I am a student of American Sign Language (ASL), currently in my fourth year. Sometimes, and it happens a lot, when I don’t feel like being bothered in public, or I am being harassed for money by a homeless person, I start signing and use Deaf voice. It works every time.
Comments
I respect your game, but karma can be a bitch.
im asian. i pretend like i dont speak english and i really commit to it. protect your peace
What pushes this from mildly gross to super gross is you saying you use a Deaf accent. It feels a lot like mockery.
I’ve done the same but with English and Spanish. When I lived in Chile if I didn’t want to be disturbed I’d play the I don’t speak Spanish card. And I’ve done the same back in Oz and say no hablo inglés
My mom and sister use it to talk shit about our family from across the room
Sometimes I point at my throat. I’d rather they think I can’t answer.
when i moved to vegas at 15 i pretended to be gay so i didn’t have to join a gang
Why y’all don’t just give ’em hell and say no or leave me alone is beyond me.
So Larry David.
I don’t do shit i straight up ignore people, idc what people think anymroen
I work at a grocery store and it periodically has this electric company inside trying to get ppl to sign up for their service (with management approval).
One time I was checking out this lady with a cochlear implant and she was telling me that she thinks they’re annoying and that if they start talking to her, she plays up being deaf lol
My friend has a cochlear implant. When our kids were small and we were all together. Things would get noisy !
My head would be splitting wide open, and she’s over there peaceful as an angel. I would tap her shoulder and say, ” Turn thay damn thing on, if I gotta hear this, you gotta to!”
🤣🥰
I used this “trick” once while traveling abroad (sans voice) and to my surprise the hungry man started signing right back! It was humbling AF.
In the end, I rolled him a cigarette and he kissed my hand as he set off in search of his next meal. You just never know.
100% do this to avoid being hit on.
Edit: not a deaf voice, but the ASL. No disrespect to the deaf community.
So you’re learning ASL but don’t have enough respect for Deaf people not to lie about being Deaf and put on a Deaf accent? Why even learn the language if you’re just going to use it to lie about being a member of a marginalized community and make a mockery of the culture that the language is a part of?
I feel like not wanting to talk and using ASL back to them and letting their minds fill in the gaps is one thing, but using deaf voice is unhinged lmao
I think this is cool, except for the part where you change your voice. That’s weird. I work with a chick that does this, and it’s so fucking obvious. I hate it. I hope that’s not you, Christie.
You could just sign, you don’t need to use a deaf accent. Or just say “Leave me alone” instead of pretending to be deaf?
Signing ok, using deaf voice? Straight to jail. Not in El Salvador though 😢
Pretending to have a disability so that you don’t have to talk to people is pretty shitty. I’m sure members of the Deaf culture wouldn’t find it amusing.
In public if I don’t want to be bothered I speak french
Ew
Just don’t mock the accent man and you’ll be fine
I speak 3 languages, so whenever someone creepy comes up to me and tries to talk to me, i just start speaking whichever language i think they’re least likely to know, which works great because one of the languages i speak is very uncommon.
Using a Deaf voice is fucked up.
As a 4th year ASL student you know that, just like you know to capitalize Deaf. It’s highly disrespectful to a community and culture you’ve spent years studying.
Kinda hate this. Feels appropriative.
My GF and I use sign at concerts.
Disabled people are more likely to be targeted for harassment or crimes like assault because we’re seen as weak and at a disadvantage compared to people who don’t have a disability. Consider that the next time you decide to fake one.
It may be convenient until someone decides it’ll be easier to attack you.
As someone who is Deaf and uses ASL, I completely get it. When I was a kid, I used to take out my hearing aids and just sign to my dad when I got tired of hearing my mom and siblings . My dad was the only one who knew ASL anyway, so we still talk shit lol
i learnt bsl for 6 years to teach my deaf-blind grandma as she wasnt able to get classes for herself. why would you do such a thing when youve studied it for so long? its not a choice to be deaf. dont act like its one.
So you’re trying to be an interpreter but admiting you have no respect for deaf culture. GFY. -signed a deaf man
As a certified asl interpreter, I can’t believe your program has not taught you how disrespectful this is. Are you connected with a deaf community? Have you asked any deaf friends?
mimicking a “deaf voice” is so fucked up
This is disgusting.
I too am a fluent user of Sign language. I use it to get out of many situations. At times if I am with Deaf friends, I would act like the Deaf person and make it look like the Deaf person is actually the hearing person. It is so much fun to see the face of people when we do this. One time, my Deaf best friend and I flew across the country and the whole time the flight attendant kept talking to my friend and trying to finger-spell or mouth really big to me. We had so much fun.
I’m legally blind (so have a little vision but not a lot) and have a guide dog. If people are trying to advertise or talk while I’m trying to go somewhere I will pretend I don’t know they’re talking to me even when I know they are.
