I had a good day a while back, when two people were fantastically patient with me! It was marvelous!
See, when I'm out in public, unless it's very quiet around me or I know the person I'm talking to, I generally don't speak very much. I typically just sign, because I'm tired of saying "what?" over and over again. After a while, you start losing the other person's interest if you say "what?" too many times. If I do speak, I tend to sign at the same time. It helps other people be more patient with me.
But I had two experiences that stood out from the myriads of other difficult conversations. The first was at Safeway. I had gone to the checkout to buy something, and the cashier said something to her coworker, but I missed it. I signed and voiced, asking her what she had said. Her response was to apologize, because she didn't know I had been lip-reading her. She then told me that she had been teasing her coworker, and then proceeded to speak clearly and directly to me, without being condescending. (You Deafies know what I'm talking about. People over-emphasizing their facial expressions to try to "help" you understand them, and they typically end up contorting their faces into unreadable expressions.) I left a note for her manager, saying what an awesome worker he had.
Then, on the bus ride home from work there was a man sitting across from me listening to his phone. What he didn't know was that his camera light was on, so I signed to him that his light was, indeed, on. He then proceeded to sign, "thank you." I then signed to ask him what he was listening to, and he showed me on his phone. A few stops later, he moved across the aisle to sit next to me and started typing notes to me on his phone, and I did the same. And for the rest of the ride home we talked about music, jobs, deafness (he's going deaf), and other things. It was so cool! He actually made the effort to chat with me about things when I was obviously not going to be able to hear him. That never happens! (And no, he was not interested in dating me. He was WAAAAAY older than me. I just have a funny face that makes people open up more to me.)
And that, my dear readers, is how you make a Deafie's day. Hooray!I dealt with other people that day who were completely ignorant, too, but let's not focus on the negative. I met two really awesome people, and it really made my day.
See, when I'm out in public, unless it's very quiet around me or I know the person I'm talking to, I generally don't speak very much. I typically just sign, because I'm tired of saying "what?" over and over again. After a while, you start losing the other person's interest if you say "what?" too many times. If I do speak, I tend to sign at the same time. It helps other people be more patient with me.
But I had two experiences that stood out from the myriads of other difficult conversations. The first was at Safeway. I had gone to the checkout to buy something, and the cashier said something to her coworker, but I missed it. I signed and voiced, asking her what she had said. Her response was to apologize, because she didn't know I had been lip-reading her. She then told me that she had been teasing her coworker, and then proceeded to speak clearly and directly to me, without being condescending. (You Deafies know what I'm talking about. People over-emphasizing their facial expressions to try to "help" you understand them, and they typically end up contorting their faces into unreadable expressions.) I left a note for her manager, saying what an awesome worker he had.
Then, on the bus ride home from work there was a man sitting across from me listening to his phone. What he didn't know was that his camera light was on, so I signed to him that his light was, indeed, on. He then proceeded to sign, "thank you." I then signed to ask him what he was listening to, and he showed me on his phone. A few stops later, he moved across the aisle to sit next to me and started typing notes to me on his phone, and I did the same. And for the rest of the ride home we talked about music, jobs, deafness (he's going deaf), and other things. It was so cool! He actually made the effort to chat with me about things when I was obviously not going to be able to hear him. That never happens! (And no, he was not interested in dating me. He was WAAAAAY older than me. I just have a funny face that makes people open up more to me.)
And that, my dear readers, is how you make a Deafie's day. Hooray!I dealt with other people that day who were completely ignorant, too, but let's not focus on the negative. I met two really awesome people, and it really made my day.
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