who's hearie here on AD? (what are you here for?)

I'm here for several reasons. The first is simply to familiarize myself with Deaf culture; most Americans are familiar with at least a few aspects of our country's other minority cultures, so why should Deaf culture be left out of our "cultural stew?" Another is my own artistic interests. I'm starting my second novel soon (the first is in the process of being sold) and plan to include a Deaf character as one of the protagonists. I feel it would be incredibly irresponsible to attempt to write a Deaf character without making sure he was as "real" as possible (one of the reasons I'm attempting to learn ASL). If I portray him inaccurately, or if I perpetuate stereotypes, I'm insulting Deaf readers and making an ass out of myself. The third is more long-term--my wife and I have always planned to raise bilingual children (we agreed on this before we were even engaged). We'd originally planned to teach them German, as we both know enough to get through the first years until we could afford to hire a language tutor. However, as we've learned a little ASL we've both fallen in love with the physicality of signing and have been dying to learn more. She's also discovered in her research that there are developmental benefits in raising children who can sign, even more so than with other childhood bilingual programs. So we've changed our plans--we're going to take ASL classes (hopefully with the money I get from the first novel) and teach our children ASL.
 
aglaeca said:
I'm here for several reasons. The first is simply to familiarize myself with Deaf culture; most Americans are familiar with at least a few aspects of our country's other minority cultures, so why should Deaf culture be left out of our "cultural stew?" Another is my own artistic interests. I'm starting my second novel soon (the first is in the process of being sold) and plan to include a Deaf character as one of the protagonists. I feel it would be incredibly irresponsible to attempt to write a Deaf character without making sure he was as "real" as possible (one of the reasons I'm attempting to learn ASL). If I portray him inaccurately, or if I perpetuate stereotypes, I'm insulting Deaf readers and making an ass out of myself. The third is more long-term--my wife and I have always planned to raise bilingual children (we agreed on this before we were even engaged). We'd originally planned to teach them German, as we both know enough to get through the first years until we could afford to hire a language tutor. However, as we've learned a little ASL we've both fallen in love with the physicality of signing and have been dying to learn more. She's also discovered in her research that there are developmental benefits in raising children who can sign, even more so than with other childhood bilingual programs. So we've changed our plans--we're going to take ASL classes (hopefully with the money I get from the first novel) and teach our children ASL.
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You're my new hero! Wish we could get hearing parents of deaf children to understand the developmental benefits in the way you and your wife do!
 
I am hearing and am here because of my passion for the Deaf community which was originally inspired by my late Grandmother-in-law. Now I just can't get enough! :) I love to learn as much as possible and make new friends. I also really enjoy being able to educate others.
 
I am new here and I am new to the deaf community. I am hearing with no previous experience with deaf persons.

I was asked to babysit one of a litter of JRT puppies when their owners went on vacation. We noticed in a very short time that the puppy was deaf. I, of course, as an animal lover, fell in love in 10 short minutes with him. When the owners returned from their vacation and we told them he was deaf, they didn't want him back.

They told us before they left that he was stubborn, hard to train and we got him, instead of one of the others because I truly love animals.

I searched everywhere to find someone to help me communicate with him, and found no one willing to even try to help me because they had never dealt with a deaf dog. I finally was able to locate one lady, who had never had any experience with a deaf dog, but she was willing to try to help us. Help she did.

He and I are so very close. He knows 10 signs. In fact when my ex boss asked me to come back to work, bringing him with me was my only condition. So, Andy comes to work with me. He is very well behaved and loved by everyone in the office.

He also tuned me into an entire new world that I never realized was out there.

My husband and I have sinced started ASL courses. I have also read numerous books about Deaf culture, ASL, hearing parents of deaf children, history of deaf persons and I am just flabbergasted and saddened at the treatment, by government, health professionals, hearing persons, educational professionals, of deaf persons.