I hope you’re not trying to become an interpreter because this will win you no friends in the Deaf community. This is unethical.
This is disgraceful. As an actual deaf person, being deaf isn’t a novelty. It’s not a fun game to play when you don’t feel like being bothered by people.
Signing is fine, but “using a deaf voice” is totally unnecessary.
Does the place you’re learning ASL from not have standards and practices and an ethics board? Did they not cover ethics? Because it’s the first thing the Sign program at my college covered.
I know this is r/confession. So you, potentially, know that you shouldn’t do this. Maybe stop? Using your impression of the characteristics of some speech by people who are Deaf is fairly offensive. How did you learn this much ASL without gathering any sense of appropriateness?
Edit: Never mind. I’ve been taken in by a troll. The twelve year old OP is just here to pick internet fights.
This is extremely insensitive, especially using a “Deaf voice”. You can avoid these people by just not responding to them and not looking at them. They can assume you’re deaf and you don’t have to be offensive to an entire culture of marginalized people.
It’d be one thing if you were a coda (child of deaf adult) because I know bilinguals will pretend to not understand English just to not have to deal with English speakers (My omi even does this sometimes lol).
However, you have no connection to the deaf community whatsoever other than by learning their language. Faking the “voice” is particularly shitty and ableist.
Im autistic, and what you’re doing would be the equivalent of pretending to be nonverbal when its convenient while wanting to become an autism specialist. Just as I sure as hell wouldn’t want someone like that lingering within my community, I doubt deaf people want you in theirs as an interpreter.
I hope your goofy ass gets caught faking and then has to explain yourself.
I love this except for the use “deaf voice” you can pretend to be hearing impaired without mocking how they talk lol
Hi, I’m a hearing Deaf Studies major in my senior year. I think pretending to be Deaf as a hearing person with hearing privelege in order to gain something is really distasteful and gross, and I’m sad to see this coming from someone studying ASL. Deaf people can’t turn their identity on and off. You are appropriating a moment of their lived experience for your own gain, while the community you are benefiting from is continually oppressed for the exact things you are doing. Just something to think about. Deaf folx feel free to correct me if you disagree 🙂
my job has a huge sneeze guard. It’s a greasy spoon Chinese place. I could never hear any of the customers even my coworkers make fun of me. Had a deaf customer come in and it was literally easier to take his order than to take a speaking person’s order.
Okay, using deaf voice is probably a bit excessive.
What does Deaf voice mean here
So, you are teaching hearing people that Deaf and HH people are not able to communicate with hearing people in public? Or that that they are not nice, fun and interesting people that might want to chat with a stranger? Or that talking with a Deaf or HH person is too much trouble?
How does pretending to be Deaf get you out of talking with people exactly? Because my Deaf friends communicate with hearing strangers every day.
I think the biggest tell is how OP reacts to them being called gross for doing the accent.
If they just said “whoops, my bad, I’ll just stick to doing ASL” not many people would care but they’re doubling down on it and calling people names. Sounds like they just wanted to mock deaf people and be validated in it.
This moment is brought to you by Seinfeld.
i think pretending not to speak someone’s language to get out of a conversation is something all bilinguals do from time to time. but mimicking a deaf accent is in really poor taste and you shouldn’t do that. just gesture at your ears, shake your head, and sign at them; they’ll get the dang hint.
Hearing folks trying to pass as deaf is generally considered unacceptable to the Deaf community. I mean, some won’t care, and many would give you a pass if you did it to get out of an unsafe situation. But you say you do it a lot. Why would you want to burn bridges with people you’ve been working to learn how to communicate with?
Stop doing that. Signed, an actual deaf person
You pretend to be Deaf and use “Deaf voice”? I’m curious what actual Deaf people think of that.
I can appreciate this as the pro-gamer move that it is
However on a personal note, I am (mostly) deaf, and just for the sheer number of times I’ve been accused of faking it, or having “selective hearing” so fuck you
Ignoring them I get. Pretending to be deaf and signing at them is iffy, but I still get it, but faking a deaf accent is insulting! Deaf people get made fun of for their accents. Many are very self conscious about it.
If you’re in year 4 of ASL, you should know more about the deaf culture and community.
Your local deaf community probably wouldn’t be happy if they knew you did this…
I know my deaf community would be upset to learn this.
All these people here going out of there way to find ways to avoid interacting with people, when you could just make eye contact and say NO.
It’s obvious the OP won’t change his mind and isn’t sorry about his actions. But to the people in the comments….
