Hi! hoh college student taking asl

zeefour

zeefour

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Hi everyone.

I'm a 26 year old college student. I was born hearing, but was in a bad car accident when I was 6. I had a bad head injury and fractured my temporal bone. It resulted in "conductive unilateral hearing loss", one ear is worse than the other. I used BTE hearing aids until I was a teenager when I was able to get a BAHA on one side. I was mainstreamed all through school. In elementary and middle school I had a terp/FM system, which I pretty much used through high school. After my BAHA I was used mostly an FM system. In college, in smaller classes I've been able to do okay sitting at the very front, with my BAHA and BTE. If I'm in class or at work, I usually go without the BTE because it becomes painful when I have it on too long turned up at the level I need. The sign I've used has always been signed English predominately.

Anyway for the first time ever I'm taking ASL. All the hearing kids in my class think it must be easy for me. I guess I don't struggle with making the actual signs or being able to understand someone else's signs. But it's been pretty hard to break sentence structure and learn to sign using space and other things to express meaning instead of just the actual sign itself if that makes sense.

I guess I've never felt like a member of the Deaf community. I have a lot of Deaf friends from camp growing up, by high school there were two other kids at my same school, one guy had a CI and didn't sign and the other girl used more signed English like me but she had a terp and was born Deaf so she didn't use any hearing aids or anything.w

This class is making me think about the Deaf community and Deaf culture and where I fit in and trying to expose myself to more of it. I'm in school for counseling and have a focus on helping undeserved populations so like disabilities, different cultures, genders, etc.
 
Thank you for sharing it with us and your willingness. I understand where you are coming from! I am myself deaf but can speak very well as I grew up oralism and was mainstreamed all of my school life. I do wear one digital hearing aid on my right ear. I used signed English when growing up but later in my life I started to use ASL and became involved in the deaf world.

It will take time for you to get used to the deaf culture and community. Have you consider to check out other deaf/hh events such as deaf expo? They have all kind of booths to help and share information to the deaf/hh people and even to hearing people too. A great place of resources. If you have already heard of it as I thought I would share it with you.

I have a resource that would explain about the deaf culture and signs from a Christian perspective. I think it would really help you to shed the light and better understand about the deaf world. I don’t know your faith background. If you are interested in it, I would be gladly to share it with you either by email or some other way.

We all have our own struggles and barriers. It’s part of who you are.

I hope to hear from you. You are in my prayer.
 
zeefour said:
conductive unilateral hearing loss
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Oops I meant to type bilateral there, sorry!

Beckell said:
Thank you for sharing it with us and your willingness. I understand where you are coming from! I am myself deaf but can speak very well as I grew up oralism and was mainstreamed all of my school life. I do wear one digital hearing aid on my right ear. I used signed English when growing up but later in my life I started to use ASL and became involved in the deaf world.

It will take time for you to get used to the deaf culture and community. Have you consider to check out other deaf/hh events such as deaf expo? They have all kind of booths to help and share information to the deaf/hh people and even to hearing people too. A great place of resources. If you have already heard of it as I thought I would share it with you.

I have a resource that would explain about the deaf culture and signs from a Christian perspective. I think it would really help you to shed the light and better understand about the deaf world. I don’t know your faith background. If you are interested in it, I would be gladly to share it with you either by email or some other way.

We all have our own struggles and barriers. It’s part of who you are.

I hope to hear from you. You are in my prayer.
Click to expand...

@Beckell Thank you so much for such a nice welcome! I would really love to see those resources please! It's hard sometimes, because I am HoH/deaf but I am so mainstreamed in the hearing world. Everyone in my class thinks ASL comes easy to me, but I try to tell them it's almost harder because I am sooooo used to signed English I have to break down my old habits and fix everything, instead of just starting completely from scratch like them! My BAHA on one side works great, I got it at the end of high school and it helped so much. I use a BTE on my other ear at school, I take it off after class because it hurts. But all that combined with sitting in the front most people don't realize I am deaf until they talk to me one on one.

Those are great ideas about Deaf community events. I am almost nervous, I love all my friends from camp but we have known each other since we were kids and we have a whole variety of "deaf" girls, ASL only, CI and oral, etc. I'm afraid I'm not "Deaf" enough to do Deaf community activities. I'm afraid I'll be judged for using a BAHA and HA and being oral. Have you had this experience @Beckell ?
 
You are welcome! That’s great that you are interested to see resources. I think it would be very beneficial and learn more about deaf culture.

I get it what you mean! It’s the same with me. Many people think that I am hearing because I speak so well and they don’t see my hearing aid very clearly. I don’t really care if they see my hearing aid or not. I used to be self-conscious about it when I was younger. I know I was being picked on about how I used signed English instead of not using ASL. I did not let them bother me. It’s who I am and which form of communication that I’m most comfortable with it. Of course I used both ASL and signed English now.

Just remember be yourself and try not to worried about others. Like I said I’ve been judged by other about which form of communication I used such as signed English.

