"People who nervously...take frequent furtive glances to the side, breaking eye contact, drive us crazy."--pg. 193, p. 1I find it strange that before knowing anything about ASL or Deaf culture I was completely comfortable communicating with her, but now I am not sure what to do and embarrassed. I suppose I should just ask her which she would prefer next time I see her. One of my mom's cousins is Deaf and he only uses speechreading. I have only seen him once but I remember being very impressed that he could understand people just from the shape of their mouths. I now know that is more than just lipreading; associational cues are used, as well.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Chapter 32: Speechreading
I know a woman who is Deaf but is very confident with speaking as well as speechreading. Before I knew any sign language I thought it was very cool that she could do that and since I had talked to her before I knew she was Deaf, I never did anything weird and exaggerated while talking to her. I have seen her one since I started ASL I and I wasn't sure what to do. She is so confident in speechreading that I wasn't sure if it would offend her if I attempted to sign to her. Because I was embarrassed by my indecision I didn't make as much eye contact as usual which I now know after reading this chapter was a bad idea.
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I find it interesting that you were unable to tell the woman you talked to was deaf before you talked to her. She must be really good at lipreading and speechreading. Does this woman know ASL or does she have to speechread as her only means of communication? I think that if she uses ASL then she would appreciate you trying to sign to her. What a perfect way to practice. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for a deaf person to speechread.
ReplyDelete-Claire Graham-