I was at home with my parents the other day. We were watching TV (I believe it was Bedlam - a series about the supernatural, but that's besides the point). I was wearing my bluetooth necklace, so I couldn't hear anything but the TV. So of course it's at this point my parents decide it's a good time to start talking to me. Never mind that I'm watching TV, but I can't actually hear you...
After some arm waving and shoulder tapping, I realise they've been talking to me. (I swear, it's impossible to watch an episode of anything the whole way through - why does it seem like such a good idea to start a conversation when you've settled down to watch your favourite series? It's not just my parents either, it seems like watching TV equals a green light to start a conversation, no matter where you are or who you're with). So I press pause and disconnect my necklace from the TV.
Mum wants to make a phone call to make a reservation at a restaurant for her and her girlfriends. Cool. She calls, talks to the guy on the phone. Suddenly, all I can hear is background noise and a man talking. I look around the room. TV is in pause, and there definitely isn't a crowd in my living room to warrant that much background noise (sure, my Dad and cat snoring are quite loud - but not that loud). And who is this strange man talking to me? Am I the only one that can hear him? Oh no... I'm hearing voices. This can't be good. Help.
That's when I realise Mum is talking in to the phone. 'Hello? Hello? Strange... I think he's hung up on me.'
Ah. That explains it. My bluetooth necklace randomly connected to the housephone whilst my Mum was on it. The man in my ear isn't some figment of my imagination (thank heavens!) but the man at the restaurant. Oh dear. How do I explain this one?
'Hi, this is the daughter of the women you were just talking to. I'm deaf. The phone decided to connect to my necklace which talks to my hearing aids. My Mum can't hear you but I can relay your message...'
Perhaps not. So, very discretely I press the button on my necklace which ends the call.
'Strange, must have been bad reception or something' - my Mum.
I smile weakly and nod whilst switching off my necklace. Mum calls back and they continue to sort out the reservation. Only after the call has ended - properly this time - do I confess what happened.
Whoops.
The next day Mum tells me the same thing happened again. She had been trying to make several phone calls but they kept cutting out. Only after the third or fourth time did she realise my necklace was lying on the table and the phone was connecting to that. Of course there were no hearing aids to transmit the signal to, so it was just going round the loop.
The lesson? If a phone is connected to a bluetooth necklace, make sure the necklace is off if a hearing person wants to use the phone and doesn't want to use their deaf daughter as the relay.
'It wasn't me, it was my necklace, honest!'
Deaf Girl
Thursday 17 March 2011
Monday 7 March 2011
'Is that loud enough?!'
It's great having a housemate that can fingerspell. We often have conversations (true, they're rather short, but still) where she mouths to me so I can lipread and I reply back by fingerspelling. Works out great. It's definitely useful when I quickly need to tell her something then and there. Often, when I'm outside having a smoke, I'm reminded of something and I think 'oh yes, I must remember to tell CH1 [Crazy Housemate 1] that'. However, once I'm back inside I tend to forget as other things grab my attention.
So, fingerspelling and lip-reading through the kitchen window works out perfectly. Like the other day. I'm standing outside and notice a frying pan. Outside. On the kitchen doorstep. Why on earth is there a frying pan there? Is this a new trend that I hadn't heard about? Put your cooking utensils outside to avoid washing up. Of course! So simple! When the kitchen gets over-run by dirty dishes (I live in a student house, of course the kitchen is always overrun by dirty dishes) just put some of the offending articles outside. Simples.
But this time CH1 was in the kitchen while I was outside so, using a mixture of basic sign and fingerspelling, I ask her about it. She mouths back that they'd put it outside when it was smoking it a bit to cool it off and had completely forgotten about it. Ah, not a way to get out of doing the dishes then. Oh well.
Speaking of CH1. Her room is directly above mine. Which usually isn't a problem. Sometimes I suffer from insomnia and just potter about downstairs - reading, watching DVDs etc. Am usually pretty quiet. Apart from the other night. I had two friends over, we just relaxed in my room (get your mind out of the gutter people). At one point we started singing. They were slightly intoxicated and I'm deaf. So none of us could judge the loudness of our singing. Turns out it was pretty loud and CH1 was not impressed when it woke her up at 5am. Oops.
