Name: Why I Don't Sound Deaf // International Week of the Deaf [CC]
Uploaded: 2018-09-23T10:26:25.000Z
Duration: 10 min 27 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hello! This week is International Deaf Weak .

I am making three videos which are about deafness

They are staring at me guiltily so it was definitely a dog

Pointing out that I don't sound deaf it's probably the first thing that most people do

Also rather humorously, they rather tell me as if this is new information to me . like

Oh! Gosh I had no idea! No one ever mentioned it before!

I don't know how I sound today right this very moment but I could hear not perfectly

but I could hear pretty well before the age of 15 so I know how my voice sounds like

People around me do say that my voice has changed since going deaf

What I think people mean by this is that I don't sound slurred

which is the voice that people seem to typically assume a deaf person has

A slurred voice and it doesn't have the pronunciation of most syllables

People around me has said that my voice has actually become clearer since becoming deaf

and there is a reason for that, because I worked really hard on it and I do work very hard on my voice

I worry I suppose about my voice becoming more slurred so I practice

I just make sure to say all of my words clearly

Because when people speak to me in a very clear way it's much easier for me to understand them

So I assume that if I attempt to speak in the clearest way that I can it's going to help other people hear me

Also a lot of it has to do with muscle memory in the I remember how to speak clearly

That's terrible! See I even know my accents are terrible

That was meant to be Irish. Did I do it? Did it work?

Anyway yes, so my voice is so incredibly clear because I work very hard on making sure that is clear, I pronounce everything

I don't do it consciously as I way to not sound deaf or

as a way to be more English, I think we reached peak point of British right now

It's just the easiest way for me to remember how to make sounds

Having a voice that does not sound deaf can be a negative

In the much like the word disabled is a great thing because that is a label that helps me

It gets me the things that I need in order to live life as a disabled person

Having a voice that does not sound deaf is a problem

in that makes people think that I can hear

So when Imeet people for the first time they have no idea that I am deaf

They'll just chat to me or they will lean in... oh the lean in...

That's always awkward because they lean in to talk in my ear and I push them back so I can lip read

but also i push them back and I stare at their lips so they are kind of assuming 'oh my god did that girl think I was going in for a kiss?'

'I was not going in to kiss her, this is really weird, this is very awkward. Do I say something like Oh my God I wasn't going to kiss you

Wait does she think, does she know, does she know I know, Does she know I know she knows?

Also having a voice that doesn't sound deaf is not a helpful thing on the internet

Because people write a lot that I don't sound deaf

and it makes them believe that I am not deaf, but why someone would fake being deaf

As I said in my other videos this week, deafness is not one thing

There is not a set way to be deaf, it does not mean that you have 100% hearing loss

You can't hear a thing, you are brought up with deaf parents, went to a deaf school and you've never talked to hearing people before

You only use sign language, you never use your voice

That's not deafness, that's a type of deafness, that's a person who is deaf and is living their life, doing their thing

You can also have been born deaf, gone to a mainstream school, used your voice, lip read and then get older

You could also be born hearing, loose your hearing, then your school says

We can't help you learn sign language now deaf kid, but we can provide you with an interpreter

I've never actually had sign language classes, no, I just taught myself using the internet and books

And watching my sign language interpreter that my school and the local council were happy to provide

Which is called 'Signed Supported English'

It is very different from BSL, British Sign Language

They use the same signs... also makaton, makaton is a different thing

BSL and SSE use the same signs but in a different way

For example, SSE is actually just the English language but with added sign

So you would say: Hello, What Is Your Name ?

But then in BSL you would say: Name You What?

Oh you would also say hello, you don't have to be rude

BSL I think it's quite like French in it's grammar structure

it takes all the words and it puts the most important word first

If you want to ask someone how old they are,  you would say: Age You What?

It's the most important part first, so the person inmediatly understands what this question is going to be about

I use SSE because it's much easier for me, I was obviously brought up hearing

I have that sentence structure in my mind already

I generally interact with people who are hearing

They are speaking in such a way that if I am lipreading, it's pure english

and then the interpreter is standing next to them, if I miss a sentence they have said and then I'm like hmm

I turn to the interpreter, the interpreter can easily pick up what they are saying but just sign it

Whereas when there is BSL interpreter I find it quite hard

and then you turn to the interpreter and the interpreter would  tell it in BSL and you are like

And I get it, I get what the signs are but I need to switch them around in my brain

and considering I already got cognitive issues, uh!

I'm actually like a little... clogs turning in the brain

Uh, other things you might not now about sign language is that different countries have different sign languages

There are different sign languages across the world, America for instance has its own sign language

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Why I Don't Sound Deaf // International Week of the Deaf [CC]

awkward

stuff

cognitive

assume