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Being deaf

davidpeter.me

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Re: Being deaf

#141

Post by saizai »

welp wrote: post #54

Wow, this article has hit be pretty hard as well -- I have been profoundly deaf since I was about three and a half. The fact that my deafness hit quite late means that I'm pretty proficient at oral English (thanks Mom and Dad!), it does mean that I miss out on a lot at work or in my social groups. I have had to put so much effort into getting out there and meeting new people, but now that I have, I wouldn't give up a…

Why don't you just give out a relay number? Even I have one - people call, they get a relay op who pings my IM. Works well.

Re: Being deaf

#142

Post by risratorn »

tjoff wrote: post #97
deltaqueue wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just another anecdote, but every Dutchman and Swede I've met has a much better grasp of the English language than any other country, and they all attribute it to how much American TV they watch. Probably just a corollary relationship given how English classes start at an early age, but I can't imagine the practice hurts.

I find it quite easy to find a correlation between countries that dubs their TV/movies with poor English comprehension. It really helps and without it people wouldn't be in contact with English that often (at least before the internet) and if you never refresh your knowledge it will most definitely fade. Yes, we start learning English at an early age but a lot of students excel way faster than teaching allows once th…

That's an observation i've made myself a dozen times too, i'm from Flanders (Belgium) where basically not a single show on public television is dubbed, all shows are subtitled and I'm confident that it has been a great stimulation in my ability to speak and understand english, even though it's not perfect. When I look at the other side of the country (Wallonia) where they speak french natively almost all shows on public TV networks are dubbed in french. The wallonians I know are pretty hard to understand when they speak english, they might grasp the grammar and spelling but their pronunciation is really bad.

PS: I don't mean to generalize here, it's just my personal observation, of course there are a lot of french talking people who speak perfectly understandable english fluent. I just feel that the fact that I've watched english spoken television shows all my life has helped me a huge amount in learning english.

Re: Being deaf

#143

Post by kitsune_ »

tocomment wrote: post #58
devolve wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a person who was raised with two different household languages at different times, I can offer anecdotal evidence that this holds true. My refugee parents decided that their native language (Romanian) would be an obstacle for me in their new country (Thailand) and went for English instead. Then we got asylum in Sweden and I learned Swedish in kindergarten and so on. In Sweden my parents started speaking Romanian a…

So you learned English from TV? I thought I've always heard that didn't work.

I had learned a good amount of English by playing NES games at the age of six. I watched and understood Akira four years later. The film was in Japanese, subbed in English. Note, I don't speak a word of Japanese.

Watching English TV shows at an early age will give you an advantage later on.

Re: Being deaf

#144

Post by Joakal »

Kluny wrote: post #136
Joakal wrote: post #31

I had similar issues with you, sarenji: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2111278 (Ask HN: Deaf wannabe entrepreneur faces networking issues. How to work with it? | Hacker News) As for love, all the people I've dated were 'normal' as in, they didn't have hearing problems like I did. They didn't mind. In fact, I even met people on OkCupid despite them knowing I'm deaf. Of course, it's hard if you're a developer and…

Reposting earlier comment to make sure you see it: Heya, I'd like to start some sort of community for those of us who are deaf and work in technology. I'm studying programming in Victoria, myself. Want to contact me, shannon at rocketships.ca, and I'll invite you to a facebook page? If you have a better idea than facebook, let me know, too.

I don't use Facebook that much. Tried MSN? I believe I know of at least one deaf person on msn (From when I posted the earlier thread).

Alternatively, IRC? There's #startup, why not #deafstartup channel?

Re: Being deaf

#145

Post by sarenji »

caffeineninja wrote: post #102

David, that was a very eloquent and well-written post and I certainly hope that you came away from writing that with a better sense of well-being. I, too, am deaf, but our experiences are different. I was born deaf and am profoundly deaf with 85+ db loss in both ears. At the risk of sounding conceited, I'm what you would consider a success story. A background: As a child, I lived in San Diego, and my parents (at the…

caffeineninja: The email field is invisible on HN, so you'll need to put it in your about. Either way... my email is in my profile.

A lot of my post outlines a struggle as I become more proactive. I'm leagues beyond what I used to be 3 years ago, but obviously I'm still not completely there.

I couldn't find any good/reputable speech therapists in SF, but I should have been more proactive on this. Do they have to be specifically deaf ones?

> At some point in time, I developed an ability to lip read and was able to speak without difficulty.

Can you expand on this, either on here or email? This seems like the most important part, especially as I'm not at that point.

Re: Being deaf

#146

Post by trebor »

David, thanks for the glimpse into what it's like to be deaf. I've wondered what it would be like, but it's pretty hard to imagine the near total isolation.

I've met several deaf people, but I guess I haven't taken the time to think about how I would involve a deaf person in a conversation. I think that part really threw me for a loop. That would be challenging.

I know that if you ever felt left out, or that you missed something, in a conversation with me, or in a group, then don't hesitate to bump me. I'll be plenty happy to give anyone who's deaf either what was said or a summary of the conversation thus far.

Re: Being deaf

#147

Post by anandnilkal »

Hi david, though I have not encountered a deaf person in my work life and chances are very slim. your article has indeed educated me about a thing or two. it certainly encourages me to be more patient and more communicative.

Re: Being deaf

#148

Post by bad_user »

nessus42 wrote: post #85
tocomment wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you learned English from TV? I thought I've always heard that didn't work.

An ex-girlfriend of mine moved to the US from Romania at the age of ten without any knowledge of English. As an adult she speaks completely fluent English with no hint of an accent. She claims that she learned English by watching TV. Though of course, she was also living in a country where most people speak English, so I'm sure that must have helped. I'll have to ask her how long it was before she started school agai…

In Romania movies on TV and at the movie theaters are also aired in English with Romanian subtitles. English is also learned from school, sometimes from the second grade.

When I was 11, I was watching Cartoon Network in English (yeah, I still love cartoons) and I could understand everything. My spoken English is still not so great, but it's nothing that couldn't be fixed with a month living in the US or UK.

Re: Being deaf

#150

Post by iaskwhy »

jarek wrote: post #137
tjoff wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it quite easy to find a correlation between countries that dubs their TV/movies with poor English comprehension. It really helps and without it people wouldn't be in contact with English that often (at least before the internet) and if you never refresh your knowledge it will most definitely fade. Yes, we start learning English at an early age but a lot of students excel way faster than teaching allows once th…

I don't think it's quite as simple. Poland has been dubbing foreign TV/movies since the early 90s (in addition to having a rich homegrown tradition of children's entertainment) and English among younger generations is widespread and quite good, if not Scandinavia/Netherlands good. I'd be willing to bet a correlation with country's population and relative economic power would be much stronger.

It might be then good to analise another country, a poorer one and not in the north, say Portugal. Almost nothing is dubbed in Portugal and you can see quite a difference between Portuguese and Spanish people speaking English. Same for French or Italian people.

Still, Scandinavian youth seem to have almost perfect English and that is not true about Portugal where it's mostly good enough. I'm sure education has a role here somewhere.

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