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  • Hello lovely people! I'm Jessica and welcome to my channel

  • Hello, I'm Jazzy! Jazzy.

  • Now we're both deaf but I grew up hearing and Jazzy

  • grew up deaf, so today we're going to be talking about the differences between that.

  • I can't wait

  • First I just want to explain that Jasmine's being voiced over

  • because she doesn't use her voice.

  • But I have some visually impaired

  • subscribers so I wanted to make sure that they could understand.

  • That's great!

  • Sounds great!

  • My first question for you is at what age did people know that you were deaf?

  • I was born fully deaf

  • When I was 10 months old everyone found out I was deaf

  • It was quite late as back then in the old days that's when you found out

  • Now you find out straight away

  • They all learned BSL very quickly, they learned BSL for me.

  • So I grew up deaf.

  • How did the doctors just not know?

  • Yeah right?

  • back then it was so different from today

  • How old were you when you started going deaf?

  • 15 was the age I started to lose my hearing

  • but it wasn't until about 18.

  • Wow

  • That was then like 'oh this is a problem'

  • and I went off to

  • university and that was the big difference that kind of change in

  • location and before then I've been really ill

  • and so just like mainly on my own.

  • So going off to university and it's like

  • suddenly just people everywhere and I couldn't understand.

  • I know the feeling that loss of control it's really hard.

  • It was kind of weird because when I was like really little

  • so like three years old,

  • I couldn't hear then either.

  • Really? Yeah!

  • I was born having like problems with my

  • hearing and it was I think when I was about five years old

  • I had an operation and I'd had like various operations but that was the one

  • that changed it.

  • Wow I didn't know that.

  • I thought you'd started losing your

  • hearing straightaway when you were 15 or 16 or...how old did you say you were?

  • Fifteen.

  • I thought it started straightaway then I didn't realize you had problems when you

  • were three. Wow!

  • My deafness is part of my disabilities

  • which I've had since birth but

  • they're very episodic.

  • How did you cope when you first found out you were deaf?

  • At first I thought that I was just being

  • lazy because I sort of sit in school and actually try and try and try to

  • understand but I just couldn't.

  • And I sort of like I asked can I sit at

  • the front of the class and yeah watch watch the teachers

  • And I was just...

  • Yes, I always had to sit at the front because I'm deaf, yes.

  • but also because I had to watch the interpreter

  • If I sat at the back how would I understand?

  • So I'd look at the

  • interpreter but it was hard when the teacher would pace back and forth

  • between me and the interpreter and I had to say

  • 'please move I want to see the interpreter'

  • Yes, same!

  • Oh my God, school, university, everyone...

  • Yes, it's really really annoying!

  • I'm like move please

  • So I taught myself

  • sign language just to understand it when I was 15 because I sort of realized like

  • mm something's wrong and it really helped but my school didn't have any

  • didn't have any sign language.

  • Wow was your school not deaf aware? Nothing?

  • No [laughs]

  • There is like no other deaf person and because I was losing my hearing but I

  • didn't have a diagnosis and the University were actually really great

  • Brighton University! Go them.

  • Do you think being deaf is hard

  • when you go to school and you're the only one what everyone else is hearing?

  • Challenging?

  • Yeah I mean the challenge was that I just I think I didn't have

  • the words to explain to everyone else how I felt and how isolating it was.

  • It was the same myself in a mainstream school everyone else was hearing I mean

  • they had a deaf unit with about 20 to 25 deaf but I still found it challenging

  • because when I was in the classroom I was all by myself being deaf so it was

  • hard to cope

  • The only one?

  • Well, sometimes I was by myself and sometimes I was with other deaf

  • students luckily. Sometimes if the level of the Deaf was different like if they

  • were in the advanced set in English and I was in the lower then we'd be apart

  • then in the classroom I had to cope with lots like it was hard to make friends

  • because I had no speech, plus sometimes the teacher wasn't deaf aware so that

  • made it more difficult.

  • But luckily I had an interpreter with me and she supported

  • me I was really lucky.

  • Did you ever try using your voice or just always just no?

  • Yes of course I

  • was using my voice when I was in secondary school some of the time

  • especially when I have my cochlear implant before that I had hearing aids

  • but I couldn't hear anything I was fully deaf.

  • When I had my implant

  • I could hear lots of noises it was exciting.

  • I was pretty nervous then a few

  • years ago my verse at school got worse because I was always signing with my friends.

  • So then there was no point in using my voice

  • so my voice has dropped off

  • so I don't use my voice.

  • Because you have a lot of deaf friends?

  • Yes, right.

  • How did you meet them?

  • School

  • Or Deaf club

  • Deaf events?

  • Plus when I was first at

  • school I had hearing friends but deaf ones only a few.

  • When I left my first school I

  • went to secondary school I made deaf friends and then I would meet their

  • friends and their friends and so on.

  • You know, small world.

  • One thing that I

  • really wish I had more of is friends

  • Maybe you should wear to deaf events like the pub in Brighton?

  • You can come with me!

  • I'll be there by your side, for support.

  • Thank you.

  • I think it's really hard

  • when you're an adult so kind of to make friends.

  • Yes

  • And then it's harder when you're an adult and you're deaf.

  • It's like a different experience.

  • Yes like when you're an adult you already have your life like, you have

  • a wife, a job you don't have time to make new friends, you have a busy life.

  • Your work is your life

  • My work is!

  • so it's hard to find friends now, I'm the same.

  • When I have a

  • busy life I don't have time to meet people but before when I was younger I

  • was always going out and meeting people.

  • When I was young. Now I'm a bit old.

  • [laughs] 20

  • [everybody laughing] Oh... so old...

  • Yeah but I feel old now because 20 is what children think of as an adult.