I am nearing retirement now and am finding that I have learned so much in the last year that it has encouraged me to try to make a difference to the hearing world to understand Deaf culture.

I am still so ignorant, and afraid to offend, that even during my classes (and my teacher is absolutely wonderful -- and patient) I don't want to ask questions that my offend without my even knowing so.

My teacher, for example, didn't learn to sign until she was 14. Her parents still don't sign. I want to ask how she communicated with them before that and why they didn't learn sign, but again, don't want to intrude. I know she was mainstreamed, but is completely deaf--and can't speak--how frustrating must this have been?

I'm sorry if this sounds completely ignorant, but if I thought the need great enough to communicate with my puppy, how can parents of a deaf child not find this need? Is it denial?

I'd welcome any help or insights anyone has to offer.


Abby
 
AbbyMeyer said:
I am new here and I am new to the deaf community. I am hearing with no previous experience with deaf persons.

I was asked to babysit one of a litter of JRT puppies when their owners went on vacation. We noticed in a very short time that the puppy was deaf. I, of course, as an animal lover, fell in love in 10 short minutes with him. When the owners returned from their vacation and we told them he was deaf, they didn't want him back.

They told us before they left that he was stubborn, hard to train and we got him, instead of one of the others because I truly love animals.

I searched everywhere to find someone to help me communicate with him, and found no one willing to even try to help me because they had never dealt with a deaf dog. I finally was able to locate one lady, who had never had any experience with a deaf dog, but she was willing to try to help us. Help she did.

He and I are so very close. He knows 10 signs. In fact when my ex boss asked me to come back to work, bringing him with me was my only condition. So, Andy comes to work with me. He is very well behaved and loved by everyone in the office.

He also tuned me into an entire new world that I never realized was out there.

My husband and I have sinced started ASL courses. I have also read numerous books about Deaf culture, ASL, hearing parents of deaf children, history of deaf persons and I am just flabbergasted and saddened at the treatment, by government, health professionals, hearing persons, educational professionals, of deaf persons.

I am nearing retirement now and am finding that I have learned so much in the last year that it has encouraged me to try to make a difference to the hearing world to understand Deaf culture.

I am still so ignorant, and afraid to offend, that even during my classes (and my teacher is absolutely wonderful -- and patient) I don't want to ask questions that my offend without my even knowing so.

My teacher, for example, didn't learn to sign until she was 14. Her parents still don't sign. I want to ask how she communicated with them before that and why they didn't learn sign, but again, don't want to intrude. I know she was mainstreamed, but is completely deaf--and can't speak--how frustrating must this have been?

I'm sorry if this sounds completely ignorant, but if I thought the need great enough to communicate with my puppy, how can parents of a deaf child not find this need? Is it denial?

I'd welcome any help or insights anyone has to offer.


Abby
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OMG what a adorable and sweet story!!!! That's orginal..you took ASL classes to meet your deaf dog's communication needs? Most of the time people take ASL classes to meet a deaf person's communication needs but this is a first!

You are very welcome to AD and I agree about the mainstreamed part. I was mainstreamed all of my life without any sign language despite being born with a severe-profound bilateral deafness...it was extremely frustrating inheed and about 11 years ago, I finally started learning ASL. Definitely a life-changing experience for me.
 
Thanks for replying Shel.

Did your parents learn sign to communicate with you? Do you think the questions I want to ask are intrusive? I so want to learn, but I don't want people to think I'm being rude. I know I'm ignorant of Deaf culture, but I want to learn without making anyone feel uncomfortable.
 
AbbyMeyer said:
Thanks for replying Shel.

Did your parents learn sign to communicate with you? Do you think the questions I want to ask are intrusive? I so want to learn, but I don't want people to think I'm being rude. I know I'm ignorant of Deaf culture, but I want to learn without making anyone feel uncomfortable.
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Hey, I applaud you for being honest about being ignorant and wanting to learn instead of saying you know it all like some hearing people do.

