'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

First class

This morning, for the first time in 3 years, I found myself vehemently wishing I wasn't deaf. Not because I couldn't hear something or felt like I was at a disadvantage, but because it was early and I wanted to sleep in!

I had my first lip-reading class today. It's absolutely fantastic. Am very pleased I decided to pull myself out of bed at the crack of dawn (well, 8am) and brave the freezing cold weather to make it to the 10am class.

I was quite nervous when I arrived. Didn't help that I was the first one there. I was also a bit daunted at first by the age gap between myself and the rest of the class - I'm the youngest by about 20-30 years. But all my worries soon faded away once I started talking to a few people. There's about 10 of us in the class and everyone is extremely friendly with a great sense of humour.

The thought did briefly cross my mind during the first half an hour if I was in the right class or not, as the first thing we did was learn how to fingerspell. I sat there thinking, 'oh crap, I'm not in a beginners BSL class am I? Oh no, how do I leave without feeling like an utter fool for entering the wrong classroom...' Luckily, I was in the right place.

A lot of HoH or deaf people that lip-read tend to use fingerspelling to show what the first letter of the word is that they are saying. A lot of letters are difficult to make out when you're reading lips (for example, words beginning with 'h') so they fingerspell 'h'. Very handy.

The lesson was 2 hours long. I was pleasently surprised by how much I could make out on my own without being taught first of all - seems like I've been picking up quite a lot already. But I have learned quite a bit as well in just this one lesson. Can't wait for next week for the next lesson. Lip-reading is going to be fantastic, and I can't wait until I can do it fluently. Though that will take time and a lot of practice.

In the meantime, I believe I'm thoroughly going to enjoy the class. Not only will lip-reading be a great skill to have, but it's also fantastic to spend time with other HoH/deaf people. I found that I relax a bit. Because we're all in the same - or similar - boat, there's no judging. No one feels sorry for each other. Everyone speaks clearly. No one minds if you're asked to repeat something. No one hides their mouths when talking. When someone is talking to you they look at you and don't turn their head when they're speaking.

Don't get me wrong - I love my hearing friends and family to bits. Wouldn't trade any of them for the world. But going to this class has shown me that it is nice to mix with fellow HoH/deaf people as well. Once my BSL is up to a good level, I will definitely join a deaf club.

Until then, I'm still on the edge of these two worlds, but I'm finding ways to allow me to function well in them both. Life is, after all, all about learning. And if possible, having fun and making some great friends and memories whilst learning!

Deaf Girl