Capital D in Deaf means the DEAF people, as in the culturally involved people, all deaf friends, stuff like that. Small d in deaf refers to all deaf people, hard of hearing, and deaf)

Speed_Gibson, I believe I know what you’re talking about. It’s short of like an accent in the deaf world. Who would’ a thought? Accents in the deaf world? Hey, could that be an oxymoron? Anyone know?

water_boy1999, what you said reminds me of a joke. An old deaf joke, but it goes like this, “I’m not deaf, I’m just ignoring you.”

Vyk, must be intresting to have that kind of job. I know you’re sworn to confidentiality with those calls, but I bet you hear/read all kinds of interesting stuff. Most people have an easier time with sign than spoken languages because it’s a visual language, or at least that’s what my deaf/ASL teacher tells me. Would you agree?

I’d like to say thank you to everyone who posted here. I really didn’t expect that many replies so fast. Until next time, adios! Have a good ‘un!

rogue49

I didn't know shit before I met her,
I learned it all for her.

I loved her very much, it's a shame that it didn't work out.
But neither one of us were really ready for dealing with another person in our lives,
we were both young still trying to grow up & become self-sufficient adults.

She was a very beautiful & sweet girl, it's one of my major regrets in my life
I just wish her own family had treated her better.
(ignorance is not bliss for those who have to deal with it)

I wish people would get a clue.

ubertuber

My little sister is deaf in a legal sense. In a real world, her hearing is ok, just severely impaired at multiple frequencies. For instance, she actually has a hard time understanding me if she can't see my lips while female voices are pretty intelligible. She is a wonderful lip reader and her speech is good enough that most people hardly notice any impediment. All in all, she can make conversation so well that people don't realize she has a disability. The catch is that sometimes she has no clue what's going on but can "fake" it well enough that you don't realize. It makes me stop and think about the fact that she is so tired of asking people to explain and repeat themselves that she'll just opt out of a conversation and fake understanding. She's got a bunch of deaf friends, including some profoundly deaf. I took sign language but am so out of practice that I probably have the communication skills of a younger toddler.

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Cogito ergo spud -- I think, therefore I yam

feelgood

That's exactly what I am all about.

Unfortunately, I can't speak alot of words very well. Alot of people might mistake me for a foreigner from Holland.

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Looking out the window, that's an act of war. Staring at my shoes, that's an act of war. Committing an act of war? Oh you better believe that's an act of war

raeanna74

I started learning sign language when I was only about 6 or 7. I had a friend then who was almost completely deaf. I remember being shocked when her brother threw a ball that was headed towards her head. I reacted like I normally would have and yelled and she turned in response. I thought she was getting her hearing back or something at that time. I learned a lot of sign language from her and she gave me my name sign (a letter H on each cheak since Heather is the name of a flower).

Later the church we attended when I was a teenager had a deaf ministry with a number of deaf or hard of hearing people there. I perfected my knowledge of it to the point where I was interpreting for services. I have done the interpreting for my parents church once in a while since then but that was almost 10 years ago and I'm so rusty. When I'm done interpreting I feel so exhausted.

When I was 19 I got engaged to one of the men at our church then. He was technically hard-of-hearing. Our relationship didn't last because there were too many differences - I was 19, he was 29 - and the deaf culture was enough different from my lifestyle. He was used to living off the state because of his disability while he was quite a capable young man. I watched him hop from job to job because he didn't like the work. He worked for my Dad for a while even and just didn't like construction. He was quite set in his ways too. I met enough other deaf who were friends of his to know that he wasn't the typical of their culture. It really opened doors for me to get to know other's and see the trouble they'd go through. I did some interpreting for my fiance when we'd go places and there were so many times where he'd misunderstand someone because he was lipreading. He was good at lipreading but those time when he didn't understand he would try to hide it. I learned to ask him to repeat things to me that I'd said if it was important that he knew what I was saying. That would help keep our lines of communication going.

