Voicing with the hearing anyone?

deafdyke said:
Ditto. I am very self conscious about my voice b/c of that. One of the BIGGEST reasons why oral-only doesn't work, is that while we can communicate with hearing people, we still sound incredibly funny. There is STILL so much prejudice out there b/c of voice quality. A LOT of people still think I"M retarded b/c my voice still sounds like someone with mental retardation. Oral skills do not provide complete and total equality! I really really wish more of the hardline oral-onlyists understood that!
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This is one of the topics within the deaf community that has always interested me... I can speak well and I'm very oral (but I have been involved in the deaf community since I went to a deaf school for years when I was 10 and have been mainstreamed my entire life) so I do not understand what it is like to be embarrassed about my voice. I do, however, understand what it is like to be embarrassed about mis-pronouncing words. I do this a lot. My boyfriend is hearing, and he corrects me all the time because no one else did when I was growing up. I get really embarrassed about this, but then I realize that, hey, we're deaf! we cant help the fact that we never heard the word correctly! So I cant understand you completely, but I definitely understand certain aspects to that issue.
 
Well i meant ignorant as in uneducated and ignorant in actions. Some people see or hear something that is different than what they are used to and have to make certain assumptions. It's shame. If hearing had the experiences i have had with Deaf people they would view so many issues realted to the deaf in a completely different manner.
 
While my speech is good, I don't quite sound like a hearing person. I avoid most words that have more than 1 syllable as they're harder to pronounce.

I still dread pronouncing names like Elizabeth as the hearing do get offended if you say their names wrong. I can say Elizabeth just fine nowadays.

One of my most embarrassing moments came when I learned the hard way that the Chinese surname Hung is not pronounced same as the English word hung. The ng sound is pronounced different from the ng sound in English.

I notice that I have a tendency to stutter a bit when trying to pronounce words to a total stranger.
 
dorkyari, I have pretty good oral skills myself, but my voice quality is VERY "deaf" sounding even thou I'm only hoh.
I tend to pronounce words phoneticly, and still have significent volumne, pitch and other issues.
 
I use my voice with almost everyone. Sometimes they understand me, sometimes they don't. Sometimes I write on paper and pen if I don't feel comfortable saying it.
 
Southern said:
Well i meant ignorant as in uneducated and ignorant in actions. Some people see or hear something that is different than what they are used to and have to make certain assumptions. It's shame. If hearing had the experiences i have had with Deaf people they would view so many issues realted to the deaf in a completely different manner.
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While this is true, it is then also fair to say that if we had experiences that hearing people have with other hearing people, it would probably cause us to view isses related to the hearing community in a completey different manner as well. just remember, despite our differences, we are all human beings ;)
 
Im hoh and grew up in the hearing world. Ive been told many times by hearies how good my speech is. :rolleyes: Ive been told by friends that I have a little bit of accent though and I do have trouble pronouncing word of 4 syllables or more--too much of a mouthful for me. I speak at work and with family but my bf is deaf so I sign with him.

But I met some deafies who can speak but they have what I call "deaf" accent which is unique and for some, it is embarrassing to the point of not wanting to speak at all. Ive heard some deafies who have bad speech skills--either from not able to hear sounds to bad speech therapists (there are some good and bad ones out there). Unfortunately, a few deafies speak so badly that I cringe at their voices but not blame them for it.
 
I went to the store with my Deaf friend. First time in that setting. He was vocal like he normal is with me in the car, all the way up to the store. Then some people were walking in our direction and he turned off his voice. First time he has done that around me. I was surprised because he always uses his voice with me while signing. When it happened i felt a little sad. Sad that he feels uncomfortable around strange hearing people that he feels the need to do that. Sad at the thought that he may have expirenced something in his life where he has been made fun of because of his deaf voice. And sad that Deaf feel the need to do that because of stupid hearing people that would make some one feel bad about themselves. I also thought what would i do if i saw or heard some one make fun of him...... That would hurt me, and make me very angry. I know there are idiots out there no matter the situation that will have issue with something. We never like to see our friends hurt. And for me physical pain is one thing and can heal although it's bad. Emotional pain, for me, is worse. I hate my friend felt he needed to do that. I hate the thought that some ignorant hearing person has possibly made fun of him. My biggest hope though..... I hope he didn't do that for me, worried that he would embarass me because that is not the case.
 
I'm hearing, but related to this topic, I prefer if deaf people sign with me than try to use their voices. Signing makes puts us on an equal plane because we can both see, while with deaf people trying to lipread me, they have to do a lot of lipreading work that i don't have to do since I can hear them. And signing is clearer to me than most deaf voices too.
 
jillio said:
My son uses his vioce with me some, and sometimes--rarely-- he will use it if he is having trouble making himself understood when communicating with a hearing person. But he doesn't like to use his voice because in the past so many hearing people have asked him if he's MRDD or something because his vioce sounds funny and he doesn't pronounce his words like a hearing person. Always irritated me that the first thing people think is MRDD instead of Deaf.
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I'm a hearing person, and only in the past year have I really begun to understand deafness, as I've started to learn sign and worked with my ASL teachers (who are culturally Deaf). I understand why deaf people are often afraid to vocalize. There are a lot of ignorant people in the world. You can go to YouTube.com and see examples of people's stupidity and ignorance on many levels, including deaf awareness.

Of course, people's ignorance is their own fault, but it occurs to me that NAD, ALDA, and other groups could lessen this effect if they spent a bit on public service announcements. I know their primary role is advocacy, but advocacy could include making the general public more aware, couldn't it? I think a lot of hearing people would experience a kind of "light bulb moment" if they saw a commercial with a very educated intellectual Deaf person explaining that their voice does not reflect their education or their ability. I think a lot of hearing people just don't even think about it, and their day to day experience with people who have difficulty speaking more often reflects people with mental disabilities. This in turn feeds into the culture of paternalism that hearing people often have toward the Deaf. It seems like an awareness problem more than an intentional disrespect (at least for most people).
 
Calphool said:
I'm a hearing person, and only in the past year have I really begun to understand deafness, as I've started to learn sign and worked with my ASL teachers (who are culturally Deaf). I understand why deaf people are often afraid to vocalize. There are a lot of ignorant people in the world. You can go to YouTube.com and see examples of people's stupidity and ignorance on many levels, including deaf awareness.

Of course, people's ignorance is their own fault, but it occurs to me that NAD, ALDA, and other groups could lessen this effect if they spent a bit on public service announcements. I know their primary role is advocacy, but advocacy could include making the general public more aware, couldn't it? I think a lot of hearing people would experience a kind of "light bulb moment" if they saw a commercial with a very educated intellectual Deaf person explaining that their voice does not reflect their education or their ability. I think a lot of hearing people just don't even think about it, and their day to day experience with people who have difficulty speaking more often reflects people with mental disabilities. This in turn feeds into the culture of paternalism that hearing people often have toward the Deaf. It seems like an awareness problem more than an intentional disrespect (at least for most people).
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Yeah, this happens even when the deaf person has a perfectly clear voice--most hearies get irritated by the fact that they have to face the deaf person when speaking! Gee, it's a very small accommodation.
 
I am HOH will use voice with hearing.
Started learning ASL 3 years ago.
If I am with Deaf then I will not voice.
 
I've heard deaf people talking. I don't make fun of it, but I'm learning ASL, so if I had to, I could have a basic conversation with someone, if they didn't feel comfortable using their voice. I'm still not that wonderful at ASL though..
 
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