I joined this site just for help. I've asked other places and can't get anything back.
My sister is profoundly deaf and her boyfriend is Deaf. She went deaf later in life and is still adjusting to environments with a lot of hearing people and not being able to understand what's going on. My mother and I are the only ones that sign. Most of my family speaks Italian, which my sister knows. My sister's bf was very upset becase I was using simcom and what was essentially SEE at Thanksgiving. I find it easier when speaking Italian to sign ASL in Italian grammar, which my sister gets. He was very angry and while I COMPLETELY understand that SEE and simcom are broken ASL I explained to him that I do this for my sister because she does not want to be left out of conversations but that I also shouldn't be left out of conversations to translate for her because I'm not her personal interpreter. Is there a better way to handle things or should I just accept that he is going to be angry? As you can imagine, with my family being Italian, the environment is very loud and has lots of active conversations. I honestly don't know what he expects for my mother and I to do. We are still navigating this new world. We use voice off ASL when alone but I now feel confused and upset. ASL is my 5th language. I think people expect way too much out of multilingual individuals and I'm not a machine. I can only do so much at a time. Especially as a fairly new ASL speaker (3 years).
My sister is profoundly deaf and her boyfriend is Deaf. She went deaf later in life and is still adjusting to environments with a lot of hearing people and not being able to understand what's going on. My mother and I are the only ones that sign. Most of my family speaks Italian, which my sister knows. My sister's bf was very upset becase I was using simcom and what was essentially SEE at Thanksgiving. I find it easier when speaking Italian to sign ASL in Italian grammar, which my sister gets. He was very angry and while I COMPLETELY understand that SEE and simcom are broken ASL I explained to him that I do this for my sister because she does not want to be left out of conversations but that I also shouldn't be left out of conversations to translate for her because I'm not her personal interpreter. Is there a better way to handle things or should I just accept that he is going to be angry? As you can imagine, with my family being Italian, the environment is very loud and has lots of active conversations. I honestly don't know what he expects for my mother and I to do. We are still navigating this new world. We use voice off ASL when alone but I now feel confused and upset. ASL is my 5th language. I think people expect way too much out of multilingual individuals and I'm not a machine. I can only do so much at a time. Especially as a fairly new ASL speaker (3 years).
