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You may be the first deaf person who we meet!

See more: Teaching Hearing Subjects: 12 things you should know

Some of us want to learn sign language, because we have deaf relatives, friends, or colleagues. But some of us want to learn sign language, ‘for fun’. You may be the first deaf person that we meet!

“You really can’t hear anything? Cool!” And then we ask all these dumb questions: “How do Deaf people talk in the dark?” “Can Deaf people drive a car, get married, know that the water is boiling, or that the baby is crying?”

Trust me, we don’t mean any disrespect. Most of us truly don’t know.

What might work:

  • If you get tired of answering these questions, put on your teacher-hat and ask “What do you think, yourself?”  Or: “Why not?” Or: “Who knows the answer to this question?” Or: make it an assignment: Collect all questions, ask your learners to find the answers. In the next class, you ask them to present the answers. Maybe in groups. But definitely: in sign language.