Any deaf BYCers?

[EweSheep]

(raising hand)

I've been deaf/HOH since birth and tell you there are so many good and bad things about being deaf.

Not easy being one when the ratio of hearing people outweighs more than the deaf community. AND getting jobs is NOT easy when employers use this excuse "well, we would have hired you but the problem is, that we would have to hire or pull off someone off the line to do your phone calls" when I was applying for health insurance billing/processing clerk at hospitals and doctor's offices. I was very lucky to get the job of ten years at NECA IBEW health insurance before they terminated me and it was unfortunate that the ppl there were not so kind to me about "teaching" me or skim over the stuff and expect me to learn it all with bare bones minimum because you were short on time. Then tried to find jobs were like needles in haystack, turned down every time even they love the skills, experience and education I had but my deafness/unable to use the voice phones is what stopped me from getting jobs. So I went on SSD very reluctingly..I hated it and didn't want to depend on the government. Funny that my parents NEVER collected disabl for me when I was growing up, in schools, they had enough funds to get by.

No I was never in deaf community schools or colleges, never felt "fit in". I've been in the hearing mainstream for so long that I kind of "shun" the deaf community because of a few reason that I am selfish or ignorant and uncomfortable. The communication skills taught in those schools sucks....for example, proper English grammar would be read and spoken like this: We are going to the store. AND I would sign it that way (English and ASL mixed in) but I speak in good English, not the chopped up ASL that just confuses me big time "We go store, will" ACK! Many times we both have to laugh at our sign languages because we were so busy trying to understand each other. And they are so highly excitable, highly animated with their signs and they wanted the world to look at them or "grandstanding" as I call it and I would ask him constantly to tone it down or calm down which it would either shut them down or ramp up the excitements that it makes nearby standby people nervous, not knowing if their signing hands will pop them in the face LOL! And my biggest pet peeves, is this......the source of information that they "heard" from someone without backing it up or make reference were silly and come across as "know it all" attitude "Its true, its true" when you know you did your research and it causes alot of resentments trying to let them know that the "closed" community is not always on top of things on the "outside" world.

The greatest boost for the deaf community are the CC on our TV's, Texting, internet with messenger and using TYYs for our phone calls via thru Relay. Remember Relay communications is not a selling gimmick company, it is a service for the hearing AND deaf alike to communicate and too many times, we get hung up simply because they thought the relay operator was trying to sell them something.

I started off learning the English sign language by my best friend and when I got into better schools, ASL was intermingled with the English sign language. When I went to college, ASL was the language of choice and I had a HARD time understanding it. I didn't like the missing adverbs, conjunctions, predicate adjustives/nominatives missing out and the verbs are all over the place in the sentence as if I was reading some kind of foreign language. I remember my high school teachers said I would not learn Spanish and it would be too hard for me to understand it. Well having some experience working with Spanish horses and socializing with spanish speaking people, lip reading was hard but reading and writing was simple enough to get by for me. Determination is what gets me somewhere. I have not signed in a good long time, almost 15 years since I left college but I have not forgotten some of the SL.

So overall I didnt do too bad in life, as being a president of a Welsummer club, I sure did surprise alot of members that I am deaf.

I have a hubby that hears well and so is my daughter which I have not yet taught her sign language but better get to it if she was needed to interpret for someone or a side job as a college student.

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
As for me, my signing is different but understood "chicken" and there were a few signs for chicken.

One would be using fingers for beak, opening and closing.
Another would be fingers as beak, pecking on the palm of your hand
Another one would be fingers toward side of lip, near check, closed beak fingers, AND pull outward as if you are pulling a feather out of skin THEN peck on your palm as if a chicken is pecking........this one was used mostly for fried chicken or eating chicken or chickens in general.

Deaf.....index finger from ear to mouth is all I know.
Rooster is correct also
Hen would be the "girl" sign then finger beak sign OR chicken beak sign WITH "egg" sign

The website is fine to get by but ASL has changed alot since then and you just go with the flow learning new signs as you go.

Yes the B* word still the same today LOLOL so are the other cuss words LOL!

 

[sonew123]

Quote:
As for me, my signing is different but understood "chicken" and there were a few signs for chicken.

