deaf accent!

Watch some youtube videos of some deaf people talking and you'll see what a deaf accent is like.

I like the idea of you doing a film showing a mainstreamed deaf kid - just be careful to let the audience know one's clarity of speech does not equate one's intelligence. The two are always linked together in the hearing world.
 
There is certainly a different tone to deaf speech and to me it sounds exactly the same for different people, for some reason. I'll be talking to a deaf person I just met and think they sound exactly like someone I know, it's uncanny.

I was on a date once with an audiologist and she told me it's obvious I'm deaf because of the tone of my voice, kinda shocked me. Since I haven't heard my own voice in years, I had to take her word for it.

I've never gotten they accent conversation from other people, but this past summer, I was putting my bike on the back of my truck and a young woman asked me to taker her picture. I had my back to her and couldn't hear her. She tapped me and asked in a slow voice, "do you understand English"? I said, yes, I'm deaf. She apologized and felt bad, but it didn't offend me in any way. I took some good pictures of her and the other young ladies.
 
LDNanna said:
Dixie, seriously, my life is much less complicated VO. (voice off)
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Totally agree! The thing is though when I do go VO people ask me what's wrong. " Are you ok? ", " Don't feel well? ", " Are you mad?".

no.

I just prefer not to talk today. " why? ". :roll:

It's especially difficult at work to do this if the chatter bug is at work.
I appreciate several co-workers who communicate with me non-verbally. It's nice to be looking at the same thing only to look at each other and without saying a word have a conversation through our eyes or mouths that would be at least a sentence or two if spoken.

There is only two at work that do this one is a female tech and the other a doctor. Wish more people would try to communicate with me this way. It's sooo much easier and is right up my alley. :P
 
VacationGuy234 said:
There is certainly a different tone to deaf speech and to me it sounds exactly the same for different people, for some reason. I'll be talking to a deaf person I just met and think they sound exactly like someone I know, it's uncanny.

I was on a date once with an audiologist and she told me it's obvious I'm deaf because of the tone of my voice, kinda shocked me. Since I haven't heard my own voice in years, I had to take her word for it.

I've never gotten they accent conversation from other people, but this past summer, I was putting my bike on the back of my truck and a young woman asked me to taker her picture. I had my back to her and couldn't hear her. She tapped me and asked in a slow voice, "do you understand English"? I said, yes, I'm deaf. She apologized and felt bad, but it didn't offend me in any way. I took some good pictures of her and the other young ladies.
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People often won't tell you that you have a particular accent in relation to your hearing loss. That's the thing about a lot of people, they go around thinking they don't have an unique accent. People just don't say anything.
 
Cheetah said:
I want my deaf accent to be mistaken for a Swedish accent! :naughty:

Maybe Jaspheth can teach me??? :D
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:giggle: Let me get my ball gag out and some goodies out of my little black bag...

ya know I'm kinky...eh? the quiet ones always are...:eek3:

:giggle:

nah...the hellish speech therapy for 19 years is what did it, I think...I still get asked where I'm from but not as often since I've been out of school for many years I've gotten lazy with my speech. I've also married and so I just don't put as much effort into my speech because my husband knows what I'm saying. To anyone else it'd be gibberish. :giggle:

I really do not know what a swedish accent sounds like, it's been so many years since I heard that man speak to me but I could not understand him all that much from what I remember. :laugh2:
 
@Jaspeth, I do understand. Sometimes I just smile and shrug and even make a funny face. Not a goofy one understand (unless it is called for) just enough to lighten a mood. They get used to it.
At work I MUST talk because my boss wont put the others on the window duty. Its fairly easy though. A muppet errrr customer comes to the window and I see (one stamp please) or they toss a package with no postage on the counter. I say thanks, come again, cash or credit? I also say HUH?? a lot. lol
I do try to keep up with my main job of doing the data base and maintaining the book keeping end of things as well as reports and email. I dont have to do the phone so emails are my duty as well as billing and maintenance. Easy peasy. Just hide behind a big stack of papers and if someone gets my attention I make wide eyes at them with a big old "your kidding me right" glance at the paperwork. I have been known to ask an especially talkative (therefore exhausting) coworker if they want to help me by handing them a half stack of papers with a big question face and leaning toward and pointing to my monitor and keyboard. Works every time. lololol
 
that1hearingguy said:
Hey quick question. I am a second-year ASL student and LOVe the Deaf community and ASL. For a final project in my ASL class I combined my two greatest passions (ASL and film) and wrote a screenplay about a Deaf boy who is mainstreamed into a public school. I have been involved with theatre and acting ang have a knack for picking up accents but I cannot get the Deaf accent right. I need something that can be easily understood because the film will be viewed by hearing audiences but something that is accurate with the Deaf character. I was thinking of something like how Sean Frobes talks. Can anyone help me on how to do this?
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Seriously - don't "fake" a Deaf accent - it's rude, espeically if it's for an ASL class !! URGH.

The proper way to do this would be have the deaf character sign, and have someone off stage voice what is being signed.

The other option would be GETTING a deaf person who voices, be the character.


Seriously ... even on TV shows and movies it's considered it very poor taste to have someone pretend to be hoh/Deaf and fake a "deaf voice" because there are fantastic Deaf and Hoh actors out there who PROPERLY portray hoh/d/Deaf characters.



Do a voiceover ... it's the most culturally correct way to do it for your situation
 
Yeah, the fake deaf voice - too many hearing people had done that - to make a mockery. voice-overs, subtitles, whatever, would be a better option.

Maybe instead of showing how he talks, show how he hears or what he doesn't hear - the audience would get the point faster and much more clearly. I've often wanted people to be in my ears for a while so they would get an idea. So, perhaps show POV from his eyes? or ears, I should say.

