Switched At Birth

Mieke

Mieke

Belgian ASL noob
Joined
Aug 19, 2016
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Hi all,

I'be just watched the series Switched at birth and am just intrested to learn about your culture.

Don't get me wrong, I have been trying to read around here and some other sites too, and yes I'm a hearing person, so most likely without even wanting to I may offensief someone, if so please just point it out to me.

I' m Belgian and honestly as far as I know havent ever run into anyone deaf. And from what I've been reading it seems like VGT, Flemish Sign language is only being used in Flanders by about 7000 people, even though there are 70000 people that are deaf or hoh.

I guess Deaf Awareness in Flanders probably still has a big road ahead.

Anyway I would love to read your comments on the show.

And just wanted to be honest about why I'm here.
 
You can type "Switched at Birth" in search engine here. You'll find plenty of threads here about the show in particular. As for me, I did watch only two years of Switched at Birth before I got bored with it, because they were into drama and love triangle stuff. Yadda yadda yadda. Whatever I go out, I get questions like "Have you heard of Switched at Birth? It makes me want to learn sign! I want to sign up for ASL class." Actually, my dental hygienist asked me about Switched at Birth while examined my teeth. She knew basic signs. I thought it was funny.
 
I loved SAB, but never watched it because I don't watch much TV. I have too much to do! I was, however, thrilled to see that such a show reached so many people.

Is it me, or has anyone else noticed that the signing on the show isn't always the same as the English translation?


Oh and welcome! :)
 
Hey Barbaro,

Thanks for replying. I did search on switched at birth on the forum and ended up reading a few threads, but havent tried search in on SAB. Which is probably where the other simular threads are.

And frankly I did ask myself whether or not to say that I'm an SAB fan. After reading these threads or some parts of it, I kind of wanted to hide in shame.
 
Muse said:
I loved SAB, but never watched it because I don't watch much TV. I have too much to do! I was, however, thrilled to see that such a show reached so many people.

Is it me, or has anyone else noticed that the signing on the show isn't always the same as the English translation?


Oh and welcome! :)
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Thanks Muse, of and please tell me that they at least got the sign for thank you right.
 
Mieke said:
I' m Belgian and honestly as far as I know havent ever run into anyone deaf. And from what I've been reading it seems like VGT, Flemish Sign language is only being used in Flanders by about 7000 people, even though there are 70000 people that are deaf or hoh.

I guess Deaf Awareness in Flanders probably still has a big road ahead.
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Yes, that's b/c traditionally in Europe kids were educated orally. There's even a country where NOBODY below the age of third grade even signs. Very sad, as you'd think that dhh kids would deserve EVERYTHING possible!
 
Mieke said:
Hey Barbaro,

Thanks for replying. I did search on switched at birth on the forum and ended up reading a few threads, but havent tried search in on SAB. Which is probably where the other simular threads are.

And frankly I did ask myself whether or not to say that I'm an SAB fan. After reading these threads or some parts of it, I kind of wanted to hide in shame.
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What was it that made you feel that way? I have to admit that SAB had reached viewers in different ways, which is good. However, it's a fictional show and mislead others to get ideas about what D/d and HOH people are capable of. For instance, this character, Daphne is a very good lipreader, and talks pretty well, but they get a wrong idea that we all must be so good at lipread 100%. That's not entirely true. I think the majority doesn't realize that Katie played Daphne grew up hearing and learned sign language eventually when she was a teen. Her hearing loss was a cause due to her illness.
 
I am not a big fan of sab.. All cheesy and misinformation some of them. but that is a TELEVISION SHOW.
 
Barbaro said:
What was it that made you feel that way? I have to admit that SAB had reached viewers in different ways, which is good. However, it's a fictional show and mislead others to get ideas about what D/d and HOH people are capable of. For instance, this character, Daphne is a very good lipreader, and talks pretty well, but they get a wrong idea that we all must be so good at lipread 100%. That's not entirely true. I think the majority doesn't realize that Katie played Daphne grew up hearing and learned sign language eventually when she was a teen. Her hearing loss was a cause due to her illness.
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That part I actually did read up on already, and that's also part of why I'm so intrigued.
When I started looking at what the impact was, I read some comments that it's a show generally deaf people love to hate...

On the one side you get the great idea that every thing is possible with some adjustments. On the other hand they show you that there is an actualiteit risk of deaf people not being correctly treated in.hospitals, which is horrifying.

And beside of that he Deaf community is shown not to be accepting to hearing people, whether or not they just saven their school.
 
Mieke said:
That part I actually did read up on already, and that's also part of why I'm so intrigued.
When I started looking at what the impact was, I read some comments that it's a show generally deaf people love to hate...

