Personal Narrative: My Experience With Two Deaf People
On Thursday, February 23, I had an interesting encounter with 2 deaf people and 1 hard-of-hearing person at a restaurant. I never saw it coming, but I’m so happy it happened.
On our way home from church, we decided to pick up something to-go for dinner, so we decided to pick something up at Denny’s. While waiting for the food to be ready, an elderly man came up to us trying to sell us a spinning top. He explained that it was out of support for finding the cure for prostate cancer. My father, feeling sorry for the man, decided to buy it from him. He got overjoyed and it made us both smile to see the man so lively.
The man cheerfully walked back to his seat with his to other friends and started signing to them. I saw them struggling placing their order, so when I saw that, I decided to go up to them help them whilst I waited for our dinner. The three elderly ones got awfully ecstatic to see a young hearing person sign to them in their maternal language. One even started crying of joy!
They helped me a bit with new food words like steak, fish, potatoes, broccoli, sandwich, onions, onion rings, pepper, etc. so I could order what they wanted. As I ordered for them, one tapped my arm to get my attention. He wanted me to ask the waitress a question about the meal he ordered.
After helping them place their …show more content…
order, they started asking me innumerable questions about my age, my name, my sign name, what made me choose Interpreting for my major, where I study, etc. After every answer I gave, I got a more joyous response. It was such a lovely moment. We told jokes, laughed, played with spinning tops together, it was very satisfying and just sensational. I realized as we all signed to each other, nobody ever broke eye contact. It was very interesting and it taught me how important it is to keep eye contact.
When our dinner was ready, I courteously said I had to leave and funny enough, they didn’t want to let me leave.
They kept telling me stay a few more minutes, that they had never met such a young hearing person majoring in Interpreting and that they wanted me to keep telling them my story and about my life. They gave me advice for my career, and for my life. Eventually, I said I had to say goodnight and depart because my family was waiting for me at home, so we all said goodnight and I walked away. When I was reaching the door, I heard a stomping noise, so I turned around and the three of them were waving their hands smiling and saying goodnight and to drive
safely.
When I arrived home, I lamented not taking a picture with them. They were so sweet and amiable and I’d never had an experience with deaf people like that. When I turned around and went back to the restaurant, they were unfortunately already gone.
It wasn’t my first encounter with a deaf person, but it was one of the most memorable experiences for me. I learned various new things, and even though several times I had to ask them to repeat what they said and I sometimes needed to fingerspell what I was trying to say, it was definitely such a wonderful occurrence and it was so pleasant signing with them. I felt a bit anxious at first, and very nervous but in the end, I’m so pleased I did it. It was an awe-inspiring experience and I will never forget it.
On our way home from church, we decided to pick up something to-go for dinner, so we decided to pick something up at Denny’s. While waiting for the food to be ready, an elderly man came up to us trying to sell us a spinning top. He explained that it was out of support for finding the cure for prostate cancer. My father, feeling sorry for the man, decided to buy it from him. He got overjoyed and it made us both smile to see the man so lively.
The man cheerfully walked back to his seat with his to other friends and started signing to them. I saw them struggling placing their order, so when I saw that, I decided to go up to them help them whilst I waited for our dinner. The three elderly ones got awfully ecstatic to see a young hearing person sign to them in their maternal language. One even started crying of joy!
They helped me a bit with new food words like steak, fish, potatoes, broccoli, sandwich, onions, onion rings, pepper, etc. so I could order what they wanted. As I ordered for them, one tapped my arm to get my attention. He wanted me to ask the waitress a question about the meal he ordered.
After helping them place their …show more content…
order, they started asking me innumerable questions about my age, my name, my sign name, what made me choose Interpreting for my major, where I study, etc. After every answer I gave, I got a more joyous response. It was such a lovely moment. We told jokes, laughed, played with spinning tops together, it was very satisfying and just sensational. I realized as we all signed to each other, nobody ever broke eye contact. It was very interesting and it taught me how important it is to keep eye contact.
When our dinner was ready, I courteously said I had to leave and funny enough, they didn’t want to let me leave.
They kept telling me stay a few more minutes, that they had never met such a young hearing person majoring in Interpreting and that they wanted me to keep telling them my story and about my life. They gave me advice for my career, and for my life. Eventually, I said I had to say goodnight and depart because my family was waiting for me at home, so we all said goodnight and I walked away. When I was reaching the door, I heard a stomping noise, so I turned around and the three of them were waving their hands smiling and saying goodnight and to drive
safely.
When I arrived home, I lamented not taking a picture with them. They were so sweet and amiable and I’d never had an experience with deaf people like that. When I turned around and went back to the restaurant, they were unfortunately already gone.
It wasn’t my first encounter with a deaf person, but it was one of the most memorable experiences for me. I learned various new things, and even though several times I had to ask them to repeat what they said and I sometimes needed to fingerspell what I was trying to say, it was definitely such a wonderful occurrence and it was so pleasant signing with them. I felt a bit anxious at first, and very nervous but in the end, I’m so pleased I did it. It was an awe-inspiring experience and I will never forget it.