Has anyone tried learning a foreign language w/ a hearing loss?

I had Latin and Spanish in h.s. (1 year Latin, 3 years Spanish), and I was quite good at them. In my adult career, I first studied French, which was very hard for me to understand. All those liaisons - it was hard to figure out what was a word; it all sort of ran together. About that time I started to lose my hearing.

I passed my French test (minimal professional fluency - level 3), and was ok with using it, but was never more than just ok.

Next language was Serbo-Croatian. This was very difficult grammatically, but pronounciation was a lot easier than French. By this time I was wearing hearing aids. I got to be pretty decent at it, but don't ask me to say much now, I've pretty much forgotten all of it.

Next came Portuguese. This was interesting because my old h.s. Spanish came back and I started speaking Portuguese with a Spanish accent. My Portuguese teacher worked very hard to get that accent out of me. I eventually learned to speak decent Portuguese with a Rio de Janeiro accent. I lived in Rio for 4 years and my Portuguese was pretty good.

After that I studied Spanish again professionally, and of course by this time, after having spoken Portuguese for 4 years, I began to speak Spanish with a Portuguese accent. I worked hard on it, but that accent was hard to lose.

And then the next time I went back to Rio for a visit, my Portuguese, which had been good, was tinted with the Spanish I had been using.

I now can confuse speakers of both languages equally. :lol:

Portuguese is probably my best language, then Spanish. S-C I've consigned to the dustbin of history. French I can still read, and I enjoy some French pop music, but I would not say that I'm at all fluent any more.

So, long way around the barn - yes, you can still learn a foreign language, but it will help a lot if a) you have a teacher who can really work intensively with you on phonics, and b) you have someplace where you can practice.

It also helps to read a lot, and if you can hear anything at all, try listening to radio stations in the local language.

With Spanish, if you live near a major city, you can probably watch one or two TV stations in Spanish, and they will usually have sub-titles. That might help you some.

I would advise studying just one language at a time, especially since Portuguese and Spanish are so close. It's less confusing to work on gaining fluency in one at a time.
 
Wirelessly posted

I started losing my hearing gradually as a kid. I had a hard time with languages in school, but I married a Puerto Rican and now I can lip read in Spanish. I'm shy about speaking it though, because I don't think I like the way I sound.

I'm trying to learn some Chinese since I have a new family member from China....she is working on her English, and we have our own sort of home sign...
 
It's possible but it can be difficult to communicate verbally.
 
For the OP: in part it depends on what you mean exactly by "hearing loss." Do you wear hearing aids or a CI? Can you communicate orally in English? With a lot of hard work, you can probably eventually communicate in a foreign language as you do in English.

In other words, if you can read and write English but not communicate through speech, you can probably get to understandable reading and writing in another language. If you can still speak in your native language, with a lot of work you will probably be able to speak in a foreign language. It takes effort and probably one-on-one teaching with a teacher who is good in phonics and willing to explain to you how to make the sounds.

I would ask my Portuguese teacher things like "where is the tongue when making this sound" or "how do I shape my lips." You have to have a certain ability to mimic, physically, the necessary placements.

Plus it does take time. Don't think an hour or two a day will be enough to make you fluent; it takes a LOT of time and effort.

But for traveling, you don't have to have the ability to carry on long conversations. Getting the basic tourist sentences down is more important: Where is the bus stop? What time does it come? How much does this cost? Where is the bathroom? (Always good to know!), I need help, and certain menu items so you know what to order will get you a surprisingly long way.

Also concentrate on polite phrases: Nice to meet you, thank you for your help, please..., and similar things show you are making an effort.
 
KristinaB said:
One of the ladies in my Deaf club was born deaf. (severe to profound). She has had no hearing aids. She is 79 years old. ASL is her 1st language. She has learned Spanish, French, German, Latin, Creole, Japanese, BSL, Auslan and I'm not sure what else. She is fluent in all of them.
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Oh my Gosh!
 
Beach girl said:
I had Latin and Spanish in h.s. (1 year Latin, 3 years Spanish), and I was quite good at them. In my adult career, I first studied French, which was very hard for me to understand. All those liaisons - it was hard to figure out what was a word; it all sort of ran together. About that time I started to lose my hearing.

I passed my French test (minimal professional fluency - level 3), and was ok with using it, but was never more than just ok.

Next language was Serbo-Croatian. This was very difficult grammatically, but pronounciation was a lot easier than French. By this time I was wearing hearing aids. I got to be pretty decent at it, but don't ask me to say much now, I've pretty much forgotten all of it.

Next came Portuguese. This was interesting because my old h.s. Spanish came back and I started speaking Portuguese with a Spanish accent. My Portuguese teacher worked very hard to get that accent out of me. I eventually learned to speak decent Portuguese with a Rio de Janeiro accent. I lived in Rio for 4 years and my Portuguese was pretty good.

After that I studied Spanish again professionally, and of course by this time, after having spoken Portuguese for 4 years, I began to speak Spanish with a Portuguese accent. I worked hard on it, but that accent was hard to lose.

