Lost in translation
It's hard to imagine when your hearing is normal, how difficult not hearing can be and in what ways. I want to give you the smallest and maybe most obvious of example.
I wrote about it in a few posts but today I remembered the totally gut-wrenching feeling of being confused and not allowed to show it. In any conversation where, at one point, due to not hearing enough to make sense of what is said, you basically lost track of what happens you have two options: fake understanding, ask for understanding.
What's realy so frustrating is that asking is SO damn difficult. So difficult for most of us that faking is the go to for a lot of hearing impaired people. And faking is so perverse. It's perverse that you can get out of a convo having learned nothing about the subject, the person or the situation and feeling lousy for it BUT the other person will often kind-of felt your lack of engagement and leave with a feeling that you did not really care about what was said and/or are a condescending asshole. We both lose but in different ways. A failure of communication in the most literal of senses.
The solution seems so easy: ask for louder sounds, ask for clarification. Yes, once is ok, constantly it becomes a problem of imposing yourself, too much, way too much to be acceptable. So, you say nothing, you learn nothing, you have nothing to say. Not hearing does not make the world silent, it renders you silent.
A few years back I was out with a girl-friend and she was talking about something and asked me some questions and at one point I realized, to my surprise too, that I had no clue what she said in the last 5 minutes. She sense that, looked at me and asked:
"Why are you lost?"
What can one say.
yeah, really tells you how important the 5 senses are. We don't realise it and often take them for granted.
clearly. each is so important and you only realize it when they are under attack.
What?
Not hard for me to imagine but I've been hearing challenged my whole life.
well in your case is easy but most people not really :(
ha! thanks for the tweet. cool initiative!
Yes of course. Then there's how to imagine tinnitus with a hearing problem.
Disclaimer: I am just a bot trying to be helpful.
"Not hearing does not make the world silent, it renders you silent." I can't even imagine how tough this is. I never really thought of it that way. Thank you for providing that perspective. On a side note, perhaps it has lead you to be able to communicate so well using the written word.
ha! thanks for the compliment. it can be hard at times and frustrating and sad but as you say, there might be a blessing in there too. hard times, strong men makes,m right? :)
Well said!
I am slowing losing my hearing as well. Probably too many years on motorbikes without earplugs. Regardless, and we talked about this earlier, it makes events like SteemFest very challenging. With the music and noise in the background I found it nearly impossible to understand people - often asking them to repeat themselves or just smiling and nodding having gotten the gist of what they were saying but not enough detail to converse. Very frustrating and I'm sure it came off as rude to those that were trying to talk with me. I am going to an ENT soon as this cold clears up :).
hope you'll get a good aid man! and sorry. but yeah, that sounds familiar to me as i said :)
@razvanelulmarin What? Ain't hear you - okay just faking it
would you please get back at me in the chat? Thank you !
I believe that I may be beginning to lose some of my hearing. My son gets frustrated when he speaks to me because he usually has to repeat himself. I complain that he mumbles. LOL In any event, I've learned to ask people to slow down a little. And it also helps when I can see them speak.
hey! thanks for re-following! that being said, thinking that people " mumble" is a clear sign of hearing impairment from my experience. Glad to see you're handling it rather well but please go see a doctor/audiologist and look into hearing aid...it's really magic and it will help you ton[ considering your hearing is pretty good still].
Good luck and keep me updated!
I guess I'm at the age where I'm past the "sell by" date, but holding onto my space on the shelf until the expiration date. LOL
I guess I have to admit that I'm getting old when the eye sight's been bad, the hearing is going, the white hairs are growing, my filter is nearly gone, and I don't care about belching in public anymore. Farting will be close in line. That is the day of Officially OLD. lol
so are you 99y old?
I'll be 45 at the end of the year but there's no longevity in my family tree. If I average it out I may expire in about 20 years LOL Maybe I should start farting in public now!