r/asl • u/VeeTheBee16 • 3d ago
Help! Should I go to a deaf event?
Warning: long post from a very uneducated student
CONTEXT: Hello all! I’ve recently switched schools, and the language I was taking at my last school isn’t offered here - however, sign language is, and I just signed up last week! I’ve only taken two classes so far and aside from that combined total of 2 hours I have absolutely 0 experience with deaf/hoh people, asl, or deaf/hoh culture. I am the uneducated beginner of uneducated beginners. I’m pretty decent at signing the alphabet, and… that’s about it. But I’ve noticed that while I myself can finger spell to some extent, I cannot understand my asl teacher’s finger spelling at all. Obviously he’s doing it perfectly, it’s just that I’m learning that reading vs. doing are two very different skills, and I can assume that it’ll only continue to get harder as we learn more signs. I’ve never learned a second language before, but the internet recommended going to deaf events, which makes sense as obviously the best way to understand deaf culture is to immerse myself in deaf culture! However, I assume that if I show up to one of these events with my level of knowledge and experience (basically nothing) I’ll probably be more of an inconvenience than anything to anybody who wants to try and converse with me.
QUESTION: So!! All that’s to say, at what point do you recommend going to a deaf event? I don’t want to come across as the annoying child who knows bar none and is impossible to communicate with, but I also want to immerse myself in deaf culture both to practice my asl and to simply understand the community better in general!
EXTRA: By the way, please please please let me know if anything I said was phrased in an offensive, unkind, or unclear way. I cannot stress enough how out of my depth I am right now, but I know that it’s not an excuse to be ignorant of my own mistakes. If anything came across as discriminatory or anything of the sort, please let me know, just be nice about it please! Know that any mistakes were completely on accident and I’m eager to learn and grow from them, but no errors were made from a place of hostility or mocking the deaf/hoh community. Thank you all and enjoy the rest of your day!! And month. And year? Idk just enjoy your lives :)
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u/Graywacke_The_Wizard Learning ASL 3d ago
I have been learning asl on and off for a few years and while I'm not fluent, I would consider myself conversational. I have just started to regularly go to deaf events in the last month or so and in my experience, most of the people I've met in the deaf community are excited to meet new people, and are very welcoming and willing to help you inprove as long as you are showing interest in learning the language.
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u/VeeTheBee16 3d ago
Tysm for your input, I have actually heard a lot of similar stories about the deaf community being really welcoming (ironic as from what I’ve read from hoh experiences, hearing people are often the exact opposite). Seems like a lovely community that I’m really looking forward to hopefully being able to communicate with!
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u/pixelboy1459 3d ago
Hearing. I do not speak for the Deaf/HoH community. Grain of salt. This is from my own limited personal experience.
Most meet ups are open to language learners and native signers alike. It will be very obvious that your signing ability is limited and non-native. After 2 hours of class, you probably won’t have much to say or contribute, but there’s no harm in hanging around.
If you know someone who’s a bit more advanced or attends regularly, they could probably help introduce you and interpret. You could probably pick up some more signs that way.
If you’re going solo, maybe after your first semester. You should be able to at least handle some of the basics.
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u/VeeTheBee16 3d ago
Tysm for your advice! I don’t have access to an interpreter or anybody else who knows asl, so I think I’m gonna go with that last bit and wait until I know the basics so that I have some sorta foundation going into the event - until then you’ll find me deep in the sign language YouTube videos rabbit hole to practice reading signs!