Nope, they dont know sign language. Get this, my brother is also deaf and never was able to develop oral skills so he went to a Deaf school at the age of 5 and family relied on me to interpret for him growing up. U are welcome to ask any questions and I am willing to answer them. :)
 
I'm guessing your parents are hearing. My biggest question is why hearing people are not automatically geared to learning how to communicate with deaf people. Especially when they are the parents of deaf children.

My next I guess, is how us dumb hearing people can make the dumber hearing people enlightend.

How does your brother cope with dealing with your parents, aside from your interpretting?

My really stupid question, is how do learn oral skills without hearing?

And..... do you find most hearing people offensive or ignorant?

I just don't want to be that way, but do think I might be catergorized as such because I do hear and my experience is so new.


Thanks again

Abby
 
AbbyMeyer said:
I'm guessing your parents are hearing. My biggest question is why hearing people are not automatically geared to learning how to communicate with deaf people. Especially when they are the parents of deaf children.


Yes they are hearing. I cant answer that for hearing people. Only they can answer that themselves.
My next I guess, is how us dumb hearing people can make the dumber hearing people enlightend.

How does your brother cope with dealing with your parents, aside from your interpretting?

He felt hurt and disappointed in them that they didnt try enough. As a kid, he didnt understand the implications but now as an adult, he feels alienated from them. After learning ASL and realizing the implications it had on my brother, I felt disappointed in them too.
My really stupid question, is how do learn oral skills without hearing?

Dunno...that is one of life's mystery. Why some hard of hearing people with better hearing than I do were unable to learn oral skills? Same thing..no real answer to that.

And..... do you find most hearing people offensive or ignorant?

Not offensive but ignorant, yes.

I just don't want to be that way, but do think I might be catergorized as such because I do hear and my experience is so new.


Thanks again

Abby
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Dont sweat it. :) You are doing fine!
 
Thanks for being so honest. There is such a huge problem here with deaf enlightenment. I signed up for 8 classes before I finally got enrolled in one -- reason -- not enough enrollment to conduct a class. This is one thing I hope to change. For obvious reasons I couldn't enroll in a deaf school, but I do think that ASL should be offered to those of us that want to learn the language. There are 10 people in my class, only the teacher and one other person is deaf, so I am thinking this is a positive direction for hearing persons that want to participate.

I don't know whether any are doing for school credits, because ASL is recognized here as a languate credit, but I'd liked to think that we hearing people are finally getting tuned in.
 
Shel,

I'm guessing if your brother went to deaf school at five, he learned ASL then. If you didn't learn it until 11 years ago, how were you interpreting?

Do you have any other family members (hearing) that learned sign to communicate with you and your brother? Like aunts, uncles or grandparents.
 
AbbyMeyer said:
Shel,

I'm guessing if your brother went to deaf school at five, he learned ASL then. If you didn't learn it until 11 years ago, how were you interpreting?

Do you have any other family members (hearing) that learned sign to communicate with you and your brother? Like aunts, uncles or grandparents.
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I know..our story is soo weird. Thru lipreading and speaking. I was the only one who understood my brother's poor speech skills. Nobody else could so the interpreting was done via oralism. My brother can lipread pretty well but I am the easiest one for him to lipread growing up.

So, since learning ASL 11 years ago, my relationship with my brother is much stronger and we communicate via ASL now.

Nope, none of them learned sign. My husband was using Sim-Com at a family dinner and my brother and I werent a part of the conversation but we were in the room. My grandmother told my husband to stop signing cuz she doesnt need it. My husband told her as long as my brother and I are in the same room, he will continue to sign and to drop it is disrespectful to us. Ooohh!!!
 
Hurrah for your husband! Is he hearing?

What is sim-com?

It must have been frustrating for your brother trying to communicate as a child. How did they communicate when you were not there?

I think all families are weird in their own special way. My father was Polish and when he came to Canada he struggled learning English. Hence, we were not allowed to learn Polish and my grandparents never learned English, so conversations with that side of the family were extremely limited.
 
