Sometimes...

Cylly1 said:
Well, I don't know how many time I can apologize for offending people, but it wasn't to make fun. Maybe you can thicken up some of their skins by telling them not everyone hearing person's out to get them. I've looked for deaf groups around my area, but I haven't found any since school let out. Living deaf is just living, people can get by whatever language they use. i was just using sign language to see what it was like since there's not other way to practice it. Sometimes I use my voice when I sign sometimes I don't.
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I'm sorry I ever thought of defending you when you were being picked on in other threads. This is despicable. We deafies KNOW hearing people are not "out to get us". Pretending to be deaf (or any other disability) is downright immature and offensive. I hope you get a swift kick in the ass off this forum, and quick.
 
Cylly 1: It is not so much now the act that you did that offends us, but it is your general attitude towards your own act that is offensive.

If you cannot see it this way, adios. Any attempt to reason with narcissistic personalities is futile at best.
 
LoveBlue said:
Interrupters use ASL to bridge a language gap between two or more people. I doubt (Reba, correct me if I'm wrong) they use the language they interpret when they're not working unless they are with friends whom that language is their native language.
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Two or more people signing to each other in public for communication purposes is one thing. Signing by oneself or in a group for entertainment value is totally something else.

Sign and interpreting students can practice together without making a public scene about it.

I do practice frequently when not working but not in malls. Usually at home.

Otherwise, I use it naturally in conversation with Deaf friends.

Here's the big (bad) difference between serious practice and mockery (from OP's post):

"I know it's probably wrong, but I found it interesting to do. Sometimes when I go out to public places like restaurants or just out with my friends I start using sign language to people I don't know just to see what happens. My friends go along with it and pretend I'm deaf as well."
 
Cylly1 said:
That's a disease, not a language. Are you implying deafness is a disease since "That's pretty much what I'm doing"?
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So, if you were studying a spoken language you would use make up and costumes to imitate the natives, and prance around in public that way? You would pretend that you don't know English? You would flash a green card? What?

And maybe next time if they do meet a deaf person, they'll know more sign than they did before.
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Yeah, right. That's how hearing people pick up sign language. :roll:

No, it's more likely that next time they meet a real deaf person they'll think, "Oh, boy, another one of those nutty kids acting goofy."

What you're doing is not "helpful" in the least.
 
Cylly1 said:
So using another language is being a "wannabe", what about all the interpreters? for any other language? guess they're "wannabes" too. I already know how to stand on my head, practicing ASL was next. ^^
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As an interpreter, it's never been my desire to "play deaf" in public. I don't know of any other interpreters who have done that either. We may be occasionally mistaken for being deaf but it's never intentional.
 
Cylly1 said:
So anyone who uses another language is a wanna be? When I spoke Chinese to the people in the Chinese restaurant, they said my chinese was really good. Same with my Japanese when i use it in public. But the only reason I use Sign Language is because it's closest to English, so maybe they'll actually understand what I'm saying.
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In your Chinese and Japanese examples you were having a two-way conversation in the same language. If you were signing ASL with a deaf signer in a two-way conversation, that would be fine. But that's not what you were doing.

Do you go up to people who don't speak Chinese and just start blabbering in Chinese to them and pretending that you don't understand English?

And I'm not making fun of anyone. When I sign people want to know more and they find it interesting as well. I'm not trying to disrespect anyone, just use the language. So, what's the problem? That I actually stop talking when I use Sign Language?
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Your words:

"I know it's probably wrong, but I found it interesting to do. Sometimes when I go out to public places like restaurants or just out with my friends I start using sign language to people I don't know just to see what happens. My friends go along with it and pretend I'm deaf as well."

That's baloney. There is no way that signing to hearing strangers and pretending that you can't hear will make people "want to know more." They'll just think you're part of some nuttiness or a scammer of some kind of rip off. They'll think, "What is wrong with that person?"

That is not helpful to the Deaf community.
 
LoveBlue said:
An interpreter is already fluent in the language they interpret, otherwise they wouldn't be qualified to interpret. They're also taught to respect the language and the people who use it. They would not use it with strangers who do not know the language. How would that be practicing?
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Excellent points.

