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I have no idea if this is the right subforum for this, or even if I can accomplish anything by asking for opinions here.
My ASL teacher is deaf. He sometimes identifies as HOH. He says his hearing was at 6%, now at 3%. (I have no idea how that translates to heard decibel levels, which I usually see?)
He is totally bummed. I thought he was going to tear up last night. He was raised in the oralist tradition and is a proficient lip reader.
He grew up in the late 50s and through the 60s. Although he is pretty highly involved in ASL (albeit a little old fashioned with some signs) and has deaf friends, he feels that he necessarily lives outside of Deaf culture, and it clearly distresses him and gives him grief.
He often reflects sadly that he "is only a little d," and he seems to have the impression that those who consider themselves Deaf want nothing to do with him because he was brought up in oralism and the hearing world.
I'm hearing. I don't know a lot about this stuff. But it seems to me that maybe times have changed, become more inclusive, since he was a young man? That maybe he doesn't realize there is a greater Deaf community out there which would welcome him? Just from reading here and reading other current news/events/happenings in the Deaf world, it seems he has really shut down on this issue too early.
It makes me sad to see him upset by this. He seems to feel like he is neither here nor there culturally--a man without a network. His wife won't even learn to sign (did I mention he teaches ASL?) because he lip reads so well, she doesn't see the point.
I met a deaf man who lip reads and speaks very much like my teacher, so well that I didn't realize until the third time I met him I didn't realize he was deaf (I thought he was soft-spoken). This man does not know but a few signs. I can see how a man like this may feel alienated from the Deaf community (this makes me really sad too).
But my teacher is proficient (I don't know about fluent; I'm no judge and he never signs enough in class to really tell anyway) in ASL. He has deaf friends. He loves and totally admires Deaf culture.
Surely if he looked again, he could he surprised by the community response? Should I just direct him here? I'm not sure he has ever used a forum. He didn't know who Keith Wann was, which isn't a litmus test but does seem to say he hasn't really looked within the community for a long time for available culture. It took me about four days of casual reading to come across Wann's name so many times in entertainment that I looked him up and watched a couple of his shows.
In summary, it's not a lack of wanting on his part to find a welcoming Deaf community. But he seems almost scared. My mother-in-law worked for the SC School for the Deaf and Blind, and when I told her about this odd cultural barrier he seems to have created in his head, she was rather shocked.
Any advice? Opinions? It's really getting to me that he could live his whole life feeling there is an insurmountable wall between him and the culture he so wants to claim as his own.
My ASL teacher is deaf. He sometimes identifies as HOH. He says his hearing was at 6%, now at 3%. (I have no idea how that translates to heard decibel levels, which I usually see?)
He is totally bummed. I thought he was going to tear up last night. He was raised in the oralist tradition and is a proficient lip reader.
He grew up in the late 50s and through the 60s. Although he is pretty highly involved in ASL (albeit a little old fashioned with some signs) and has deaf friends, he feels that he necessarily lives outside of Deaf culture, and it clearly distresses him and gives him grief.
He often reflects sadly that he "is only a little d," and he seems to have the impression that those who consider themselves Deaf want nothing to do with him because he was brought up in oralism and the hearing world.
I'm hearing. I don't know a lot about this stuff. But it seems to me that maybe times have changed, become more inclusive, since he was a young man? That maybe he doesn't realize there is a greater Deaf community out there which would welcome him? Just from reading here and reading other current news/events/happenings in the Deaf world, it seems he has really shut down on this issue too early.
It makes me sad to see him upset by this. He seems to feel like he is neither here nor there culturally--a man without a network. His wife won't even learn to sign (did I mention he teaches ASL?) because he lip reads so well, she doesn't see the point.
I met a deaf man who lip reads and speaks very much like my teacher, so well that I didn't realize until the third time I met him I didn't realize he was deaf (I thought he was soft-spoken). This man does not know but a few signs. I can see how a man like this may feel alienated from the Deaf community (this makes me really sad too).
But my teacher is proficient (I don't know about fluent; I'm no judge and he never signs enough in class to really tell anyway) in ASL. He has deaf friends. He loves and totally admires Deaf culture.
Surely if he looked again, he could he surprised by the community response? Should I just direct him here? I'm not sure he has ever used a forum. He didn't know who Keith Wann was, which isn't a litmus test but does seem to say he hasn't really looked within the community for a long time for available culture. It took me about four days of casual reading to come across Wann's name so many times in entertainment that I looked him up and watched a couple of his shows.
In summary, it's not a lack of wanting on his part to find a welcoming Deaf community. But he seems almost scared. My mother-in-law worked for the SC School for the Deaf and Blind, and when I told her about this odd cultural barrier he seems to have created in his head, she was rather shocked.
Any advice? Opinions? It's really getting to me that he could live his whole life feeling there is an insurmountable wall between him and the culture he so wants to claim as his own.
).