There’s Deaf Nation Expo. They just held it in Las Vegas this summer. Many people go there. I know it’s big but you don’t need to be nervous. There are some people like you go there. So I am not sure when is it the next one. I know we have one in Chicago in the past. I do have some connections of people that works at the booths and can help you. You can search “deaf nation expo” online. We also have our three deaf clubs host an annual picnic in WI. The link is http://www.deafpicnic.com/location.html. We have booths there as well and meet many new and old faces. I volunteered to help with our church booth there. We plan to go back next year. I encourage you to let me know if you do go so I can guide you and help to connect with someone there.

Here is the resource for you to read and help you better understand about the deaf culture from a Christian perspective. I look forward hearing from you soon!

God’s blessings
 

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zeefour said:
Oops I meant to type bilateral there, sorry!



@Beckell

Those are great ideas about Deaf community events. I am almost nervous, I love all my friends from camp but we have known each other since we were kids and we have a whole variety of "deaf" girls, ASL only, CI and oral, etc. I'm afraid I'm not "Deaf" enough to do Deaf community activities. I'm afraid I'll be judged for using a BAHA and HA and being oral. Have you had this experience @Beckell ?
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Um why would you? Just for having speech skills and using BAHA? Most Deaf people use HA, CI and speak. As long as you express a willingness to learn ASL and don't act superior b/c you can talk, you'll be accepted. Very few Deaf people grew up "seperatist", not speaking or using any hearing technology.
 
@deafdyke Ha ha no just nervous about my sign skills. I can voice and had a terp who used what was more or less signed English when I was younger. I'm in ASL class now though and really want to learn more. my professor is helping me get information on gallaudet, they have the program I'm currently in there which really surprised me! she also told me about the jump start program for deaf and HoH students who aren't fluent in ASL and it looks amazing!
 
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Beckell said:
You are welcome! That’s great that you are interested to see resources. I think it would be very beneficial and learn more about deaf culture.

I get it what you mean! It’s the same with me. Many people think that I am hearing because I speak so well and they don’t see my hearing aid very clearly. I don’t really care if they see my hearing aid or not. I used to be self-conscious about it when I was younger. I know I was being picked on about how I used signed English instead of not using ASL. I did not let them bother me. It’s who I am and which form of communication that I’m most comfortable with it. Of course I used both ASL and signed English now.

Just remember be yourself and try not to worried about others. Like I said I’ve been judged by other about which form of communication I used such as signed English.

There’s Deaf Nation Expo. They just held it in Las Vegas this summer. Many people go there. I know it’s big but you don’t need to be nervous. There are some people like you go there. So I am not sure when is it the next one. I know we have one in Chicago in the past. I do have some connections of people that works at the booths and can help you. You can search “deaf nation expo” online. We also have our three deaf clubs host an annual picnic in WI. The link is http://www.deafpicnic.com/location.html. We have booths there as well and meet many new and old faces. I volunteered to help with our church booth there. We plan to go back next year. I encourage you to let me know if you do go so I can guide you and help to connect with someone there.

Here is the resource for you to read and help you better understand about the deaf culture from a Christian perspective. I look forward hearing from you soon!

God’s blessings
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So I actually found a Deaf Catholic Church here in Colorado where I live. I am going to try to go to their interpreted service Saturday night!!
 
zeefour said:
So I actually found a Deaf Catholic Church here in Colorado where I live. I am going to try to go to their interpreted service Saturday night!!
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That's wonderful. I hope you feel comfortable with deaf people.
 
That’s wonderful that you found a Deaf Catholic Church in CO. Could you share with me your thoughts after you go to their interpreted service? I think there’s another interpreted service at Trinity Lutheran Church in Denver. I’m not sure if they still do it but it’s worth a try. Their website is http://gototrinity.com/

God’s blessings
 
Beckell said:
That’s wonderful that you found a Deaf Catholic Church in CO. Could you share with me your thoughts after you go to their interpreted service? I think there’s another interpreted service at Trinity Lutheran Church in Denver. I’m not sure if they still do it but it’s worth a try. Their website is http://gototrinity.com/

God’s blessings
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I definitely will! Like I said I went through school with an FM system and HAs, with voicing/signed English for somethings until I got my BAHA so I don't know if I will know everything they are signing. Maybe I can brush up on some signs for things in Mass/Church. I might check out Trinity too, thanks! I've been looking at going to the full ASL service in CO Springs, I live closer to there, I'm in Douglas County pretty much. There's a lot of stuff down there because of CSDB.
 
Welcome. I'm was born hearing also. I'm hearing of hearing also due to having chronic ear infections. The most severe one was when I was 16 then I lost most of the hearing in my right ear.
 
You are welcome! There are a lot of resources and events to learn about deaf culture and ASL. So we all learn something new each day! My husband and I visited CSDB and The Independence Center, Deaf and HOH Group about two years ago in Colorado Springs. It’s a great place to work with deaf and hearing of hearing students.
God's blessings
 
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