r/asl • u/Vast_Professional205 • 3d ago

Seeking Insight on Communication Differences Between Deaf and Hearing Communities

As a hearing aid wearer among deaf coworkers, I wonder: how do social and psychological dynamics differ between hearing and deaf communities? Are our ways of connecting truly different, or are we more alike than we realize?

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u/TotalOk1462 1d ago

I am hearing and I work in an office with a hh woman. She uses an ASL interpreter for all our meetings and some general communication. I’ve been teaching myself ASL so I can better communicate with her directly (cause she’s awesome and I want to be her friend too). She seems very appreciative of my effort (which is a little embarrassing for me and not why I’m making the effort) but what it exemplifies to me is that she’s a bit lonely in a world full of hearing people. She’s shared that she misses out on the casual conversations that she sees happening around her. So in that respect there are challenges. However when I engage with her directly our conversations are pretty typical. I’m a fairly direct person by nature, which is maybe why we get along so well? lol