Making small talk with hearing strangers

Indeed CI hearing is not normal. But it does help alot with those like myself who get minimal benefit if any with HA. CI hearing isnt perfect hearing I cant say I ever really experienced what being HOH is like. I was born deaf in left ear. had really good hearing in right ear till it went dead. But I presume CI hearing is close to what hoh is like. But on topic. Speaking with strangers pre CI days I never did much of it I always felt uncomfortable around strangers or even people I once knew in my younger days that I havent seen in yrs. With the CI it has given me a little more confidence with talking to ppl I do not know but it is still a struggle to get everything they are saying especially if my brain doesnt know their voice. We all deal with our losses at diff variables. One way a person deals with strangers is no more wrong or right compared to the next person. We are all individuals.
 
No, CI hearing is a world different from hoh. Like the difference between night and day. I went from around 15% speech recognition at i think it was 120db or more with hearing aids in both ears all the way up pre implant to 95% recognition just my implanted ear only with CI on and starting picking up sounds between 5 to 10 db with the CI on. The tests were in the sound proof room and its not "real world" hearing but its alot different with CI vs hoh.
 
Summarizing this thread tells us that the majority of us are tired of having to explain ourselves several times a day, yet we meet hearing strangers every day. How we communicate is our choice. Some solutions that have been suggested:

1. Don't talk to strangers - that's a rule that children are taught - why when we become adults does it have to change?

2. If it is considered rude to ignore strangers as an adult and you don't want to be rude. Give them a printed card saying you are Deaf; your prefered method of communication (optional); details where they can find out more information about Deaf Culture and community.

3. Nod and smile, then ignore.

Any other solutions please?
 
Thanks NCFF I had nothing to compare it to. I was either hearing or deaf... I never got to experience what HOH was like.. even tho I was deaf in left ear I guess I just never realised I couldnt hear " normal" cause having one ear was normal for me and it seemed pretty good. Thanks for clearing it up for me.
 
BecLak said:
Summarizing this thread tells us that the majority of us are tired of having to explain ourselves several times a day, yet we meet hearing strangers every day. How we communicate is our choice. Some solutions that have been suggested:

1. Don't talk to strangers - that's a rule that children are taught - why when we become adults does it have to change?

2. If it is considered rude to ignore strangers as an adult and you don't want to be rude. Give them a printed card saying you are Deaf; your prefered method of communication (optional); details where they can find out more information about Deaf Culture and community.

3. Nod and smile, then ignore.

Any other solutions please?
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Sign to them
 
faire_jour said:
Sign to them
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not all hearing stranger, actually not many at all, know sign language. I have been ridiculed by hearing people for using sign when in public. Another deaf person happened to see me signing and said that my signing was very clear and good and didn't understand why I was being ridiculed. It almost made me want to never use ASL in public. I won't stop just for ignorant people who don't know, but using sign language for hearing strangers does not very often work.
 
KristinaB said:
not all hearing stranger, actually not many at all, know sign language. I have been ridiculed by hearing people for using sign when in public. Another deaf person happened to see me signing and said that my signing was very clear and good and didn't understand why I was being ridiculed. It almost made me want to never use ASL in public. I won't stop just for ignorant people who don't know, but using sign language for hearing strangers does not very often work.
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I think FJ is adding that as one of the options.
 
KristinaB said:
not all hearing stranger, actually not many at all, know sign language. I have been ridiculed by hearing people for using sign when in public. Another deaf person happened to see me signing and said that my signing was very clear and good and didn't understand why I was being ridiculed. It almost made me want to never use ASL in public. I won't stop just for ignorant people who don't know, but using sign language for hearing strangers does not very often work.
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oh I'm sorry to hear you're having negative experience with signing in public. The only negative experience I had.. well more like little awkward... was when some guy was smiling, staring at us like he's very fascinated by us signing. He looked creepy :ugh:

how were you ridiculed?
 
shel90 said:
FJ, I have always advocated for the exposure of BOTH to all deaf children.

