Why would I be shy to approch a hearing person? I'm not afraid to approch a hearing person or any other human being. I have a lot of self confeident in myself. I like chatting with hearing people, as matter of fact all of my friends are hearing... No problem with it at all! Once we're adults, you can't be depending on your parents or any other person that you wish for them to take care of things for you. This world is a huge ugly world full of cruel people out there. Learn how to deal with it, if they make fun of your language, then remember "what goes around will come around". I learn how to deal with it almost everyday, I learned that adults world is a lot different than teenager "world".. Most adults understand and don't judge as much as teens do. If the person doesn't understand what in the world your saying, then write it on paper, simple!! Some may copy a attitude towards you, some may not. Most people I've chatted have no problem with me at all.. May be a little different at first since they don't know or never been around a deaf/hard of hearing person. Give it time and before they know it they don't realize I'm deaf. Most of the time they forget we contuine to chat without a problem and still friends. Its all on you, one thing self confident!! Don't hide your language, use your voice, the more you use it, the better you will be. It's a hard process but I'm proudly and glad to use my voice instead of signing. I perfer to use my voice and I thank my mother for putting me thru this school that taught me how! If I personally was signing, I think I wouldn't be happy with it.. Yes I'm into hearing world than deaf culture. Hearing world there is more to learn from everyday! I know some of you guys aren't going to argee with me, well I honestly don't care if you do or not. Have a litte self respect then you might be suprise what you can do. But If your shy to approch a hearing person then it proves that you have low self-esteem and running from the problems.