Hi Everyone! My name is Rachael. I joined this group at first because of a project for school that compares previous experiences I have had with the Deaf to my new experiences with the deaf. After exploring this site a little more, I am really amazed and impressed of what this entire site offers. This post is not meant to offend anyone and I hope by all means that it does not. I will apologize now if anything may be offensive to anyone cause that is not my intent. For my school project I am to share an experience I have had that has changed my opinion or feelings towards a particular group of people. I am then to engage in activities to change my negative feelings to positive feelings and share this experience publicly. Well here goes.
I work at a restaurant and there is a group of regular customers that come in quiet frequently. They first time I waited on them, there was three of them and they all were hearing impaired. I did not know this before hand and when I introduced myself and asked what I could get them to drink. I was able to understand the gentlemen and one of the two ladies at the table. When I went to take the second lady's drink order she had to repeat herself several times, by the third or fourth time I could tell she was getting frustrated with me. On our menus it lists all of the drinks we offer, I took out the menu and asked her if she could point to the drink she wanted because I was having a hard time understanding her. I don't know if this was offensive to her but she then became very irate with me, and I did not understand why. I really felt horrible that she was getting so frustrated and that I didn't understand. After I took their food order and went back to check on them a couple times, she completely ignored me. I honestly didn't know what I had done to upset her or offend her. The other female and male that were also at the table, would respond to my questions but the woman I offended did not. After the table was finished with their meal and cashed out, the table sat there for a while during a very busy lunch rush. I didn't mind because I was very busy so them occupying the table actually helped me to catch up and get out of "the weeds". After an hour of sitting there signing to one another they decided to leave. When I was clearing off the table and collecting the money they had left me for a tip, I saw it was two dollars and some change. Their bill was well over $35, so I was very upset that I did not even receive a 15% tip when I gave them good service and they took up my table for such a long period of time. Needless to say I was not happy with the situation and didn't understand why they felt my service was poor. The lady I have seem to offend has been back to the restaurant several times with her family since then and I try to sit them in someone else's section, I know this is horrible but I felt why should I seat them with me when the previous experience had not been pleasant for any of us. The attempt to seat them with other servers has not always worked and the couple times the lady and her family has sat with me she has her sister order for her. I probably shouldn't take this personal but she doesn't engage or even look at me at all.
This was my first encounter with the hearing impaired and the experience sadly on my part has hindered my opinion on the deaf culture. So for my project I decided I needed to work on this bias I have. A friend of mine is in a Deaf Culture class and has met and become friends with quiet a few deaf people in the activities she participates in from her Deaf Culture class. When I told her my idea for the project she was very happy to help. She was really helpful and informative in helping me change my perspective. I attended three events that pertain to the Deaf. I figured it would help me to understand how it feels to be deaf and see what services are offered. I started my attending a captioned movie with my friend. My friend brought a deaf friend she had met from her class so I could have some interaction. I was surprised on the limited selection at the movie theater. We saw Monsters vs. Aliens. Although the movie had sound, I tried to imagine the movie without sound. I noticed that all of the talking was captioned and some of the background sound/noises were captioned but not all of them. I also wondered when there were two characters on the screen how it must be difficult to understand which character was talking because you couldn't hear their voices. The word captioning was lime green and you could not always see it clearly depending what was on the screen. After the movie was over I really didn't have time to interact with my friend's deaf friend other than "Hi and an introduction" because we all had to leave right after. I also attended a church service with an interpreter and realized how many times I have been in a public setting and how little I have seen interpreters provided. I was really fascinated by the sign language and paid more attention to the interpreter than anything else. Because I did not start my project earlier in the semester like I should have and schedule conflicts I was only able to attend three deaf events that my friend was going to. My friend also brought me to an opening of a literacy center at a local library. I was really impressed with all of the services this library was providing to the deaf, and wondered why more libraries aren't providing these services. I got to meet again with my friend's deaf friend and actually have interaction and conversation. She was so nice and so welcoming, as were the others. This activity especially has changed my feelings.
I still won't know if I upset that lady at my work that day and I surely do not have the nerves to ask her. But she is only one person and my experience with her should have my hindered my opinion and feelings towards anyone else, and sadly enough it did. I am very thankful for this project because it has allowed me to open my eyes and see how difficult it is for the deaf and how much their lives are inconvenienced on a daily basis. All of the deaf people I have interacted with during this experience have been so nice, and so welcoming. I am really ashamed to have thought that deaf people were bitter.
