Insight: I learnt BSL later on in life and it’s the best thing I did (BSL)

All my life I was conscious that I was “a bit deaf” however my family never raised this as several of us had hearing losses of various levels. It wasn’t something to trouble ourselves with, as our Mother would say!

Being quite old fashioned and living in a small Irish village meant it just became a way of life to get on with things and accept what sounds were not heard.

It wasn’t until I left the family home and moved to an English city that I realised there were choices out there for me to change how I lived my life.

For example, I was always told I was too softly spoken and it was down to the one sided deafness I was later officially diagnosed with that meant I failed to gauge background noise and thus know how loud my voice should be. So I asked my doctor about hearing aids.

Truth be told I was nervous and self conscious when I first wore my hearing aid but I soon got used to it. Given that my deafness is one sided it didn’t make sense to aid both ears and having one hearing aid helps me balance out sound better too.

I went a long time being the only deaf person in my social circle and it wasn’t until I started volunteering for a charity that I met other deaf people. I don’t just mean elderly people with age related deafness, but those who had grown up deaf.

One lovely lady in particular would come to our charity for our coffee mornings and to socialise with others on our craft days and she would always smile and appear very friendly but I could never have a conversation with her because she didn’t speak.

I asked my co workers about her and they told me that she signed as she was deaf. This piqued my curiosity. I decided to make an effort to say hello and like my co workers I discovered that this lady was a sign language user and although she couldn’t chat to us she was just happy to sit in our company and get on with her crochet.

I spoke to my husband about this and he knew that I felt I wanted to reach out in some way. We got ourselves onto the internet and began to look for things that may support this lady and also for ways I could perhaps learn a few signs.

At the age of 67 I never imagined I would learn another language. But as luck would have it I discovered a beginners course was taking place at a community centre 30 minutes away and on a whim I decided to sign up.

My husband was surprised, I had never expressed an interest in learning sign language. I always said I was too old, too late, not deaf enough and so on.

But seeing this lady at our groups, not able to converse with anyone, affected me greatly.

I was incredibly nervous at the first BSL class. I started to wonder whether I had wasted my money. But the tutor soon put me at ease. I found myself laughing so much and I also felt quite emotional at times as I felt so much more accepting towards my own deafness.

The other sign language students were there for various reasons, a couple had reasons similar to mine as they wanted to communicate with people at work and some others had family members or relatives that were deaf.

I very much enjoyed learning BSL and although there were times I got signs mixed up or the wrong way round (my fingers don’t always work together) I am rather proud of myself for completing my level one.

I would like to continue onto level two but I have paused for a short while due to an ongoing health issue in my wrists that requires treatment but I have learnt so much already and it’s helped to make me more of a visual communicator.

The lady who attended our groups has since moved on to a new area but for a while she was delighted to have someone who took an interest in her and I loved having someone to welcome and to also practise sign language with.

That lovely lady really did inspire me to do something new, something I never thought I could do!

I’m in my late 60s and I’m still learning about sign language and deafness. I’d like to think I’m testament to the saying “it’s never too late!”

This blog has been written anonymously as part of the Insight series – where readers are invited to share their story or news about their interesting job with The Limping Chicken. If you have a story to share please email rebecca@rawithey.com 

Image courtesy of i-stock photos.