Thursday, June 15, 2006

New Friend

One of my cousins just graduated from high school with an Associate’s Degree in college, through Running Start. Way to go, Gabe!

At his graduation party, a young lady my age and I introduced ourselves to each other. As we were chatting, I asked her how she knew my cousin, and she responded that they attended the same church. When she said the word “church”, her hand moved a bit. My mind raced. It looked like she just used the sign for CHURCH. Maybe she knows sign language! No, that’s silly, she was probably just scratching her wrist.

Then I noticed that she had on hearing aids, so I asked if she knew signs. Sure enough! So we spent most of the evening signing. It was great fun!

She is deaf, but reads lips incredibly well, and can hear a tad with her hearing aids. I never notice how often the hearing talk while facing the other direction or with a hand in front of their mouth until a situation like this makes me acutely aware of it, hehe.

Throughout this summer, I am planning get togethers to practice signing. My new friend is going to try to join us!

4 comments:

Shelley L. MacKenzie said...

Amy, that is wonderful! You made a new friend and you can sign with her! It really makes me want to learn sign language. I almost picked up a book on signing a couple of weeks ago.

Anonymous said...

Shelley, just do it! Even if you can only spell you name and say where you come from when speaking top the deaf, you'll be thrilled! I was! And many of the deaf are very patient, they'll go slow for you.

Wow, that'a great Amy! How exciting! I know of a man who is very hard of hearing who works at our local hardware store. He has large hearing aids, and speaks and reads lips quite well. But I asked his collegue if the man knew signs, but he said he wasn't sure.

Charlie Cory said...

Are there any sites that you know of that explain how signing works, and maybe gives some tips on lip reading?

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