Saturday, June 4, 2011

Big Changes In My Social Life

My social life honestly speaking has suffered tremendously. People who were once my friends now tend to shy away from me because of the lack of communication. Even though I try to use pen and paper with them, I can see it's a bit of a burden for them to have to write everything down for me if they intend on talking with me. It saddens me to not be able to hang out with my hearing friends who don't know sign language. Truth is, at first I didn't know Sign Language either so pen and paper was necessary. I've always hoped in the back of my mind that my hearing friends would support me a little by learning some Sign Language on their own. Why just today I was invited to a BBQ by one of my hearing friends, but unfortunately I couldn't attend because my spouse has to work and with out my spouse to interpret for me, what's the point in going.

Then there's the deaf community. I've tried to go to the different events such as, "Silent Dinner Night" where deaf people meet and greet one another and to no avail, my pen and paper routine seemed to be a small burden even for these people. Sometimes just by sheer chance, I would meet a person who's Hard of Hearing. I could talk to them in a very loud voice and they didn't seem to mind writing to me. So, I was able to find some friends after all.

During a Silent Dinner event, I would watch other people as they signed to one another. Oh how I wished I could sign also and join in on conversations that were being held among the deaf. I could see people shrugging their shoulders, nodding their heads, and laughing as they conversed  in Sign Language. I would become amazed at how well the deaf communicated with one another.  Sign Language at that moment became an art. An art I would love to learn.

Just as hearing people pronounce words differently, there is also a significant difference in the way each person signs as well. Some people sign slower than others and I noticed the amount of patience people had while taking turns signing to one another.  This was the beginning of my seeing into a whole different culture which I never knew existed until now. People carried on and the use of sign language I could see was their "first" language, whereas with me, signing is my second language. That big difference shows who was brought up with sign language vs. who was not brought up learning sign language. Deaf culture is very interesting. Now if only I could embrace this new culture as being apart of it.

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