Hearing Looks vs Deaf Looks

sheila022 said:
Lol, well, that happens to me a lot in China. When I was in China, lots of people approached me in street and asked me stuff or to tell me stuff...and I only can stare at them dumbly and say I am an American and can't speak Chinese IN Chinese. My translator friend has to tell them the details and stuff. I mean, I've had questions of why I look like a Chinese, but can't speak Chinese that well. >.< Things like that make me feel like I'm a bad Chinese for not knowing the language that well....but I plan to study and learn conversational and written Chinese in college. God damn the Chinese language. It's so much more difficult than Spanish.
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It is because all eastern orient languages have variations of phonetics compared to word entomology of english, where it is simpler to grasp the writing concept. Just like for example, there are no ways to associate kanji to written methods with chinese/japanese, and they need to be memorized rather compared to english where a person would have a clue how to write it when pronouncing it.

There is likely peer studies being done as to why asians generally are accustomed to being seen as highly proficient in arithmetic and mathematical concepts by western society, and I have a slight belief that it may have to do with their language and education system.
 
naisho said:
It is because all eastern orient languages have variations of phonetics compared to word entomology of english, where it is simpler to grasp the writing concept. Just like for example, there are no ways to associate kanji to written methods with chinese/japanese, and they need to be memorized rather compared to english where a person would have a clue how to write it when pronouncing it.

There is likely peer studies being done as to why asians generally are accustomed to being seen as highly proficient in arithmetic and mathematical concepts by western society, and I have a slight belief that it may have to do with their language and education system.
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That's an interesting observation. I didn't realize that so...that could explain why my dad is so good at math and science stuff. xD
 
naisho said:
It is because all eastern orient languages have variations of phonetics compared to word entomology of english, where it is simpler to grasp the writing concept. Just like for example, there are no ways to associate kanji to written methods with chinese/japanese, and they need to be memorized rather compared to english where a person would have a clue how to write it when pronouncing it.

There is likely peer studies being done as to why asians generally are accustomed to being seen as highly proficient in arithmetic and mathematical concepts by western society, and I have a slight belief that it may have to do with their language and education system.
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sources please?
 
craigm26 said:
sources please?
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Not sure what sources you want.. Most of what I said in there came from my own knowledge of the languages and personal opinion (stated that). Do I need to cite a source for personal knowledge now? :|
 
naisho said:
Not sure what sources you want.. Most of what I said in there came from my own knowledge of the languages and personal opinion (stated that). Do I need to cite a source for personal knowledge now? :|
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Are you a linguistic or something?
 
No. I was curious if there was anything more than your personal knowledge and opinion because I'm fascinated by those kinds of observations.
 
I think it's a great observation, and it'd be convenient to ask you if you had any scholarly works to support it (and I don't think it's a "wrong" observation/hypothesis). I didn't mean it to be disrespectful.
 
sheila022 said:
Same here. A friend of mine at MIT said she has been forever trying to figure out my "accent". A mutual friend of mine and Jiro said we both kind of sound like each other. LOL!
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you're very soft-spoken but you can pass off as a hearing person.
 
KarissaMann05 said:
Wirelessly posted

I saw someone's status on FB.



Thoughts, anyone? I'd seen those situations. While I seem I am easy to pass me as a deaf person, cos how I "look" or how I act or how I dress or whatever. My thought is, that is really matter?

Bah. I think it is stupid, IMO.
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it's more like a certain behavior instead of physical looks so he's saying - "you act like a hearie"
 
craigm26 said:
sources please?
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it's true.

from a scholarly peer-reviewed source

Phonological and visual similarity effects in Chinese and English language users: Implications for the use of cognitive resources in short-term memory.
This study investigated the encoding strategies employed by Chinese and English language users when recalling sequences of pictured objects. The working memory performance of native English participants (n = 14) and Chinese speakers of English as a second language (Chinese ESL; n = 14) was compared using serial recall of visually-presented pictures of familiar objects with three conditions: (i) phonologically and visually distinct, (ii) phonologically similar and visually distinct, and (iii) phonologically distinct and visually similar. Digit span, visual pattern span and articulation rate were also measured. Results indicated that whilst English participants were affected by the phonological but not the visual similarity of items, the performance of Chinese ESL participants was comparable across all three conditions. No significant differences in digit span, visual memory or articulation rate were found between groups. These results are discussed in the light of our understanding of the use of cognitive resources in short-term memory in users of diverse orthographies.

source: Bilingualism: Language & Cognition; Oct2010, Vol. 13 Issue 4, p499-512, 14p
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interesting stuff I just came across -

Second Language Learning Difficulties in Chinese Children With Dyslexia: What Are the Reading-Related Cognitive Skills That Contribute to English and Chinese Word Reading?
This study examined the relations between reading-related cognitive skills and word reading development of Chinese children with dyslexia in their Chinese language (L1) and in English (L2). A total of 84 bilingual children—28 with dyslexia, 28 chronological age (CA) controls, and 28 reading-level (RL) controls—participated and were administered measures of word reading, rapid naming, visual-orthographic skills, and phonological and morphological awareness in both L1 and L2. Children with dyslexia showed weaker performance than CA controls in both languages and had more difficulties in phonological awareness in English but not in Chinese. In addition, reading-related cognitive skills in Chinese contributed significantly to the ability to read English words, suggesting cross-linguistic transfer from L1 to L2. Results found evidence for different phonological units of awareness related to the characteristics of the different languages being learned, supporting the psycholinguistic grain size and linguistic coding differences hypotheses.

