Random curiosities

I use captions on TV/cable for basically everything because my speech discrimination isn't all that great at normal volumes, so I know how invaluable they are. I also wish there were more open-captioned movies in theaters. But, having recently learned that some portion of the Deaf community isn't completely fluent in English, I have to wonder how beneficial the captions are to them. Are captions basically for HoH and bilingual Deaf??

I also was wondering, if you are driving, is it possible to have a meaningful conversation in ASL with the passenger?

Comments

moi said…
To answer your two questions... :)

1. In my opinion, basically, captions are for people who have at least some English and benefit from visual input, yeah. Captions in Farsi, say, would be completely useless to me. Captions in French, however, would be of *some* benefit for me, since I can function somewhat in French.

2. Yes, it is, if both are skilled. It is a skill that requires practice and it's not one for the faint of heart. *grin* My mom still gets incredibly nervous when I tell her to go ahead with the conversation when I'm driving. The passenger usually leans forward and pauses a lot. When the driver can't look because of a sharp turn or something, the driver places a hold on the conversation.
July 13, 2007 at 12:27 AM
Dianrez said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
July 16, 2007 at 5:26 PM
Dianrez said…
Captions are my lifeblood, but yes, there are those who have difficulties in English, and they are not all deaf people!

Habitual reading of captions improves their understanding. My Spanish relatives love the captions too, keeping the sound on so they can match the heard with the spelled word. My deaf teen son is improving his reading by captions and frequently laughs out loud at the most sophisticated dialogue.

Re. talking while driving: I get scared. Yeah! But I do it anyway, and so does the other deaf members of the family. Still, it's better not to do it unless it is an emergency, and I try to avoid it generally. One should consider the skill of watching road changes a higher priority.
July 16, 2007 at 5:30 PM
Belle said…
About holding ASL convos in the car with the driver, for Pete's sake, do not sign slowly! I am still trying to train my mother on the etiquette and strategies of talking to me while I am driving. (She is hearing, yeah, and it is nerve-racking for her ...) She still hasn't mastered the lean-forward trick moi mentioned above.
July 17, 2007 at 3:23 AM
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