That's often a problem for me (not the singing part, the loudness part - although I'm sure plenty of people would say that yes, singing is a problem as well!) I just can't judge if something is loud or quiet - I either hear it or I don't, I don't hear the volume. Often people either have to tell me to speak up or quieten down a bit because it all sounds the same to me. The same goes for if I'm watching TV or listening to music - I can't judge the volume of it. When I'm at home, my parents have to frequently come down at 2/3am and ask me to turn it down as it's so loud. It's not intentional, I'm not talking/singing loudly or have my music/TV blaring on purpose to be obnoxious, I just honestly can't judge the volume.
Until next time,
Deaf Girl
So, fingerspelling and lip-reading through the kitchen window works out perfectly. Like the other day. I'm standing outside and notice a frying pan. Outside. On the kitchen doorstep. Why on earth is there a frying pan there? Is this a new trend that I hadn't heard about? Put your cooking utensils outside to avoid washing up. Of course! So simple! When the kitchen gets over-run by dirty dishes (I live in a student house, of course the kitchen is always overrun by dirty dishes) just put some of the offending articles outside. Simples.
But this time CH1 was in the kitchen while I was outside so, using a mixture of basic sign and fingerspelling, I ask her about it. She mouths back that they'd put it outside when it was smoking it a bit to cool it off and had completely forgotten about it. Ah, not a way to get out of doing the dishes then. Oh well.
Speaking of CH1. Her room is directly above mine. Which usually isn't a problem. Sometimes I suffer from insomnia and just potter about downstairs - reading, watching DVDs etc. Am usually pretty quiet. Apart from the other night. I had two friends over, we just relaxed in my room (get your mind out of the gutter people). At one point we started singing. They were slightly intoxicated and I'm deaf. So none of us could judge the loudness of our singing. Turns out it was pretty loud and CH1 was not impressed when it woke her up at 5am. Oops.
That's often a problem for me (not the singing part, the loudness part - although I'm sure plenty of people would say that yes, singing is a problem as well!) I just can't judge if something is loud or quiet - I either hear it or I don't, I don't hear the volume. Often people either have to tell me to speak up or quieten down a bit because it all sounds the same to me. The same goes for if I'm watching TV or listening to music - I can't judge the volume of it. When I'm at home, my parents have to frequently come down at 2/3am and ask me to turn it down as it's so loud. It's not intentional, I'm not talking/singing loudly or have my music/TV blaring on purpose to be obnoxious, I just honestly can't judge the volume.
Until next time,
Deaf Girl
Wednesday 2 March 2011
Congratulations!
My BSL exam is getting closer and closer... it's still a couple of months away, but am already getting nervous. 24th May is D-Day (which happens to be 3 days after my psychology exam for university). Practice practice practice...
I must look quite the sight, standing in front of the mirror in the lounge signing away to myself and practicing my facial expressions (as I've mentioned before - facial expressions are key, it's the 'tone', 'volume' and 'intonation' of BSL). I can imagine people walking past that happen to glance in thinking I must be slightly slow on the uptake... after all, what sane person stands in an empty room making weird faces and gestures? Come to think of it, that may be why I sometimes get odd looks from the neighbours. That would explain a lot!
There is one thing I've noticed about the other pupils in BSL class. When our teacher is teaching us, some people carry on with their conversations to each other when she has her back turned to them. They whisper. She's deaf. As in completely and utterly deaf. As in she doesn't hear a single sound. And did I mention they whisper? It's no secret that she is deaf, yet they still whisper. Hmmm. And they whisper to me as well. And cover their mouths. No matter how many times I explain I am deaf, I don't hear very well and lip-read, they continue to whisper with their hands covering their mouths. Hearing people, strange beings.
On a side note, one of the women in my lip-reading class congratulated me today. I was quite confused and tried to rack my brain. Had I recently completed a marathon or some other note-worthy event? Had I made a ground-breaking discovery that would change the world? Had I won the lottery? Not that I can recall. So what on earth...? Seeing my confused expression she quickly replied; 'on your engagement!'