KristinaB and CJB said it best so I am just going to leave it like that.

Just remember that quote I shared here that my friend made...

"Living life as a hearing person limited me but when I lived as a Deaf person, it freed me."

I dont think it can get more simple than that.
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Well, there was a wrong assumption in the post you responded to. The problems encountered by deaf/Deaf are not necessarily directly related to not being able to hear. The problems are created by the attitudes of hearing society that ASSUME that not being able to hear is a problem. That is where the "even a little hearing is better than no hearing" comes from, and where the audist assumption that all deaf would be better off with hearing comes from.
 
faire_jour said:
Why would I give a rat's ass if a stranger who saw me for 10 seconds, and will likely never see me for the rest of my life, thinks I'm rude???
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Because it eventually extrapolates to be a stereotype that is applied to a whole group. How would you feel if because you were rude, the stereotype gained a foothold that all parents of kids with CI are rude? You complain all the time that you get stereotyped and pigeon holed.
 
Beowulf said:
Great. Now we have been judged by a hearing person. We await with bated breath the verdict.
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History repeats when one does not bother to learn from it. Hearing people have shown that repeatedly.
 
Jiro said:
how were you ridiculed?
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Basically he did his own version of sign with this shitty stupid look on his face and told his friend that I was a dumb idiot and needed to go back to my own planet.

I found out what he said by yet another friend of mine who wrote it out afterwards.
 
KristinaB said:
Basically he did his own version of sign with this shitty stupid look on his face and told his friend that I was a dumb idiot and needed to go back to my own planet.

I found out what he said by yet another friend of mine who wrote it out afterwards.
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Jerk.
 
KristinaB said:
Basically he did his own version of sign with this shitty stupid look on his face and told his friend that I was a dumb idiot and needed to go back to my own planet.

I found out what he said by yet another friend of mine who wrote it out afterwards.
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YOU"RE KIDDING?? Did you at least tell him where to go (in sign??)

I'm sorry you've had to endure 'stupid hearing people'-- I know most of you here have-- and it makes me feel horrible-- b/c it makes me ashamed of how hearing people act-- I was raised to be kind to EVERYONE regardless of ability, race, gender... etc... and it just pisses me off that some people are so flipping ignorant and afraid of things that different than what they've always known...

Sorry had a soapbox moment there!!
 
KristinaB said:
Basically he did his own version of sign with this shitty stupid look on his face and told his friend that I was a dumb idiot and needed to go back to my own planet.

I found out what he said by yet another friend of mine who wrote it out afterwards.
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You should ridicule him because your children behave better than him.
 
KristinaB said:
Basically he did his own version of sign with this shitty stupid look on his face and told his friend that I was a dumb idiot and needed to go back to my own planet.

I found out what he said by yet another friend of mine who wrote it out afterwards.
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I've had that happen to me so many times. And even though I'm not the one looking stupid for making up stupid signs with goofy faces, I'm the one who ends up feeling stupid afterward.
 
AlleyCat said:
I've had that happen to me so many times. And even though I'm not the one looking stupid for making up stupid signs with goofy faces, I'm the one who ends up feeling stupid afterward.
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Don't give those kinds of people that power to make you feel stupid. I know that is easier said than done, but seriously, you are several steps above them in both intelligence and caring.
 
So, you see, FJ, signing is not really an option in this case, even SIMCOMing - it is more like a 'putting on a show' - which most of us hate. It also opens wide the need for more explanation and/or ignorance and ridicule. The whole purpose of this thread is to discuss ways in which our interaction with strangers is brief and to the point, so everyone can go about their daily lives, deaf and hearing alike, without needing to be rude.
 
BecLak said:
So, you see, FJ, signing is not really an option in this case, even SIMCOMing - it is more like a 'putting on a show' - which most of us hate. It also opens wide the need for more explanation and/or ignorance and ridicule. The whole purpose of this thread is to discuss ways in which our interaction with strangers is brief and to the point, so everyone can go about their daily lives, deaf and hearing alike, without needing to be rude.
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I disagree.
 
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