Forgot Sign Language, How to Get Involved?
Tuesday October 9, 2007
Miss Mouse, a member of the About Deafness forum, writes that she is hard of hearing, and losing more hearing. While she had once known some sign language, now she has forgotten it and feels alone.
Read about Miss Mouse's challenges and add your comments and ideas.
The Canadian Hearing Society, headquartered in Toronto, has sign language classes and information on where they are available all over Ontario. The Canadian Association of the Deaf will have information where to find agencies all over Canada.
Taking a sign language class with other interested people will lead you to more contacts, and some of these will be the deaf people who can lead you further to the community of deaf people.
Attending a church where there are interpreted services or a Deaf group will also help you make contacts.
It’s an adventure and a journey, and all you need is a few guides and a basic knowledge of Sign. With the background you have, you’ll be able to pick it up fairly easy. Best of luck and enjoy!
Where are you in Canada? If you are not close to a large city where there is a good-sized deaf community, your next best bet is to get a videophone or webcam and practice with deaf people you meet online. There are many deaf social websites; you can read some forums, pick out interesting people, contact them by e-mail and invite them to help you learn ASL through video. You may have to ask 10 people to find one who is willing to help; just be persistent.
Here are some links to get you started:
Deaf Hello
http://www.deafhello.com/
DeafRead
http://www.deafread.com/
Livejoural Deaf Community
http://community.livejournal.com/deaf/
Good luck and have fun!
HI, I am/have been in the same situation. I am life long severe hoh and have been steadily loosing hearing over the past 5 years, and am now profoundly hoh. Take the above suggestions. They work, I know. They have worked for me. You will make new friends and if your “hearing friends” don’t want to learn some sign or at least write to you, they aren’t worth having. I am not scared or worried about losing the rest of my hearing, I can see from my deaf friends that I will be just fine. I will do things a little differently. I certainly will have a lot less stress from not striving constantly to hear.