Hi. I’m hard of hearing. I can hear some, but not well, and my hearing loss is progressive. Some situations can also make it worse…
I remember the first time I couldn’t hear anything. I was traveling alone on a plane home after being attacked by someone. I was already traumatized. And to my horror, only a few minutes into a 3+ hour flight, I couldn’t hear. I mean I couldn’t hear anything. I couldn’t even hear my own body or voice. I couldn’t hear anyone trying to talk to me. And it was so scary. I kept trying to talk to people while signing. But no one there knew sign. Luckily someone was kind enough to type on their phone and help me find an inhaler during an asthma attack…
All this to say I do get not wanting to talk to people sometimes, but faking a deaf accent crosses a line. It hurts people! Deaf people are made fun of for that accent. They are often seen as less intelligent or trustworthy because of it, and often lose opportunities like jobs and scholarships… deaf people are often targeted because of their deafness…
And the fact that you can’t see the hurt you cause or the damage you do makes it worse. Deaf people are people. People ostracized…. It’s not something to pretend for fun
Cringe
I’m an interpreter and if any deaf people I work with found out I did this, they would lose respect for and trust in me. Don’t pretend to be deaf and ESPECIALLY don’t mock deaf accent.
According to this thread, you’ve mentioned you’re studying to become an interpreter – please gain more respect for the community you intend to work in before joining the field.
Yeah stop doing this. I’m genuinely shocked as a 4th year ASL student that you thought this was appropriate. Try telling this to one of your professors, especially if they’re deaf!
Using “Deaf voice” when you’re hearing??? You’re a dick.
Not okay. Stop doing that.
As someone who is ACTUALLY deaf and a native ASL user, this is offensive and gross. Please stop bragging about that online. You can do whatever you want, just stop bragging that you do it. And it’s actually called a “deaf accent” not a deaf voice. The way you have it worded makes it seem like it’s bad we sound different.
Medically speaking, since we cannot hear, our vocal folds are straining to pull our sound since it’s all connected together. That’s why we sound different. None of it is intentional. We are not a community to be mocked.
When you don’t want to take stairs do you plop yourself into a wheelchair? Being deaf is hard enough, unseen disability, without people play acting, possibly getting called on it, and then the real deaf person isn’t believed. Fuck you.
Using the deaf accent is going too far… using ASL which you’ve been learning and practicing for years is one thing and I think that’s perfectly acceptable but using the deaf accent just feels like mocking them at that point. You wouldn’t speak in aave or make up a southern accent or imitate noises someone non verbal might make, this shouldnt be any different
Using the deaf accent is just messed up lol
As a Deaf person I just want to tell you how wrong this is. Clearly you haven’t learned anything about respect for consumers or Deaf Culture in general. I pray you don’t intend to become an interpreter. We don’t need unethical interpreters. There are already enough.
I know very little ASL and I just sign “I’m deaf”. I don’t do a deaf voice though.. I’d find that too offensive lol
But signing usually makes people bugger off. This has been a great help with my social anxiety, and like you said, being approached by homeless or salesmen lmao
You should let your actual deaf friends know this, I’m sure the community won’t shun you at all.
People like you are the reason the disability isn’t taken seriously. It might be convenient for you, but for us all it means is people being more skeptical.
I don’t know how funny it will be to anyone else, but it was very embarrassing. My girlfriend and I were in Spanish class in high school, and we had a substitute teacher who was gorgeous. He told us to work on something while he ate his sandwich at the front of the class. My girlfriend and I were just learning sign language (but we only knew how to make the letters and spell out the words) and we were signing to each other how hot he was and what we would love to do to him if we ever got the chance (the nastiest stuff our 14 year old brains could imagine). I can’t remember why, whether he called our names or what, but we looked over at him to see him, quick as a flash, sign something
to us (a whole sentence) and then he just looked at us and said, “my sister is deaf”
I feel like using Deaf voice might be going a little overboard!
Don’t. As a deaf person that is also oral (but can sign), please don’t. I’m constantly invalidated by hearing people that don’t believe I’m deaf. Your actions will make my life harder.
As an interpreter myself this is pretty messed up, especially using the “Deaf voice”
I find the fact that you use deaf voice offensive. You don’t think thats in extremely poor taste? Esp for the real deaf people. My father is hard of hearing and uses aids to help but still has trouble with pronunciation of words he reads lips and is fluent in sign and every few years takes a signing course to keep up to date. My brother is completely deaf without aids and reads lips and signs fluently but prefers to talk and has deaf voice .I feel if anyone knew you were doing this would feel the way I do. Like if I knew someone was doing this esp as someone in the deaf community I wouldn’t only rat you out to everyone you know but I would make sure your employers knew too. Your extremely disrespectful
Hey op this is pretty shitty. Deaf people have a large culture and community you’re disrespecting by doing that. I’m not Deaf but I’ve also been learning ASL as well as studying Deaf studies and all the Deaf teachers I’ve had have told us NOT to do this. This is 100% a form of audism and you really should stop.
The voice is…crossing a line
Why do you need to put on Deaf voice for this?? That’s like really fucked up.