One would be using fingers for beak, opening and closing.
Another would be fingers as beak, pecking on the palm of your hand
Another one would be fingers toward side of lip, near check, closed beak fingers, AND pull outward as if you are pulling a feather out of skin THEN peck on your palm as if a chicken is pecking........this one was used mostly for fried chicken or eating chicken or chickens in general.

Deaf.....index finger from ear to mouth is all I know.
Rooster is correct also
Hen would be the "girl" sign then finger beak sign OR chicken beak sign WITH "egg" sign

The website is fine to get by but ASL has changed alot since then and you just go with the flow learning new signs as you go.

Yes the B* word still the same today LOLOL so are the other cuss words LOL!

I just found myself trying to do what you are describing I love sign language--I have a deaf freind that doesnt need signing as she is reads lips perfectly! Growing up my Sis and I took a signing class and loved it bought the books and everything-we decided that that would be our secret language-no disrespect to anyone- we knew of no one that was deaf or knew sign language so we were safe "talking" amongst people we are 39 and 40 now and from time to time we do it infront of our children so they wont know were talking about them or infront of spouses etc... Now my DD's do it-they have been taking "lessons" on the internet-pretty cool watching my girls "talking" in silence! In our school system -they teach the kids the basics on signing for a semester-I think its great and more schools should do it

 

[speckledhen]

Tuffoldhen is deaf, if I recall. I used to teach sign language in the adult classes at night at the high school. It's a "use it or lose it" thing, though, so I've mostly lost it. I was always much better at sending than receiving, even back when I was teaching it.

 

[stilldeb]

I am HOH (due to breaking a windshield with my head many years ago) and used to teach all of the children's sign language classes for the local Deaf agency. We had a lot of fun in my class and I ended up having some of the parents take my class instead of the adult classes because they liked it better. Based on the fact that signs represent 'concepts or ideas' and not for the most part literal 'words, words, words', that is how I taught, with examples. We passed out mirrors for facial expressions, used plastic play food to teach food signs, etc. It was the loudest sign class in the building (from all the laughing, no talking allowed in sign class)!

Also taught signed music in the local schools/summer programs, done some interpreting in church, and performed with a Christmas sign choir, and once was a dancing "I Love You" hand in the Christmas parade - fun - got to 'bonk' my friends on the head with my thumb! I was very involved in the local Deaf community until my own illness/family obligations intervened, and once was able to prevent a friend who came to me after losing her own hearing to Lupus (which, by coincidence, is what I have recently been diagnosed with) for private tutoring from commiting suicide. All in all, it's been a complete and total blessing, and I think someone who decides to truly get involved will find it a fascinating world.

deb g
KY

 

[equine623]

My best friend is mostly deaf, has maybe 10% hearing in her left ear...hers is a progressive loss due to nerve degeneration. I sign, some, not enough really. Learned basically on the fly from being friends with her over the past couple years. She teaches in a college program for vet tech, is wildlife rehabber and is raising an amazing son. But it never ceases to amaze me how people automatically assume deaf = dumb. Or how uncomfortable the public gets when they find out she is deaf. Its not contagious people, get over it. Speak slowly and look at her so she can watch your mouth and face. I can understand why so many deaf feels so separated from hearing culture. And sign language is more than just a direct translation of spoken words, it truly is its own language which I remember being surprised about (yeah, I was ignorant, I admit it

)

What frightens me, at least in this area, was the horrendous medical care she was receiving. Until I started going with her to dr. appointment, she was never given the chance to answer questions, or really speak to the doctors. Nurses got impatient when she couldn't understand what they were saying. I'm sure some of that is because of the particular offices and their staff, but we have found that in most cases the medical staff was much happier to talk to me and use me to translate, rather than attempt to communicate with her. Makes me curious if there are other deaf/HOH who just don't go to the dr because its too frustrating.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Just an interesting piece of Deaf trivia....the football huddle was created at the Texas School for the Deaf. The other team was reading the plays as TSD's team discussed them, and so TSD's players "huddled" to keep the other team from eavesdropping on their plays. So history is made. TSD is also the oldest public school in Texas.


ASL is not translated or transliterated English. It is a language in and of itself. People in the Deaf community are very proud of their language and skills. It is also inflected, so larger/smaller signs convey meaning. I was working on becoming an interpreter when I realized I didn't really want to be part of someone's conversations on a daily basis. I might like interpreting in a school setting, but I'm not sure I would like the rest of it.