Again I wanted to share my experience and I really hope that I did not offend anyone while doing so. If I did offend anyone I really am sincerely sorry.
I work at a restaurant and there is a group of regular customers that come in quiet frequently. They first time I waited on them, there was three of them and they all were hearing impaired. I did not know this before hand and when I introduced myself and asked what I could get them to drink. I was able to understand the gentlemen and one of the two ladies at the table. When I went to take the second lady's drink order she had to repeat herself several times, by the third or fourth time I could tell she was getting frustrated with me. On our menus it lists all of the drinks we offer, I took out the menu and asked her if she could point to the drink she wanted because I was having a hard time understanding her. I don't know if this was offensive to her but she then became very irate with me, and I did not understand why. I really felt horrible that she was getting so frustrated and that I didn't understand. After I took their food order and went back to check on them a couple times, she completely ignored me. I honestly didn't know what I had done to upset her or offend her. The other female and male that were also at the table, would respond to my questions but the woman I offended did not. After the table was finished with their meal and cashed out, the table sat there for a while during a very busy lunch rush. I didn't mind because I was very busy so them occupying the table actually helped me to catch up and get out of "the weeds". After an hour of sitting there signing to one another they decided to leave. When I was clearing off the table and collecting the money they had left me for a tip, I saw it was two dollars and some change. Their bill was well over $35, so I was very upset that I did not even receive a 15% tip when I gave them good service and they took up my table for such a long period of time. Needless to say I was not happy with the situation and didn't understand why they felt my service was poor. The lady I have seem to offend has been back to the restaurant several times with her family since then and I try to sit them in someone else's section, I know this is horrible but I felt why should I seat them with me when the previous experience had not been pleasant for any of us. The attempt to seat them with other servers has not always worked and the couple times the lady and her family has sat with me she has her sister order for her. I probably shouldn't take this personal but she doesn't engage or even look at me at all.
This was my first encounter with the hearing impaired and the experience sadly on my part has hindered my opinion on the deaf culture. So for my project I decided I needed to work on this bias I have. A friend of mine is in a Deaf Culture class and has met and become friends with quiet a few deaf people in the activities she participates in from her Deaf Culture class. When I told her my idea for the project she was very happy to help. She was really helpful and informative in helping me change my perspective. I attended three events that pertain to the Deaf. I figured it would help me to understand how it feels to be deaf and see what services are offered. I started my attending a captioned movie with my friend. My friend brought a deaf friend she had met from her class so I could have some interaction. I was surprised on the limited selection at the movie theater. We saw Monsters vs. Aliens. Although the movie had sound, I tried to imagine the movie without sound. I noticed that all of the talking was captioned and some of the background sound/noises were captioned but not all of them. I also wondered when there were two characters on the screen how it must be difficult to understand which character was talking because you couldn't hear their voices. The word captioning was lime green and you could not always see it clearly depending what was on the screen. After the movie was over I really didn't have time to interact with my friend's deaf friend other than "Hi and an introduction" because we all had to leave right after. I also attended a church service with an interpreter and realized how many times I have been in a public setting and how little I have seen interpreters provided. I was really fascinated by the sign language and paid more attention to the interpreter than anything else. Because I did not start my project earlier in the semester like I should have and schedule conflicts I was only able to attend three deaf events that my friend was going to. My friend also brought me to an opening of a literacy center at a local library. I was really impressed with all of the services this library was providing to the deaf, and wondered why more libraries aren't providing these services. I got to meet again with my friend's deaf friend and actually have interaction and conversation. She was so nice and so welcoming, as were the others. This activity especially has changed my feelings.
I still won't know if I upset that lady at my work that day and I surely do not have the nerves to ask her. But she is only one person and my experience with her should have my hindered my opinion and feelings towards anyone else, and sadly enough it did. I am very thankful for this project because it has allowed me to open my eyes and see how difficult it is for the deaf and how much their lives are inconvenienced on a daily basis. All of the deaf people I have interacted with during this experience have been so nice, and so welcoming. I am really ashamed to have thought that deaf people were bitter.
Again I wanted to share my experience and I really hope that I did not offend anyone while doing so. If I did offend anyone I really am sincerely sorry.
Your assessment is probably right on target Bott!
to AllDeaf forum. Keep learning on all the threads here. See you around. 
