What is pissing you off this time?

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by orthodoc

Heh ... yep, that's me, Bruce.
I know that coming out as HOH/deaf loses me ... oh, a gajillion hotness points. But I have some great stories about my more severe misinterpretations of conversation. Like the turtle weenie soup conversation ...

Everyone knows deaf girls are the hottest. My friend was an RA at RIT in the deaf dorm, oh the tales she told...

[orthodoc]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

Everyone knows deaf girls are the hottest. My friend was an RA at RIT in the deaf dorm, oh the tales she told...

You're too kind ... unless you mean that deaf girls are the sluttiest ...

Deaf girls have all sorts of advantages. For one thing, we're easier to approach. If you blow your pick-up line it won't matter, because we didn't hear it. We're likely to smile and nod and hope desperately that you didn't just inform us that our mother was just killed in a terrible accident.

At the very least we're amusing. When 'tortellini' = 'turtle weenie', everything is amusing.

(NB - to clarify, I am not profoundly deaf, although I've been hearing-impaired since childhood. I don't use ASL, I lip-read pretty well, and I get by one-on-one in an exam room. Or one-on-one generally. Just not in crowds.)

[glatt]

I didn't notice anything even remotely unusual about your hearing ability when we had lunch, ortho.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

...there is no shame in wearing one even if you're still on the young side.

Young side of what? Imma think on what you're saying.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

They make them so tiny now, you really can't see them...

Hiding them blows half of their value, when people see them they make an effort to speak more clearly. I've even had a judge give me the benefit of the doubt after seeing them.

[orthodoc]

Originally Posted by glatt

I didn't notice anything even remotely unusual about your hearing ability when we had lunch, ortho.

I'm glad. I manage very well one on one, in a quiet environment. I do a lot of educated guessing, but as long as things stay in context I'm usually right.

[busterb]

Always some AH that sees them and talks as loud as they can.

[footfootfoot]

I have shit for figure ground hearing. I would get a hearing aid in a heartbeat if it would help. I love my glasses because I like to see. Hearing is another of my favorite senses. Collect the whole set!

The other thought I had is another one of my million dollar thoughts that I am going to work on and therefore not post it here. Or hear, as the case may be.

We're big fans of corrupting language and we came up with turtle weenie soup not based on mis hearing but on word play.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

I have shit for figure ground hearing.

Is there a short (& simple) explanation of what that is? Everything I found looked over my head.

ALSO: WTF is turtle weenie soup? I can't work it out.

[glatt]

tortellini

[Gravdigr]

Ah, thx.

Momdigr got a kick outta that.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

Is there a short (& simple) explanation of what that is? Everything I found looked over my head.

ALSO: WTF is turtle weenie soup? I can't work it out.

The ability to distinguish the voice of the person speaking to you (the figure) from the background sounds (the ground)

Think of looking at a person standing in a wooded area, that's like the sound you want to hear. If your hearing is good, then the person is obvious. If you have a figure ground problem it's as though the person was wearing camo or a ghillie suit. It all looks/sounds the same.

[orthodoc]

Hearing aids don't make noisy environments perfect, but they improve things. Part of the problem is that, when you first get your new aids, your brain has lost practice at distinguishing certain sounds. Along with my aids I was given a multi-lesson course by the audiologist to get me hearing accurately again. It took time.

It was emotional for me the first time I drove home with my aids in, got out of the car, and heard the birds. I could hear every little thing, and I knew then what I'd been missing. They say people hate hearing aids at first and have to work up to using them, but for me it was like being blind and suddenly having vision. You couldn't persuade me to take my aids out.

I will say, I still hate hearing appliances running. But that's a very very small price to pay.

PS @foot - if you can't distinguish speech from background sounds, you might want to think about getting an audiogram done and getting at least one hearing aid. Pure tone loss lags far behind the ability to distinguish speech.

[orthodoc]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

Ah, thx.

Momdigr got a kick outta that.

You're welcome.

My kids got a kick out of it too; now it's an inside joke. We can shock our guests during the holidays.

[Aliantha]

That is usually referred to as industrial deafness over here.

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

The ability to distinguish the voice of the person speaking to you (the figure) from the background sounds (the ground)

Think of looking at a person standing in a wooded area, that's like the sound you want to hear. If your hearing is good, then the person is obvious. If you have a figure ground problem it's as though the person was wearing camo or a ghillie suit. It all looks/sounds the same.