And then the next time I went back to Rio for a visit, my Portuguese, which had been good, was tinted with the Spanish I had been using.

I now can confuse speakers of both languages equally. :lol:

Portuguese is probably my best language, then Spanish. S-C I've consigned to the dustbin of history. French I can still read, and I enjoy some French pop music, but I would not say that I'm at all fluent any more.

So, long way around the barn - yes, you can still learn a foreign language, but it will help a lot if a) you have a teacher who can really work intensively with you on phonics, and b) you have someplace where you can practice.

It also helps to read a lot, and if you can hear anything at all, try listening to radio stations in the local language.

With Spanish, if you live near a major city, you can probably watch one or two TV stations in Spanish, and they will usually have sub-titles. That might help you some.

I would advise studying just one language at a time, especially since Portuguese and Spanish are so close. It's less confusing to work on gaining fluency in one at a time.
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I was interested in learning ASL. Now, I'm just down right scared. I didn't realize there was so much involved but I can't help but be interested and certainly intrigued. Thanks for answering some questions I had about sign language/foreign language usage.
 
Did French for one year. Taught myself to speak and listen using one of those learning tapes for another year. Went to Quebec, Canada. Had fun. That was it.
 
Learning languages has always been a passion of mine and I've usually been able to pick up on them quickly. I was in the middle of the semester in a college Spanish class when I lost my hearing. I had an A in the class the whole semester up until I lost my hearing. I ended up failing the class. I did fine on the written tests but when it came to having to 'listen' to or speak it, it was harder. Because I was able to hear the pronunciation of Spanish, I was able to speak it just fine for a while but it eventually go harder. However, trying to lip read my instructor while he has a Spanish accent, a mustache, and usually spoke while he was facing and writing on the whiteboard, it was quite difficult. They also couldn't get me an interpreter (I knew ASL before my hearing loss) because of funding issues and because the doctors were still trying to figure out what the reason was so I couldn't get the correct paperwork in order to ask for one. Now that I'm more used to and adapted to the silence, I LOVE learning new languages again. I don't focus as much one the 'listening' part as much as just learning how to pronounce things and the reading/writing part of the language. I am working on learning the 'listening' part of a couple certain languages that I'm going to need/really want to know for personal and family reasons so I'm just putting in extra effort for those. I'm hoping eventually I'll be able to lip read them just as well as I can lip read English.
 
I tried learning spanish in HS... I failed the class miserably... I could read it... but even though I am so so at oral english... my oral spanish was horrible... she wouldn't let me pass because I couldn't say it... but I guess thats mainstream schools for you
 
French is very hard to learn to speak and "hear" but Italian, being such a vowel-based language was far easier to pronounce and hear. This was a pleasant surprise after years of struggling with "hearing" and pronouncing French although after 20 years of daily exposure to spoken French, I'm picking it up pretty well.
What's funny is that it's easier for me to say my name in French than in English because I pronounce "R" as "W" sometimes whereas in French, it's just Cah-ho-line.
 
Well, speaking it IS part of learning the language. It's tough to get it right with a hearing loss; takes a teacher who is really willing to work with you on the phonetics and if necessary, on the lip-reading. Most teachers in a mainstream class will not have that time to give.

Personally, I think it's worthwhile studying foreign languages even if just for the ability to read them, but then, I love language study. If you have no purpose in learning the language, and don't love it for its own sake, then your time is probably better spent elsewhere.

I enjoy watching the Spanish-language soap operas sometimes, with the captioning on. I learn new phrases that they never taught me in class! Spanish is probably the most accessible language for a U.S.-based student to learn, since there are so many resources available, you can watch TV in the language quite often, and there are movies, magazines and other sources to improve your grammar and vocabulary.

And there's even a thread on here someplace that is done completely in Spanish. If you can understand those messages, then you've got a decent start. Everything written there is in simple, uncomplicated language.

DeafCaroline, you slipped. I TOTALLY agree with you re: the difference between French and Italian. I had a horrible time in French; just had to really, really work at it to make out those small, one and two-letter words that all combined into one jumble of sound. Italian, Spanish, even Serbo-Croatian were much easier for me to deciper what is a "word" and what is a combination or phrase. French sounds like one long combination, much of the time.
 
Beach girl said:
DeafCaroline, you slipped. I TOTALLY agree with you re: the difference between French and Italian. I had a horrible time in French; just had to really, really work at it to make out those small, one and two-letter words that all combined into one jumble of sound. Italian, Spanish, even Serbo-Croatian were much easier for me to deciper what is a "word" and what is a combination or phrase. French sounds like one long combination, much of the time.
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French is difficult but it's a difficult language for hearing people too because of its pronounciation and also because French people fill in pauses in their sentences with "errrr" or "uhhh" like Je voudrais..errrrr....manger de..errr... pain doré. It makes it that much harder for me to comprehend it.

As someone else pointed out, it is difficult for deaf to "hear" and speak another languages as easily as the hearing but with one on one training, just like for learning to speak English, it can be done.
 
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