Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!oliveb!bunker!hcap!hnews!681!853.1!Stephen.White From: Stephen.White@p1.f853.n681.z3.fidonet.org (Stephen White) Newsgroups: misc.handicap Subject: Sign language Message-ID: <14635@bunker.UUCP> Date: 3 Oct 90 14:29:45 GMT Sender: wtm@bunker.UUCP Reply-To: Stephen.White@p1.f853.n681.z3.fidonet.org Distribution: misc Organization: FidoNet node 3:681/853.1 Lines: 123 Approved: wtm@bunker.UUCP Index Number: 10802 9) How old are you now? (22?) 19, going on 80. 10) Is there an "inner core" in te deaf community, with deaf hardliners who don't get on with people coming from hearing families and who became deaf later in life? Yes. There is a large family in Adelaide (Maggs) who are rather like that. I got on fairly well with them, even though my signing was shit. Ewen Maggs had a tendency to use people though - I would have ended up being a taxi service for him if I hadn't learned how to spot people-users earlier in life. (I've always had an inordinate amount of lunch money) 11) How deaf are you? Following is an approximation of my db chart: 0 | | 20 | | 40 | db | 60 | | 80 |. | 100 | . | . out of range of machine. 120 | . v +------------------------------------- Hearing Range Since I have a very sensitive sense of touch, they cannot be sure if I'm hearing or feeling the low freqs. I think it's both. 12) What are your main hobbies? Job? Computer programming and communications. I'm currently a student at University, doing Electronics Engineering, even though I want to change over to Computer Sciences next year. 13) What do you think of other deaf people? To be honest, I find some of them rather shallow. I tend to get on better with those who mix with other hearing people, as they're more tolerant and have more interests. The hardliners have their own relatively narrow focus - on themselves. I think that their hardlining is an attempt at a protective shell. If they make themselves feel superior, they have no need to risk rejection by attempting to make friends with "lesser mortals". This applies to anyone and any group. Deaf hardliners tend to be a bit more rabid than the normal hardliners though, probably because deaf people tend to be more subject to ridicule. I've never had a problem with that, since I do not expect to be ridiculed. I'll have more questions for you later, depending on the results of these questions... PB> I took a few classes in college, and sign pretty good. But I PB> guess you could say that my signs are a little different from PB> everyone else. Maybe not the signs, just the grammer. Yes, this is a topic that fascinates me... I wonder if it is at all possible for a second-language signer to become good enough so that first-language signers cannot tell the difference. Probably is - I was told that I only needed three more years to become totally proficient. The person that told me that was a first-language signer, and didn't know how long I'd been signing for so he was basing his estimate on the normal rate of progress. The grammar was fine, I just needed to know and incorperate more signs. One thing that pissed me off while I was trying to learn signing, is that deaf people are so accomodating of differences in others. They'd look at my signing, and modulate their level so it was equal to mine. They'd never say "this is a better way to say that" or "you didn't sign that correctly". I think I've been mainly holding myself back in signing, as when people are willing to listen to me, I get tense and consequently, my signing is awful. This hardly helps people be willing again. I remember when I got mildly pissed (drunk) one night at a deaf football meet, and I met someone I had known at the Oral School. Because I was totally relaxed, I was signing away nineteen to the dozen (very fast) - so fast and accurately that I was amazing myself. She said that I signed so quickly she couldn't believe it, and she didn't have any trouble understanding me either. That went on for about an hour and a half, and since then, its been fumble fumble. Grr. PB> Since I have been around deaf people for more than half my life, I PB> don't have much trouble understanding them. Some of them have PB> trouble understanding me though. Some had trouble understanding me too, as I was trying to learn the Auslan grammar, and leaving out the unneccesary joining words. Unfortunately, I left out some of the important words too! ;-) PB> The hardest thing for me is to talk and sign at the same time. I PB> can do one, or the other, but not both. I get confused!!! Likewise for me! I have the same problem! I can either do Signed English and sign what I'm speaking (very slow, as you can see how verbose I am! And also because I use a lot of words which have no sign equivalent), or I can alternate speaking and signing. (which I've never done, since it looks so damn ridiculous!) Phew! End of Book! PS. I wonder if this will get forwarded into SilentTalk... -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!3!681!853.1!Stephen.White Internet: Stephen.White@p1.f853.n681.z3.fidonet.org