why not aspire to speak?

Lighthouse77 said:
When stem cell come out, all the awards should go to them because they are a picture perfect deaf because they have hearing and can write and speak like a hearing person. CI, HA, Deaf -- nope, they are the AGBell victim from the past so who cares about them anymore because they can't write as well as stem cell guys. look at their beautiful written essay compare to CI people! Yes, we should award them! all because of AGbell made it happen! (being sarcastic)
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Hahaha, do you realize that if they're cured, they're no longer deaf so there's absolutely no point in awarding them. :)
 
Babyblue said:
Isn't that French?

:)
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From dictionary.com:

Word History: When the British stand in queues (as they have been doing at least since 1837, when this meaning of the word is first recorded in English), they may not realize they form a tail. The French word queue from which the English word is borrowed is a descendant of Latin cōda, meaning "tail." French queue appeared in 1748 in English, referring to a plait of hair hanging down the back of the neck. By 1802 wearing a queue was a regulation in the British army, but by the mid-19th century queues had disappeared along with cocked hats. Latin cōda is also the source of Italian coda, which was adopted into English as a musical term (like so many other English musical terms that come from Italian). A coda is thus literally the "tail end" of a movement or composition.
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I've seen the word "queues" in Harry Potter books. Now, I know how to say it.

Netrox, I know the person may not have qualifications and contacts. The point is that a person may not have opportunities to develop them. It's not like there are people welcoming members of oppressed groups into the inner circle. I perceived that you crossed over into the territory of victim blaming at some point.
 
In English queue is pronounced like the letter Q but in French it's pronounced without the "y" sound, so it's like the sound "k"...but in French it means "tail" as well as "line." You probably don't care how it's pronounced in French, I thought I would just point out that it's a French word and a British English one!

;)

I am hearing, so my opinions are influenced by that, but...

Back to the original question, I worked in a deaf school in India...no one had ever heard of a CI and the kids had hearing aids but not very high-tech ones I guess. It annoyed me that the kids who spoke better were always seen as the "better" or "smarter" students. These kids had more residual hearing. They spoke better because they could hear better. I have seen exceptions to this - for instance, most of the Russian deaf people I have met (now in their 30s) could speak very well, and some were profoundly deaf, but they had received very intensive training in residential schools from the age of 2. Not everyone would want that for their child - they sacrificed a lot in terms of family life for their education. I'm sure there are also profoundly deaf people in the US who are just talented at speech. But as someone who is hearing and has an aptitude for foreign languages I believe it to be a very specific talent...I can speak French without an accent, for instance, but that doesn't mean that I'm good at writing French (I'm not), or that I'm intelligent. I have a good "ear" for languages. I don't think there's a contest for the foreigner with the best accent either (though if any country were going to do it, it would be France).

Many of the deaf people I've encountered who were really good at writing were not oral at all - they were Deaf kids of Deaf parents. So they had the benefit of early language exposure, which made them better at written English.

So anyway, I think the answer to why we don't have speaking contests for deaf people is that first of all it is not an even playing field (different degrees of hearing at different frequencies, etc) and second of all hearing society already rewards people for good speech on a daily basis. These days hearing parents love to brag about how their kid with a CI talks "just like a hearing person" and can function so well in the hearing world. I haven't heard that many hearing parents brag about how well their kid can sign. (I take that back, I've heard some brag about how well their hearing kid can sign!)



I'm
 
netrox said:
Hahaha, do you realize that if they're cured, they're no longer deaf so there's absolutely no point in awarding them. :)
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Exactly. AGbell is suppose to be for the deaf. If a deaf want to win based on their excellent writing skills, they should enter a contest for the general population. AGbell should not discredit the deaf who tried hard under their methods. Because deaf still feel like they are competing with people who have alot more hearing than they do. The more hearing loss they have, the more vocal therapy they need that would more likely take more of their time from learning other things -- like writing.
 
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shel90 said:
I am the opposite of you...I have always been good with phonics..I dont know why that happens! Weird! lol

However, despite being good at phonics, I cant get my writing to the level like you and many other deaf people who grew up with ASL.
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My ASL isn't as good as my English. I learned it when I was 13.
 
Lighthouse77 said:
Exactly. AGbell is suppose to be for the deaf. If a deaf want to win based on their excellent writing skills, they should enter a contest for the general population. AGbell should not discredit the deaf who tried hard under their methods. Because deaf still feel like they are competing with people who have alot more hearing than they do. The more hearing loss they have, the more vocal therapy they have to that would more likely take more of their time from learning other things -- like writing.
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:hmm: Spoken and ASL both are weak with me. My writing is my best skill.

If people want to write well, I think you can learn at any age. Start reading children's books and observe how sentences and words go together.
 
Bottesini said:
:hmm: Spoken and ASL both are weak with me. My writing is my best skill.

If people want to write well, I think you can learn at any age. Start reading children's books and observe how sentences and words go together.
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I was alot worst years ago.
 
I think it depends on what you want to do. If one wants to be a top executive they are going to have to read and write in a business manner. If one wishes to write books or novels; this requires equal, but slightly different skills.

However,

f u jst wnna tlk amng ur frnds wht wrng wth ths?

Text code or l33t works just fine.
 
Seems to me that the ability to speak would help in day to day communication with the majority of the population. I don't see how anything would be considered wrong with that.
 
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8130/4.5.0.89 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/106)

Nothing wrong with learning to speak. I The oral only approach is what I have a problem with. and depriving deaf children from ASL.
 
I feel like this question was carefully crafted to make anyone who disagrees with it seem cold and heartless. Kind of like that "Do You Cherish Your Hearing?" thread that popped up sometime ago.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to speak and write well.

There is something wrong with expecting all d/Deaf people to want to speak and write well, and to judge a Deaf person's intelligence based on their speech and writing abilities, and to view speech and writing as above signing.

There's nothing wrong with acknowledging speech and writing are useful skills in a hearing world.

There is something wrong with assuming all Deaf people aspire to be as hearing as possible or believing that all Deaf people should aspire to be as hearing as possible.
 
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