My engagement? This is news to me! More to the point who is this (un)lucky person that I am engaged to? Last I checked I was definitely single. Don't I have to give my consent to being engaged? Questions, questions...
'Uhm, I'm not engaged?' - me, very confused.
'You're not?' - her, utterly bewildered.
'Definitely not.' - me, very convincing.
'But you're wearing an engagement ring?' - her, very unsure.
Hold up. Wait. What? An engagement ring? I quickly look down at my hands. Ah. I'm wearing a custom-made ring on my finger. Ooooh. She had confused my cheap flea-market bought ring for an engagement ring.
'Well, you can never be sure what the current style is amongst you youngsters these days.'
Anyway, moving on. I went out on a girl's social last night. It was fun. The first time that I've met most of them. I'm sure they thought I was slightly odd (no surprise there, you might say). The social was in a pub. A very loud pub. A pub filled with drunken louts - I mean, slightly intoxicated gentlemen - watching a game of football (soccer to you Americans). And by 'watching' I mean 'shouting/swearing/booing/cheering'. So, my hearing aids were useless. Most of the girls were also absent-mindedly watching the game and so had their heads turned away from me towards the TV. So, lip-reading is useless. Let's just smile and nod and pretend I have a clue about what's going on. Yup, definitely made a good impression there!
Deaf Girl
I must look quite the sight, standing in front of the mirror in the lounge signing away to myself and practicing my facial expressions (as I've mentioned before - facial expressions are key, it's the 'tone', 'volume' and 'intonation' of BSL). I can imagine people walking past that happen to glance in thinking I must be slightly slow on the uptake... after all, what sane person stands in an empty room making weird faces and gestures? Come to think of it, that may be why I sometimes get odd looks from the neighbours. That would explain a lot!
There is one thing I've noticed about the other pupils in BSL class. When our teacher is teaching us, some people carry on with their conversations to each other when she has her back turned to them. They whisper. She's deaf. As in completely and utterly deaf. As in she doesn't hear a single sound. And did I mention they whisper? It's no secret that she is deaf, yet they still whisper. Hmmm. And they whisper to me as well. And cover their mouths. No matter how many times I explain I am deaf, I don't hear very well and lip-read, they continue to whisper with their hands covering their mouths. Hearing people, strange beings.
On a side note, one of the women in my lip-reading class congratulated me today. I was quite confused and tried to rack my brain. Had I recently completed a marathon or some other note-worthy event? Had I made a ground-breaking discovery that would change the world? Had I won the lottery? Not that I can recall. So what on earth...? Seeing my confused expression she quickly replied; 'on your engagement!'
My engagement? This is news to me! More to the point who is this (un)lucky person that I am engaged to? Last I checked I was definitely single. Don't I have to give my consent to being engaged? Questions, questions...
'Uhm, I'm not engaged?' - me, very confused.
'You're not?' - her, utterly bewildered.
'Definitely not.' - me, very convincing.
'But you're wearing an engagement ring?' - her, very unsure.
Hold up. Wait. What? An engagement ring? I quickly look down at my hands. Ah. I'm wearing a custom-made ring on my finger. Ooooh. She had confused my cheap flea-market bought ring for an engagement ring.
'Well, you can never be sure what the current style is amongst you youngsters these days.'Anyway, moving on. I went out on a girl's social last night. It was fun. The first time that I've met most of them. I'm sure they thought I was slightly odd (no surprise there, you might say). The social was in a pub. A very loud pub. A pub filled with drunken louts - I mean, slightly intoxicated gentlemen - watching a game of football (soccer to you Americans). And by 'watching' I mean 'shouting/swearing/booing/cheering'. So, my hearing aids were useless. Most of the girls were also absent-mindedly watching the game and so had their heads turned away from me towards the TV. So, lip-reading is useless. Let's just smile and nod and pretend I have a clue about what's going on. Yup, definitely made a good impression there!
Deaf Girl
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