My knowledge of sign-language helped me later when I was working in a day care and we had a child come in who's parents were both deaf. I happened to know the parents and this little boy and knew what he could do. He pretended that he couldn't hear the teachers and ignored their instructions. I know he could hear them and I told him so in sign language and words. When he realized that I could sign then he didn't have an out or way to ignore us and listened and obeyed. He also didn't seem so anxious and scared either.

I've found that many deaf don't like it if you just sign and don't talk. Those that can hear do use the sound of your voice to help them get more meaning and those who can't hear can understand more clearly what you are saying by combining lipreading with sign language.

I have been put in many situations where I've been so thankful for knowing sign language. Even one time helped my boss at the gun shop when a customer came in who only understood sign. They were having a hard time communicating by writing but when I asked in sign and voice if I could help I saw the customers eyes light up. He was thrilled to have someone who could understand. There is also a lab technician at our local clinic who I've talked to who is deaf. He can hear some sounds but not enough to differentiate what is being said.

I hope this didn't seem too long. I've enjoyed working beside and with the deaf and have learned a lot.

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My Karma just ran over your Dogma.

bermuDa

My mother teaches Severely Handicapped at the elementary level, and my sister is a speech pathologist major. They both know ASL but I'm not sure what level of fluency. I only know the alphabet, but I have a friend whose parents are both deaf, so she and her sister are fluent and taught me a few swears

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I am the very model of a moderator gentleman.

oberon

I should point out that it's a very gray concept, as ubertuber shows.

Being deaf does not mean you can't hear anything (or just any particular thing), it only means you have a large loss for a given set of frequency ranges. (This has been a personal pet peeve for a long time, people not understanding this.)

In my case, my loss is profound but only for frequencies between ~3kHz and ~8kHz. It's actually fairly normal in low frequencies. So human communication is more difficult for me than listening to instrumental music.

In addition, there are people who lost all hearing in one ear but are perfectly fine in the other.

And you know, it's really no surprise to me that deaf people are (mostly) awesome, friendly folks. We are, after all, human.

raeanna74, I'm surprised that your friend managed to make it in life until he was 29 without figuring out that hiding misunderstanding serves no purpose. But I guess I can't be too surprised, as the same thing is true for people who can hear too. Everyone pretends they understand, to an extent, what their peers are saying. I can very easily tell when someone does not understand me, because I've seen it so many times in the last 20 years. My friends figure out there's no escaping that, so they fess up every time now.

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"There are finer fish in the sea than have ever been caught." -- Irish proverb

oberon

sorry, i quoted instead of editing the above post...

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"There are finer fish in the sea than have ever been caught." -- Irish proverb

Nachtschleicher

raeanna74, your reply wasn't long at all!

Sorry to hear your relationship didn't work out well. I hate people who are deaf or hard of hearing and have disability. As far as I'm concearned, being deaf dosen't get you the right to live off taxpayer's money but... that's just my humble opinion.

Cool name sign. I knew someone at CSD Fremont (California School for the Deaf-Fremont) with the same name, and name sign as yours.

I was thrilled to hear that you work in a gun shop AND that a deaf guy was in there! I'm very pro-gun myself, and participate regularly in smallbore, and highpower competition, and this Sunday, I may be shooting my first black powder muzzle-loading match.

I talk those who are hearing impaired rather than sign, but usually I talk AND sign since they sometimes miss what I say. Sometimes when I'm talking to an ALMOST deaf person I'll use their "voice" while signing. Like my friend Charles for example. I can imitate his voice exactly. I don't know how, but I can. So I talk to him with his voice (hoping that he may understand better. But just now as I wrote that, I realize that may be harder for him to understand). I think I’ll just use my voice from now on.

It was cool to hear about you, thanks for sharing.

bermuDa, that's funny. Swear words are the first thing that hearing people want to learn. This is true for any language. There's something about cussing in another language and not having people understand you that is "special". Not really special, but I'm sure you get my meaning.