  • I do agree with you it can be harder to find friends, definitely.

  • I'm lazy because the people who are in my life are all hearing.

  • So like same as you my

  • family are hearing but my wife is hearing,

  • and I try and like make her sign

  • That's sweet!

  • All of my friends are hearing and it's

  • easier for me because I speak to just I do the speaking and then I try really

  • hard to lip read and I think I just allow people to like get away with it.

  • It's different because you grew up in a hearing community and family, you grew up

  • hearing so you went down that different path.

  • I grew up deaf I went to a mainstream school but in a deaf unit and I took

  • that path.

  • So it's easy for me to take deaf friends because I was fully deaf

  • using BSL using my voice.

  • You've grown up hearing, that's why it's different.

  • What was the hardest thing about growing up deaf?

  • Oh lots, I've got lots

  • [everybody laughs]

  • I think the most difficult is communication when I go out in public

  • like in a coffee shop or pub

  • when I want to order a drink or food communication

  • is always a big problem.

  • I think how to communicate with them.

  • So I can take

  • notes on my phone and show it to them but if I don't have my phone then I can

  • write it down on paper and show it to them.

  • It's hard though because all my

  • life BSL has been my first language but when I go out I have to change it's hard

  • to explain.

  • Do people kind of sometimes think that you're rude because they'll

  • say something and you're just like:

  • Yes, all the time!

  • What about you?

  • I think that the one big problem that comes from having

  • grown up hearing is that I have my voice.

  • People have no idea that I can't

  • understand them so if I ask for something I say 'oh excuse me could I

  • have this please' and they're just:

  • Yeah!

  • I'm like 'sorry no!

  • I know, I know I know I sound like this but I don't actually understand.

  • Yeah!

  • When I was in school I would try to lip read to the teacher if the interpreter hadn't

  • arrived yet but for example if they were late but then the teacher would turn to

  • face the whiteboard and back to me in a way again

  • it was so hard like how can I hear?

  • How old where you?

  • I was at school about, 11, 12, 13?

  • In secondary school.

  • Is there anything about growing up deaf that you think sort of like makes life

  • easier now?

  • Yes definitely, definitely. When I was a young child I found my life

  • was more challenging because I was learning everything was new.

  • And now I've

  • grown up I can look back and you can see I've learnt all of this so I feel it's

  • much easier now you know? I lived in this world for 20 years.

  • How about you? Do you

  • think the life is easier now?

  • Sometimes I just think that if I'd have grown up deaf I'd be so much better at signing

  • because I'm like receptive at sign language and I understand a lot but and

  • then whenever I'm signing I can only do SSE,

  • so then it's really difficult for me

  • to try and move between.

  • And if there's an interpreter is that an event and they

  • are doing BSL because maybe there's another deaf

  • person there it's really hard for me to be like:

  • 'Excuse me... hi...'

  • I don't understand!

  • Like you feel left out?

  • Like the group ignores you and you can't join in?

  • Most people who've grown up hearing and then become deaf, they feel like there

  • are these two worlds so there's like there's the hearing world and there's

  • the Deaf world and we're just kind of like,

  • awkwardly in the middle.

  • Because I don't

  • understand enough of the hearing one,

  • but at the same time in the Deaf one

  • I know that I'm different so that's that's definitely the most difficult.

  • Do you think the hearing and the Deaf worlds are different?

  • Yeah but like the same as is a language.

  • So if I lived in a country where they spoke two languages

  • and they spoke Spanish and they spoke French

  • I spoke English [laughs] and I'd be like:

  • I understand nothing.

  • It's hard for me because I don't speak so it's hard to

  • understand English.

  • Then different countries like France or

  • Spain have their language. It's so hard.

  • Plus in school I never learned because

  • they had French and Spanish classes but they believed

  • 'why does a deaf girl need that?'

  • So I was given extra support to polish up my

  • maths and English skills because they were considered more important than

  • learning a foreign language.

  • So I had them taken off my timetable when I was in school.

  • It's important to understand English first obviously, but have you ever wanted to like

  • learn a different sign language? Like ASL?

  • Yes I know a little bit of ASL like:

  • [attempting American accent] Hello my name is Jazzy

  • Yeah I would love to learn different sign languages like

  • International or ASL, I find them really interesting. It's so funny because some

  • people think the world has one sign language

  • but each country has their own

  • ASL and BSL are really different.

  • What was the very first sign that you learned?

  • When I was 10 months old my mum told me my first signs were: chocolate, biscuit

  • and milk because I just loved food!

  • I was a quick learner

  • I started at 10 months it wasn't even six weeks before I signed

  • I was quick

  • I was about 1? Yeah so,

  • so I was 10 months old when they found out I was deaf and

  • by the time I was 1 I had picked up loads of signs.

  • Then the teacher of the

  • Deaf came and they were like oh brilliant she's very clever! Uh-huh.

  • Thank you so much everyone for watching us and I really hope that you have enjoyed

  • this video, please now go to Jazzy's channel and watch the video that we also filmed.

  • My video is about what?

  • Christmas crackers!

  • So I've got lots of questions with what you'd like to know

  • about us and we will pull crackers and answer the questions.

  • I'm very excited!

  • We'll have fun!

  • Crackers opening! [claps]

  • Goodbye everyone! Goodbye!

  • Is it different? [Ruthanne] Yes of course different signs!

  • London signs and Brighton signs are a bit different

  • Well I actually I learnt sign in Bristol.

  • In Bristol really?

  • [Ruthanne] It's funny, the north and the south signs are really different.

  • Bristol is not North...

  • Jazzy [BSL]: That's true.

  • [Everyone laughs]

  • you

Hello lovely people! I'm Jessica and welcome to my channel

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