Chapter 52 :)

"What's the difference between 'hard-of-hearing' and 'deaf'?"

Chapter 52 was a little sad... I had no idea there was this much drama there was over this seemingly small issue.
I was surprised to read that hard-of-hearing isn't an audiological category, it does make sense that it can be a state of mind. I think I may disagree that "if you loose your hearing after age 8 you are concerted hard-of-hearing, no matter how deaf you are." I just don't understand this, if I meet a 10 year old who can not hear... I would say they are deaf, 8 is still young and learning a new language would still be fairly easy. I have a friend who came from Cuba to America when she was 10, she didn't know a lick of English but she picked it up perfectly after being immersed in American culture. Now if you met her you would have no Idea she ever knew anything but English. I think that if a child becomes deaf any time before about 13, and are immersed in deaf culture and sent to a school for the deaf they will learn Sign Language and pick up the norms of deaf culture naturally.

I found it disturbing that "within the Deaf community. Each faction looks down on every other one." I think that a little bit of this happens in every society. It almost seems to be (a tragic) part of human nature to look down on other people who may not be just alike. 

After reading this chapter I think that I have come to the realization that I would rather be Deaf than hard-of-hearing. It seems like HOH people just don't really fit in anywhere. They can't function normally in the hearing world and Deaf people usually reject them because they see them as "hearing in the head." I could guess that HOH people are not as proficient of signers as Deaf people, I think that it would be more difficult to become motivated to learn and practice ASL if I could communicate somewhat effectively in the hearing world.