NickKell

I work with a deaf guy. He once got hit by a train, because he couldn't hear it coming. He sued the train company and won. The guy is strange. He takes garbage bags full of ice home and all the empty cans. He also cannot write and can't read, either, as far as I can tell. He's a jerk, too. He tattles on other workers. Not a slam against all deaf people, just this one in particular.

susartele

I am often accused of being hard of hearing and I know it is becoming a problem. Background noise just makes it impossible to hear people sometimes.
I hate the thoughts of wearing a hearing aid because I am afraid it will be worse than how my hearing is now.........and they cost the big bucks.
I also think this is something that runs in my family since my sister and a couple of my brothers seem to be headed the same way.
On the other hand it can be very convenient to not "hear" someone!

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www.artelevision.com

feelgood

Your insurance company or the company you work for can probably cover for the cost of it. My hearing aid's is pretty much free, my dad's work health coverage takes the cost of it away.

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Looking out the window, that's an act of war. Staring at my shoes, that's an act of war. Committing an act of war? Oh you better believe that's an act of war

HamiC

I have no hearing loss, but have learned a basic ASL vocabulary because I had a deaf employee (who no longer works for me, but is still with the same company). She reads lips incredibly well, but does not speak very well/comfortably. It only seemed fair to try to learn how to sign with her.

Recently, I was on a plane from Denver to Boston with approximately 20 deaf passengers who seemed to be very pleasantly suprised when I was able to sign with them. It fealt good to be able to communicate.

It reminded me of the reception you get when you go to a foreign country and take the time to learn basic pleasantries/requests. If you show respect.....you get so much more in return.

AliciaKostic

I am HOH too. It is mild hearing loss, on both ears, induced by chemotherapy, five years ago. I wear pair of Bernafon SmilePlus "Full Shell" ITE's and they help much! And they look cool. Before I wore Oticon BTE's, but there was a problem when wearing glasses what I very often do. I have few HOH frineds, but half of them do not wear HA's... mostly because they think its price would not fit what they would get.
Interesting that hearing loss is something like "illnes of the 21th century". Some statistics show that 17% of teenagers have soem hearing loss in one or both ears. Mostly, it is "music-induced hearing loss" because of too loud music. Also, 40% of professional musicians have hearing loss!

Alicia

ShaniFaye

I lost 75% in my left ear when I was younger due to an ear infection. I have no problem with the high frequencies in that ear, its the low ones I cant hear. I know a little signing, not much, mainly the alphabet. I've always wanted to learn though and I've thought about taking classes. I read lips pretty well....

I'm also (not legally) but blind Im a -7.50 in both eyes so If I dont have my glasses on its hard for me to hear and I cant hear well if you're walking in front of me and talking. I think with my right ear taking up the slack, thats the reason I have a very low tolerance for a lot of bass in anything. It throws my equilibrium off something terrible.

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I want the diabetic plan that comes with rollover carbs. I dont like the unused one expiring at midnite!!

warrrreagl

I am a musician who signs. Years ago, I used to teach elementary school music, and we had about two dozen deaf kids in the school who were all mainstreamed into the music classes. Therefore, I learned American Sign Language and had the great opportunity and pleasure of teaching music to deaf kids. Our school even had a Hearing Impaired Handbell Choir. We color-coded the notes and put the music on giant flip charts.

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Living is easy with eyes closed.

AliciaKostic

BTW, I openned separate thread "HOH ladies"

Crisis

I have a deaf friend. Since meeting her I have a habit of thinking people can't hear me if they're not looking at me :P

texasmortarman

I just got my hearing aids last week, I suffered hearing damage from a close encounter with a lot of gun fire and close explosions in two wars.

AliciaKostic

My hearing loss is mild (about 35-40 db) at low-tones, up to 1500-2000 Hz, but goes to moderate (about 60-65) at hig-tones (4000-8000). My hearing loss is mostly innfluenced by chemo-therapy I had 5 years ago, but I'm wandering why it is so high at high-tones? I heard that lot of young generation, teenagers and in early 20-s, are suffering "noise-induced hearing loss", at high-tones only, due to lod music listening. So, maybe my hearing loss is partially influenced by the same? I'm intersting how many of you are suffering that sort of loss?
Alicia

noodles

i'm fluent in ASL because my grandmother is deaf (has been deaf since essentially birth)