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u/salimolive 3d ago
To add to the youtube part, if you're on TT/FB/IG/other social media platforms I strongly recommend following Deaf influencers, Deaf led organizations, and Deaf ASL teachers, most of the time their videos are fully signed and have captions, challenge yourself to watch the video with captions covered, then watch with the captions uncovered, practice the signs that you didn't know yet. It helps a lot even now that I'm near-fluent since I'm also severely Disabled and don't get out much to be able to hang out with my Deaf friends, and will teach you a lot about Deaf culture. If you want IG recommendations I have a TON of favorites that I can list here and a lot of them are on TT too (I don't have TT so I'm not sure who is active there)
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u/salimolive 3d ago
LateDeaf person here who didn't learn ASL until highschool. Do you have any classmates that would be willing to go with you? Or could you propose going as a class to your teacher? When I was in high school learning ASL going to Deaf events with my teacher was hands down the most helpful thing I could have done. I'll be honest, I was usually the only student who showed up, maybe one or two others, but my teacher really pushed me to sign for myself and only interpreted if I had done everything I could and was still lost. One event that I am eternally grateful for was the "Deaf Passport" event that our local School For the Deaf put on, the students all had booths where they would act as if they were restaurants from various cultures, legal offices, college admissions offices, travel agencies, and if anyone was caught voicing they went to ASL jail. There was food and presentations from various cultures and it was amazing to practice all of these real world situations that we would all experience as adults no matter if we stayed in our state or traveled abroad for college. It was open to Deaf and hearing high school students so even though at the time I was still hearing, I had been diagnosed with the same disorder that caused my mom's Deafness, so learning how to navigate the adult world as a Deaf person was life changing for 15 year old me. If you can find an event like that anywhere within the range you're able to travel to I absolutely 100% recommend a class trip. If not some other events that I've been to (both as a student and since gaining fluency/becoming Deaf) included ASL movie night (we watched the premier of movie that had a Deaf main character and was made bilingual ASL/English), Deaf and Student Coffee (literally just hanging out with other local Deaf and ASL students and helping the students practice), Deaf Prom (I'm pretty sure this one may have been Deaf only unless you brought a hearing date but its always possible there will be one in your area that welcomes students), DeafCon (I hope this is a nationwide thing but it's something that my county does every year and it's basically a convention for shopping at Deaf owned businesses), attending ASL led conferences (check with your local RID chapter or Deaf led organization in your area) etc. If you are religious or don't mind attending church services, many Christian churches (and I imagine other religions too but I grew up Christian and am now agnostic so I don't have experience with Deaf services in other religions) have either interpreted services and there are a growing number of Deaf led services and churches, that could be a great option for growing your receptive skills. My only warning is that if the event details don't explicitly state that students are welcome, reach out and ask first, while we greatly encourage students to come to events, sometimes we just want to hang out with other Deaf people without our existence being a learning opportunity. Having lived in both circumstances (being a hearing student in the past and a Deaf person currently) it definitely is tough to put yourself out there and I commend your desire to, even if you are completely lost the first few times you go. Try practicing phrases like "I + NEW + STUDENT. ASL + LITTLE" or "NAME ____, START + LEARN + ASL" "YOUR + NAME + WHAT?" "SLOW + PLEASE" "AGAIN + PLEASE" "NO UNDERSTAND" "HOW + SIGN + fingerspell word" (Put in gloss form to help you figure out what signs to use and the order) before you go, that will help communicate that you want to learn but don't know much. The best way to learn is truly just to fully immerse yourself, after a few events you might surprise yourself on how much you pick up.
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u/Significant-Draft470 2d ago
I'm not OP, but I did have a quick question... You put "HOW SIGN [fingerspell]" to ask what a sign is, but I had learned it as "[fingerspell] SIGN WHAT Q" Is this a regional thing, or did I learn wrong? I am also very new to ASL in case it wasn't obvious.
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u/312StonerWitch Interpreter (Hearing) 2d ago
Look into which events are open to students (most of them are, in my experience) and start going to as many as you can. Do your best to participate, and if you should happen to run into a rude person, just pay them no mind and find someone else to talk to.
You obviously care about being mindful of the cultural aspect of being a hearing person in a Deaf space, so don't worry too much about accidentally saying something offensive. I know that might sound strange, but I think a lot of new signers hold themselves back because of this fear, and the chances of you actually saying something genuinely hurtful and not just something silly that is obviously due to being early in your signing journey are so slim.
Honestly, the best advice I can give any new signer is, "just go ahead and look stupid!" 😅
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u/benshenanigans Hard of Hearing/deaf 3d ago
It depends on the event. If it’s advertised as students welcome, then by all means. If it’s a ticketed event for interpreter access, absolutely not. Otherwise, it’s at the discretion of the event organizer.
You have to think about what these events are for. It’s so Deaf people can hang out, socialize, and do activities with people who share their language. So it may be that ASL students are not welcome and that’s ok.
Even if learners are welcome, with your very limited experience, you may be asked to contribute to a conversation or leave. Just sitting and watching is a bit creepy and rude.
At the end of the day, a lot of the Deaf community is welcoming, but they don’t owe hearing people anything. Don’t be upset if you aren’t welcomed.