 

[EweSheep]

Never had any problems with the doctors, staff and hospitals at all.

Hubby was training to be an EMT in an emergency room and there was a deaf couple that got into an car accident and he got his head bumped in. That particular hospital didn't have any interpreters available and my hubby had some knowledge of basic sign language or use body language quite effectively for them to understand. When the specialist kept talking, walking around while that poor patient was bewildered whether he should get off the exam table and let him know that he is deaf and needs to read lips. Well hubby let the specialist know to face his patient and talk slowly but NOT IN A WIDE MOUTH FROG kind of thing. Over exaggeration of the lips and mouth would distort our reading of your lips so please don't do that LOL! Some of the signs hubby knows are "sick" "hurt" "where" "hot" "cold" as in fever, "name" "age" "sit" "lie down" "please" "thank you" "please to meet you" "Hello", just simple one or two worded conversation. If he does not understand, if the patient can write, he will give them the clipboard with paper and pen and let them write in "shorthand" like you do for cell phones.

I've had alot of interpreters over the years and majority of them are very good. The worse ones are the learning students...it was awful and it was NOT their fault for coming on a field class trip and they could not intepret the words needed for certain things and I thanked them for the job and went up to the dean and LOUDLY complained of the way they were using students that are not qualified to interpret on field trips. You can bet it didn't happen again. So from then on, the students had to pass the course before they go on field trips with us, as students. It was the Mexican culture class with all those Mexican gods, imagine the look on the student interpreter's face like "HELP!" or what have I gotten myself into LOL. She made alot of attempts to sign, which it was very halting, slow and waiting to think of a word for the Sun God, or simple words as the Mayans and Aztecs and previously my regular interpreter and I made up some signs for each god. QUETZALCOATL was the god of sun so she would sign "Sun God" but mouthed the word Quetzalcoatl with those two signs. It was a challenge for her and I loved her dearly and wanted her to sign for all my classes.

I think the problem still persists in some service industry how they treat deaf and HOH and elderly folks. Back then, the deaf and HOH folks were treated badly and now the years have gone by, it is commonplace to see them in all different ages. Sometimes I caught myself signing a word to an elderly man, when he could not hear me well, asking about what time it was and I signed "time?" pointing to my wrist and the elderly man understood LOL! So sign language isn't reserved for deaf/HOH folks, it can be useful for elderly folks with bad hearing or a noisy environment that yelling or screaming will not be heard. One time I remember reading a story about one lady who tried to get the attention of a construction leader to stop and have lunch...he could not hear her over the drills and slamming of concrete, etc. So she decided to do some simple signs "STOP, TIME to EAT" hand cutting at throat, pointing at wrist and then rubbing stomach. Believe it or not, the men around the leader, stopped everything and understood it was time for lunch LOLOL!

I thought the oldest school was Gallaudet University in Washington DC. I have many many deaf friends going there but sadly, alot of them are knee deep in debt after so many years after leaving college and not too many of them would have high paying jobs which they should have had the same amount of pay as their hearing companions.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Just to clarify....Texas School of the Deaf is the oldest public school in Texas. The reason this is interesting is that there were no other public school in Texas at the time, and deaf education was considered so important that they established this school first. It may also be due to one of the "heroes of the revolution" being deaf.

I think some of the history of ASL is interesting too. It's origins are a combination of native American signs/language originating on Martha's Vineyard and in the Deaf schools in the east and the French sign language that Gallaudet brought to America. It is considered in the language family of French sign language, not British. This accounts for some of the syntax differences between ASL and English.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Yup, I've been totally deaf for almost 21 years now. I don't miss a thing about the hearing world, not one thing. I do the same things I've done all my life! I even traveled to Europe by myself. I tried sign language and I was the only person in the class that was deaf out of 22 people! I gave it up because they were more interested in their chatting voices than using their hands. lol I lip read and no one ever knows I'm deaf unless I tell them.

Grandkids know that grandma's ears are broke and I have no trouble understanding them, unless granddaughter has her binky in her mouth and does her binky talking!

I get people coming up to me wanting to sign all the time and I look at them funny and tell them to open their mouths and speak!!!