Source: Journal of Learning Disabilities; May/Jun2010, Vol. 43 Issue 3, p195-211, 17p
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naisho said:
Not sure what sources you want.. Most of what I said in there came from my own knowledge of the languages and personal opinion (stated that). Do I need to cite a source for personal knowledge now? :|
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Yes! Of late you have spent far too little time here! Surely you were busy compiling ledgers full of sources to prove your points?? :hmm:


:wave:
 
sheila022 said:
LOL! I don't have any families in HK. But man, better to have British accent than some Asian accent ;) :P



Lol, well, that happens to me a lot in China. When I was in China, lots of people approached me in street and asked me stuff or to tell me stuff...and I only can stare at them dumbly and say I am an American and can't speak Chinese IN Chinese. My translator friend has to tell them the details and stuff. I mean, I've had questions of why I look like a Chinese, but can't speak Chinese that well. >.< Things like that make me feel like I'm a bad Chinese for not knowing the language that well....but I plan to study and learn conversational and written Chinese in college. God damn the Chinese language. It's so much more difficult than Spanish.
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I know a few people that have adopted babies from China and they're older now and they can't speak Chinese . One woman tried to learn Chinese so she could speak Chinese to her daughter before she forgot her own language. The girl was about 3 years old when she was adopted. Her adopted mother was not able to learn Chinese, it was too hard.
I heard of a very interested story from my sister. she knew some people that had a little girl and she started to talk 'really strange' her parents became really worried,and thought something was wrong with their child, and was going bring her to the DR. The parents had some friends over and heard the girl talk and said she was speaking perfect Chinese! The girl became friend with a Chinese girl and they teaching one another their language !
 
naisho said:
It is because all eastern orient languages have variations of phonetics compared to word entomology of english, where it is simpler to grasp the writing concept. Just like for example, there are no ways to associate kanji to written methods with chinese/japanese, and they need to be memorized rather compared to english where a person would have a clue how to write it when pronouncing it.

There is likely peer studies being done as to why asians generally are accustomed to being seen as highly proficient in arithmetic and mathematical concepts by western society, and I have a slight belief that it may have to do with their language and education system.
Click to expand...

Great post! Being exposed to several foreign languages and having lived in several Asian countries, I also have had a similiar observation. Well written.
 
Wirelessly posted

Jiro said:
KarissaMann05 said:
Wirelessly posted

I saw someone's status on FB.



Thoughts, anyone? I'd seen those situations. While I seem I am easy to pass me as a deaf person, cos how I "look" or how I act or how I dress or whatever. My thought is, that is really matter?

Bah. I think it is stupid, IMO.
Click to expand...

it's more like a certain behavior instead of physical looks so he's saying - "you act like a hearie"
Click to expand...

Mm. Good thought.
 
deafgal001 said:
Children can be brutal honest... even my son's classmates told me I speak funny. bless their little heart.
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I met a girl and she I talked like a squirrel and I said 'Gee thanks a lot!" and the girl said "you talk like Bullwinkle's squirrel !" She thought that was cool!
LOL!
 
Don't know but I was watching a video of Trix Bruce a while back.. A non signer passed by, looked at the video and said, "Wow. She is hot. How did she learn to sign?"

I told him I was under the impression she has been Deaf since birth.

"Wow. I didn't know a deaf woman could look that good. Could you introduce me to one?"

I told him to come back when he knew how to sign.
 
Yes, I've had some deaf people think I was hearing when they first met me. Either that, or they'd think "I'm just HOH", while I'm really deaf.
 
Berry said:
Don't know but I was watching a video of Trix Bruce a while back.. A non signer passed by, looked at the video and said, "Wow. She is hot. How did she learn to sign?"

I told him I was under the impression she has been Deaf since birth.

"Wow. I didn't know a deaf woman could look that good. Could you introduce me to one?"

I told him to come back when he knew how to sign.
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Good one! :)
 
Jiro said:
you're very soft-spoken but you can pass off as a hearing person.
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I thought this is usually common in deaf people. People have asked me "What, what did you say?" and I had to speak up. I asked my husband, "I don't understand it, why do they often ask me what? even though I know I'm speaking clearly (like "NO" or "YES" or my name) " and he simply told me that I was talking way too soft. I guess it is because we often can't determine the right volume control for the situation we are in (especially when we have a filtered background program in our hearing aids/CI) .. Hearing people know when to speak up or speak softer.
 
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