Or get a deaf actor. Please don't have hearing actors faking deaf accents, it's too offensive.
 
jillio said:
Good point, Pepsi!

I used to especially hate it when my son would use voice with hearing kids on the playground, and some kid's mother would ask if he was "retarded". And I don't think they meant "cute".
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And to the lurkers or the parents of the oral kids.....this is exactly why oral only cannot 100% equalize dhh kids. We can hear and speak, but we do not sound like hearing people. Oral skills are very helpful....but god....every single time I try applying for a job, some dumbassed middle manager automaticly assumes I'm not exactly bright b/c of my voice?!?!?!
 
AND while there are some people who have absolutly no deaf accent, they are in the minority. The gross majority of dhh folks do have deaf accents.
 
Oh and I have a funny story. Back when Heather Whitestone became Miss AMerica, I went to school, and the next day everyone was all "Hey deafdyke....Miss America talks just like you do!"
 
I don't get that from people. When I speak german I am never asked where I'm from. People from other areas tell me I speak bavarian. People around here tell me I speak proper german.
With english it is a bit different. I do have an american accent. Once in a while I get that it's a real heavy accent and sometimes I'm asked where I'm from.

Well, probably one of the reasons no one ever believes me when I say I'm deaf:roll:
 
Yes I agree that hearing people playing deaf characters have mocked the deaf in their portrayals and yes I agree that for movie productions and the like, one should try to get a deaf/hh actor to play the role (unless it is a story about a late-deafened, first showing them hearing then deaf, then that might be too tricky depending on what it calls for), but if it is only for a school project and the actor/student does it right, takes it seriously, gives the deaf respect through his portrayal, as a deaf person with a slight deaf accent (some hearing deny my accent, but then ask where I'm from and don't believe it is Michigan), then I wouldn't feel offended or see it as rude or anything. Just my two cents.
 
I don't often get the deaf accent thing from the hearing though I know that I don't always quite sound like a hearing person when I stumble over a word I don't know how to pronounce.

When I went to NTID, people kept commenting that I sounded like i was from the South. I grew up in Virginia. When I worked at a grocery store, some lady in the flower dept thought that I was from Norway. When I was 12 the paper girl told me that I sounded deaf to her. I have not gotten this comment since I was 12 though. I did speak with a Maine accent because that's where my speech teacher was from when I was 6 or 7 years old.
 
deafdyke said:
AND while there are some people who have absolutly no deaf accent, they are in the minority. The gross majority of dhh folks do have deaf accents.
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I'm one of those few :( You'd THINK that would make things "easier" and I'd be happy about that, right ? WRONG.

Here's the problem - I don't really have an "hoh/deaf Accent", except if I'm quite ill, have a migraine or am exhausted or very emotional (so my family/immediate friends hear it occasionally, but not really co-workers & the "general public").

I do however struggle to pronounce things correctly if they have certain letter/sound combinations. It took me 15years to be confident enough to say "regular" out loud (and at 34, I still have to concentrate saying it!).

I have so many people tell me that I "absolutely can not be Deaf, or even Hard of Hearing because I don't talk like a real deaf person" or "I'm pretending to be Hoh because it's cool" or something else along those stupid lines.

The reason I don't generally have a noticeable accent is a likely a combination of factors, the main one being that I was initially born SSD deaf on my right, with normal hearing on my left - until I was about 7, when my left side started "fluxing out" (fluctuating HL ranging from mild, to moderately severe). The other reason because I was forced to be oral only, until I was legally an adult. Starting from about 8years old (when my hearing was getting worse) I would beg to be taught ASL, to be allowed to use ASL & English in school and at home etc. When the answer was "no", I started privately studied/memorized every Sign book there was & watching ASL on TV...knowing that some day it WOULD be my choice to communicate in ASL and English!
 
Anij said:
I'm one of those few :( You'd THINK that would make things "easier" and I'd be happy about that, right ? WRONG.

Here's the problem - I don't really have an "hoh/deaf Accent", except if I'm quite ill, have a migraine or am exhausted or very emotional (so my family/immediate friends hear it occasionally, but not really co-workers & the "general public").

I do however struggle to pronounce things correctly if they have certain letter/sound combinations. It took me 15years to be confident enough to say "regular" out loud (and at 34, I still have to concentrate saying it!).

I have so many people tell me that I "absolutely can not be Deaf, or even Hard of Hearing because I don't talk like a real deaf person" or "I'm pretending to be Hoh because it's cool" or something else along those stupid lines.
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I know exactly how you feel! Once but only once I got totally pissed at someone who wouldn't believe I was deaf and said soe not so nice things. Of course I felt bad after that:roll:
I noticed it helps if I swith to sign language. Yesterday on may way home I met some friends of mine and we were standing in the middle of a totally crowded train. I had my daughter on my back in a wrap and a woman who noticed that tipped my on the shoulder and asked, speaking really slow, if I want to sit down with the baby. My mistake, I answered her with more then just a head shake and a "no" or something. Because after I said "No, thank you. It's all right." she started to tell me some story or something, I have no clue. One of my friends signed to her: "She can't hear you, she is deaf.", turned me around and we got back to our conversation.
 
Totally bad form to fake a deaf voice. I would reject your film on principle.
 
One person thought I am Australian cause she knows a friend who is from Australia who speaks exactly the way I speak and I said no...? I was born and raised in North Carolina so I just speak that way lol.
 
my husband is also one of those few as Anij and DD mentioned.
I'm the one with an accent, or notice-able <to most> speech "difference"
 
:deaf:My favorite is when I first met my friend Sarah Jane Smit (AD name) and she didn't care about my "deaf accent" because she said everyone she met sounded strange (she's British) apparently a deaf accent was no weirder to her British ears then an american accent!
 
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