On the one side you get the great idea that every thing is possible with some adjustments. On the other hand they show you that there is an actualiteit risk of deaf people not being correctly treated in.hospitals, which is horrifying.

And beside of that he Deaf community is shown not to be accepting to hearing people, whether or not they just saven their school.
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Many people in medical field don't like to watch medical shows, too. My family members and relatives are in medical field always laugh at medical shows, "Wait a minute, that's not real!" Cops probably said the same thing about cop shows. I heard some real life cops said that Southland is enough close to be realistic, because cops have to deal with idiot people daily.

It's subtle we all know that the Deaf community doesn't like it when someone walks all over them.
 
Barbaro said:
Many people in medical field don't like to watch medical shows, too. My family members and relatives are in medical field always laugh at medical shows, "Wait a minute, that's not real!" Cops probably said the same thing about cop shows. I heard some real life cops said that Southland is enough close to be realistic, because cops have to deal with idiot people daily.

It's subtle we all know that the Deaf community doesn't like it when someone walks all over them.
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True, but for most of these kind of shows I have more or less an idea about the reality, as for a Deaf community before this show I had no clue ASL existed or a Deaf culture existed. So it made me curious to learn more...

One thing they sure managed to get surprisingly accurate, the CI war almost...
 
Mieke said:
True, but for most of these kind of shows I have more or less an idea about the reality, as for a Deaf community before this show I had no clue ASL existed or a Deaf culture existed. So it made me curious to learn more...

One thing they sure managed to get surprisingly accurate, the CI war almost...
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As for the CI war, is that what it was about in SAB Season 3? If so, I only saw Season 1 and 2 and I can't comment on that. It's been so long since I watched SAB.

The CI war will go on and on. I am sure there are a thousand threads on this website about CI you can read.

I've been asked so many times to consider CI, but for me now, I really don't think about getting it. I'm happy where I am now. I have everything. If I get CI, that's great. However, it still won't change people's attitude toward deaf people in general. I am talking about people with all levels of hearing loss. When you lose your hearing loss, you start to learn more about yourself and you probably will be surprised by your friends you thought you knew your entire life who ignore you. You have to ask yourself a question- why do you keep hanging out with your long time friends or relatives or family members who still gave people with all kinds of hearing loss a bad treatment?

My friend is a very sweet and sensitive friend. He has been wearing bilateral CIs for 6 years ago. He considers himself deaf, not Deaf. He can carry conversation well with hearing people. He thought he was going to get his hearing friends back he knew from high school by communicating with them in normal mode. Oh, boy, he was wrong. He didn't like their attitudes toward others who struggle to hear. In fact, he tried to educate them and tell them to be nice, but his friends hadn't changed their attitudes. For instance, they made fun of elderly man with hearing aid. He had enough and finally chose to end their friendships with them and made new friends from now.
 
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Not sure which season anymore, watched all of them in one go...

If you're ok with your hearing, that's all that matters. If you feel comfortable, why change. ..

As for your friends, true friends would have been there for him, not worth spending time on...

My dad is a bit HOH, so he has a hearing aid also, I remember when he just got it, hè was surprised how loud a lot of sounds were. Hearing his own footsteps or how loud kids really are... When our kids stay over there, hè tends to just turn it off for a while
 
one of those actors are a trouble but that's him. I saw him at the deaf club,.. shrugs
 
Mieke said:
Not sure which season anymore, watched all of them in one go...

If you're ok with your hearing, that's all that matters. If you feel comfortable, why change. ..

As for your friends, true friends would have been there for him, not worth spending time on...

My dad is a bit HOH, so he has a hearing aid also, I remember when he just got it, hè was surprised how loud a lot of sounds were. Hearing his own footsteps or how loud kids really are... When our kids stay over there, hè tends to just turn it off for a while
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Exactly. Why change?

When I turn my hearing aids on, boom! What a noise world. If it becomes too much, I just turn it off whenever I want to. :)
 
Havent met him, so cant tell... On the up side for me, he could sign any nasting thing he wants to me and still look cute in my eyes
 
Barbaro said:
Sean Berdy is a stuck up for real? Well, that's news to me.
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I was at the Bar in NYC. He did not look friendly to me unlike Nyle. I just left him alone after igot a weird vibes from him. Everyone is different.
 
Frisky Feline said:
I was at the Bar in NYC. He did not look friendly to me unlike Nyle. I just left him alone after igot a weird vibes from him. Everyone is different.
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I love Nyle's demeanor. He is such an incredibly kind human being.
 
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