Have you ever wondered the differences between deaf and hearing cultures? Last week I had a chance to watch “ See What I Mean” and this video gave me a humorous and enlightening look at the differences between them. In this movie “ See What I Mean”, issues such as attitudes toward time, taking time to say goodbye, complain about the use of phones and pagers, sharing information, giving and receiving criticism, and comments on personal appearance are explored and humorously discussed from the point of view of both cultures. Hearing people are mostly on time whereas deaf people are more flexible with time.
In hearing culture, If a party is organized people would come on time and leave at midnight. But in deaf culture, people can come in late and the party usually goes on and on, not necessary to end at midnight. Also, the way people take time to say goodbye are different in both cultures. Hearing people usually leave right away after saying goodbye. In contrast, deaf people are more attached to each other. It really takes time for them to leave. They say goodbye but don’t leave yet, instead they keep talking to each other and won’t leave until the third or fourth goodbye.
Deaf people take longer to say goodbye because they don’t have as many chances as hearing people to talk to each other and they prefer face to face communication. In the movie, the actors acted really well demonstrating this different attitude and I really enjoyed watching how amusing their acting was. The movie also discussed how new technology differently affects on both cultures. When a hearing person and a deaf person talk to each other, it is considered rule if the hearing person interrupts the conversation by talking on the phone with someone else.
Similarly, it’s rule for the deaf person if he or she texting or replying messages to someone else. Also, language use in email and its meaning are different in both cultures. The movie gived an example when a deaf female worker emailed a thank-you letter to her male co-worker after he had done her a favor. After the letter she wrote “ Hugies XOXO” which simply meant friendship but to her co-worker, which was a hearing person, it meant something else more than friendship and the situation became awkward when he brought flowers to her office.
I really enjoyed this part of the movie when the female worker saw her co-worker brought her flowers to make a move on her. Moreover, the movie discussed the way deaf people and hearing people criticize and. Deaf people are more straight up on giving feedbacks. They use “ Direct Approach” to criticize which means they go straight to the point and not worry of hurting the other’s feeling. This is because in deaf culture, people believe they should be frank and clear in order to show that they care. In contrast, hearing culture uses “ Sandwich Approach” to criticize.
This means they will start with a positive point first then the negative and finally end with a positive point. They do this because they don’t want their friends to feel bad about his wrong or unqualified work. In my opinions I think that both cultures have their points and actually I prefer the “ sandwich approach”. However, I sometimes use the “ direct approach” with my closest friends. Also, the movie showed that comments on personal appearance are different in deaf culture and hearing culture. And again, on this topic, deaf people are also more straight up.
If they see their friends look fat they will tell them right away to show that they really care for their friends. In contrast, hearing people will not do so because they afraid it will hurt their friend’s feeling. The movies suggested in deaf culture, people are more intimated because they have a small community where everybody know each other. Sharing is an important feature in deaf culture. The movie gave many examples to show this such as when a deaf student came late to class, the instructor asked him the reason why he was late. Or when a friend bought a car below market price, he would totally told all his friends to benefit them.
In hearing culture, people will not tell their friends exactly how much they bought their car for. This is because they afraid of embarrassing moments if their friends actually bought the car cheaper than them. In my opinions, I think “ See What You Mean” is a wonderful and fantastic movie about deaf and hearing cultures. The actors are outstanding and so humorous that made me laugh so loud even I was in class. Watching this movie really helps me to understand more about deaf culture and I think that deaf culture is beautiful and unique in its own way and I would love to learn more about it in the near future.