Language is receptive & <can't think of the word to use for the one talking/signing>, so to practice both persons need to know the language.
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Receptive and expressive. :)
 
Cylly1 said:
Well, I don't know how many time I can apologize for offending people, but it wasn't to make fun. Maybe you can thicken up some of their skins by telling them not everyone hearing person's out to get them....
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Except you just put the lie to that statement.

By your actions, you reinforced the belief that hearing people mock deaf people.
 
There is no easy way to say this nicely. Everyone has different attitudes and personalities on how they approach others.

I can kind of see myself a similar situation that I have been in. Like the movie series Rush Hour with Jackie Chan (Lee) trying to be black and Chris Tucker (Carter) telling him he has a long way to go. Likewise, Carter tries to pretend to be Chinese and Lee tells him to cut it out because he knows Carter's just a wannabe.

(Joke) there was actually a funny part where Carter and a Chinese guy get in an argument. It reminds me of the sides in this topic.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAtlmmWQMio"][Rush Hour] - Im no punk bitch - YouTube[/ame]


I'm not african-american, but if I were to hang out at the basketball court and start acting black:
"hey what be up my nigs"
"you be a bangin balla, pass me the ball bro"
I already know I'm going to get some weird looks by the guys on the court. They'd say I was a wannabe and tell me to get lost. They know that I know zilch about african-american/black history.

This same case may also apply for deaf, if some deafies saw some fake sign language they're going to be wondering what's up with that person. You gotta be humble and gain their respect first to be accepted, the same thing that goes on with any language and group in the world.
 
I sign in public, too. At the library with one or two of my fellow sign language learners because we are *practicing* and we do this by signing with other people who are *practicing* a topic we are studying. We do not 'pretend to be deaf.' In fact, once in a while, if I notice somebody staring, I make a point of speaking so that nobody assumes we are deaf.

Sometimes I sign in public to my kids when they are too far away to hear me, or behind a window- but I am not pretending to be deaf. I am using the signs I know for legitimate communication. I make no effort to make others think I am deaf, and I do not ever sign to somebody whom I have no expectation will understand me.

At least, not on purpose. It does come out accidentally sometimes when I have just finished talking ot my deaf friend or when I am playing charades.
 
naisho said:
...I'm not african-american, but if I were to hang out at the basketball court and start acting black:
"hey what be up my nigs"
"you be a bangin balla, pass me the ball bro"
I already know I'm going to get some weird looks by the guys on the court. They'd say I was a wannabe and tell me to get lost. They know that I know zilch about african-american/black history....
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Umm, I don't think you'd safely get past the first line that you stated . . . you'd get more than weird looks.... :whistle:
 
Grayma said:
Sometimes I sign in public to my kids when they are too far away to hear me, or behind a window...
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Don't all mothers have "signs" their kids understand? :giggle:

My kids learned Uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinco, spanko (when I got to 5, I made a swatting motion).

And one, two, pinch (made a pinching sign...when I'm really mad/want them to do something).
 
really? just because it's summer and school's out, there's no deaf socials? really? .... I find that kind of strange.


Where I live, deaf socials happen all year round, regardless of whether or not school is in session. If ASL students at the college (or high school) want to continue learning, they know how to contact some of us for when deaf social is (via text, email or even facebook). Here, we typically have 2 deaf socials per month (bowling, and ice cream or coffee), sometimes more depending on what's going on and what some folks want (sometimes it's Deaf Girls Night, dinner somewhere; the guys getting together, group camping trips in the summer, someone wanting to have a birthday dinner somewhere, picnics at a park, etc.).


There has to be at least someone that is willing to help you improve your signing skills in your area. Keep reaching out, surely someone will come along.
 
I'm not mad about this yet, I'm still confused as to why you thought that it was a good idea to post this for all of us to read. I don't see a problem with signing for practice and even doing it while you speak in public or around others but pretending to be deaf to just see how others respond isn't very respectful. Not only are you disrespecting Deaf and H.O.H individuals but you're lying to the people that are trying to help you...
 
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It just seems offensive.. and creepy.

Kinda like those people that mutilate themselves or purposely use crutches or a wheelchair when they don't need it just to get sympathy and attention.

I don't have a lot to add to this that hasn't already been said, but it really does give me the creeps.
 
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