Deaf person studying Chinese

[Meng Lelan]

I've found that in Taiwan, if you're speaking Chinese as a foreigner in Taipei, there's a lot less over excitement in relation to a white man (woman) speaking Chinese,

Then maybe I should have gone there instead of China, that seems to be the paradigm shift I've been wanting.

The last time I was in China was a conference in Beijing in 2006, and that was the first time I was not stared at when my deaf friend and I sat on a 30 minute public bus ride across town, signing in Chinese Sign Language the whole time. I think because now all the young whippersnappers are too busy texting and chatting over their cell phones to care about anyone but themselves.

[Scoobyqueen]

This is a really good sticky. Well done for putting that together.

[rmpalpha]

Meng Lelan: Thank you for writing the sticky - I am sure that it will be helpful for future auditory-challenged people. Have you encountered many such forum members over the years?

I have a few comments/questions. I agree that pinyin is essential for deaf people to learn just because it is useful for typing out Chinese characters. The best way for me to learn pinyin is to type out the dialogues or reading comprehension paragraphs in my textbook as it forces me to associate characters with their pinyin, but different people have different learning styles. Would you say that tonal information is important for people of my background to learn as well?

I am fortunate in that I've never received a negative reception from any of the instruction staff at my university. In my experience, they are generally sincere in their desire to find out how best to help me learn the language, but I don't really have a good answer to that question either. Isolation is indeed a problem for people who do not have any hearing or speaking abilities (like me), so I'm hoping that your comments that the second-year course sequence is better is true

Is there a standardized Chinese Sign Language? If so, I find that surprising just because there are several very distinct dialects in the Chinese language and I would have guessed that the same thing would be true of sign language in China.

How did you generally meet deaf people in China?

Thanks again, Meng Lelan!

[Meng Lelan]

Have you encountered many such forum members over the years?

Very seldom, a few individuals have popped in and out of here in the six years I've been on this Chinese Forums. I've know deaf learners of various languages over the last 20 years too.

Would you say that tonal information is important for people of my background to learn as well?

You should learn the tonal information as well, by rote memorization if that is what works for you (and works for a number of hearing people too). You might want to try Tone and Color (I think I might be getting the title name wrong, someone here please correct me? It's written by a guy who frequents the podcast PopUp Chinese). It may help you remember tonal information better.

I will tell you why you should learn the tonal information, it's because some words' meaning may change with the tone. You could be reading in pinyin then uh-oh, why is that pinyin word coming up with a different tone!?! Not that I expect you to be able to orally produce and aurally understand tones, mind you, but tones do sometimes give you valuable information as does the pinyin.

Isolation is indeed a problem for people who do not have any hearing or speaking abilities (like me), so I'm hoping that your comments that the second-year course sequence is better is true

I was extremely isolated in my first year course no matter what I tried. It's important you recognize that the feeling of isolation is very possible, but when you start a lot of reading and writing in second year, the feeling of isolation may decrease somewhat because it puts you on more or less equal footing with hearing peers. I think in my third year of Chinese I was a lot less isolated because peers would come ask me for help with written and reading exercises because they tend to not pay a lot of attention to that until it's...too late.....

Is there a standardized Chinese Sign Language?

Chinese Sign Language is pretty much the same all over China with some regional variations. Just like you see regional variations in ASL, for example, the sign for Halloween isn't signed the same all over the US.

How did you generally meet deaf people in China?

By total haphazard chance. I would just be walking along and my Deaf Radar goes off and sure enough, along walks a Chinese deaf. It's the same here, I don't know how the deaf do it in the US, but I can be just sitting around minding my own business and a bunch of deaf teens will race up to me signing to each other "DEAF LADY! DEAF LADY!" and I don't know how they know. They just know.

[Shi Tong]

Meng, I know this is kind of off topic, but yeah, generally in Taiwan/ Taipei I dont get too much attention, appart from from the children.

The adults generally ignore my presence, or assume I cant speak Mandarin. If an adult realises that I do, generally it leads to surprise, followed by a normal conversation, with possible questions on how or where I learned my Chinese.

However, this wouldn't mean that I know what it's like to be signing as a deaf person, I imagine there would be at least a little more attention in your direction, mainly because it's pretty unusual.

I agree with you that as soon as the OP starts learning a lot of reading and writing, he will find it a lot easier. Most people struggle to read and write Chinese, so you'll find yourself on a very level playing field. In fact, you may find it even easier than the speakers and listeners because you may forge ahead concentrating on your literacy, where they are concentrating on struggling with tones.

This should see you apart from the others on your literacy and you would get a lot of respect for that!

[Lu]

I've seen (Taiwanese) deaf people a few times in Taipei, talking sign language to each other on the bus or so. I never saw them attract any special attention (although I admit I looked at their conversation with some curiosity). So, deaf people signing don't seem to get a lot of attention, foreigners speaking Chinese don't get a lot of attention (not crowds, at least), so I assume deaf foreigners would get some curious looks, but nothing traffic-stopping.

[Scoobyqueen]

People may attempt to glorify you, don’t let them do that as it may set you apart and isolate you more

I have been wondering about this aspect. What does it mean exactly, that people admire you? Actually it IS quite inspiring that a deaf person would study Chinese (ie tonal language) but I can see how people's constant reaction to that is distracting.

[Meng Lelan]

Glorify means they think you are a perfect saint to take up something thought to be difficult or even hopeless. It's very distracting to be viewed like this, like it's a good excuse to stop trying, or that this is the best you can do under present conditions, or that you are attracting a great deal of attention when you are doing something that the hearing impaired aren't expected to normally do (like produce the tones). After a while you start to feel like a spectacle in a freak show. It's pretty bad.

[Erbse]

Every Chinese course that I've heard about focuses primarily on oral communication skills (at least, at the first-year level, anyway)

The reason is very simple. Written Chinese has a limited connection to the spoken Chinese. Only when a learner reaches the intermediate stage he will begin to see this connection. For a beginner oral and written are like two separate languages. As most learners are more casual, they are already to busy with one, so they leave out the other. That's a fair deal for the average learner who just wants to say a few things when traveling in China.

[Meng Lelan]

I simply have to post it here, I didn't discover this YouTube video until today. Watch what Jackie Chan does to the referee ah haa hah haaa!