AbbyMeyer said:
Hurrah for your husband! Is he hearing?

What is sim-com?

It must have been frustrating for your brother trying to communicate as a child. How did they communicate when you were not there?

I think all families are weird in their own special way. My father was Polish and when he came to Canada he struggled learning English. Hence, we were not allowed to learn Polish and my grandparents never learned English, so conversations with that side of the family were extremely limited.
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Sim-Com is speaking while signing at the same time. Usually one language gets compromised which in most cases would be ASL.

They did a lot of gesturing when I wasnt there. My brother visited my aunt in Colorado last year along with his best friend who is an interpretor and they hung out with my aunt. My brother is 32 years old and my aunt was shocked to learn that my brother had a funny and spontaneous personality.

Yea, my hubby is hearing. :)
 
We definitely need more of our hearing peers to be as enlightened as you guys are! Thank you for taking an interest in our community, and you are welcome here. :)
 
Liza,

Thank you for the welcome.

Shel,

32 years is a long time, but certainly better late than never. One of the people in our ASL class is there because she has a deaf nephew that is turning 18 this year and she wants to be able to wish him a happy birthday in ASL. I was somewhat baffled that it took so long, but at least she decided to make an effort. I don’t know if his parents sign.

Where did you learn ASL? Trying to put a time line together, I think you had finished school by the time you learned.

How do you feel about your family not learning ASL to communicate with you and your brother?

If you could suggest something to us hearing people to enlighten us, what would it be?
 
madison069 said:
Currently I do not know how to sign due to not having the need to sign since I was 7 yrs old. But I do read lips and use hearing aids to help understand what others around me are saying. I know being deaf is hard to handle somedays, but that should never be an excuse for why one should not achieve his/her dream in life.
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does that imply that you did sign before when you were at deaf school?

I'd classify you as lucky for being placed in deaf education and moving to hearing education ONLY after they could be sure you would manage their.

With some people it's the otherway round. They are placed in mainstream school first and then have to be fished out and placed in deaf school ONLY after falling behind. I think it would be better to start off in deaf education first.
 
aglaeca said:
I'm here for several reasons. The first is simply to familiarize myself with Deaf culture; most Americans are familiar with at least a few aspects of our country's other minority cultures, so why should Deaf culture be left out of our "cultural stew?" Another is my own artistic interests. I'm starting my second novel soon (the first is in the process of being sold) and plan to include a Deaf character as one of the protagonists. I feel it would be incredibly irresponsible to attempt to write a Deaf character without making sure he was as "real" as possible (one of the reasons I'm attempting to learn ASL). If I portray him inaccurately, or if I perpetuate stereotypes, I'm insulting Deaf readers and making an ass out of myself. The third is more long-term--my wife and I have always planned to raise bilingual children (we agreed on this before we were even engaged). We'd originally planned to teach them German, as we both know enough to get through the first years until we could afford to hire a language tutor. However, as we've learned a little ASL we've both fallen in love with the physicality of signing and have been dying to learn more. She's also discovered in her research that there are developmental benefits in raising children who can sign, even more so than with other childhood bilingual programs. So we've changed our plans--we're going to take ASL classes (hopefully with the money I get from the first novel) and teach our children ASL.
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That sounds interesting. I'm also writting a novel with several deaf characters in it. I wish you the best of luck.

I you planning to adopt a deaf child? or teach a hearing child ASL?
 
hence the name

I am hearing, my sister is on the site and keeps sending me links to interesting threads (coolloser). She rocks! This forum is great.
 
Ramamma

I am here because I have at least three family members who are deaf. I am enrolled in ASL 101, but have taken up three separate community learning classes.I am not getting the greatest of grades, but I will continue to trudge on. I am a Native American mother of two and have seven family "foster" kids (in addition to watching my deaf grandniece w/ her 2 siblings.):ty:
 
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