So I Married a Deaf Man: Olive Juice

"Olive Juice."

Don't you remember that game? A person stands a few feet away and you mouth "Olive Juice" and ask them what you said. They are bound to say, "I love you." Why? Because it looks the same on your mouth.

There are plenty of deaf people who can read lips. And they are very good at it. So good it is almost scary. Hubs is not one of them.

I think it is a huge misconception that if you are deaf, you can read lips. The amount of training that is required to learn this skill is unbelievable. Trying to understand a spoken language that you have never heard. Ever. And all they have to go on is how the word looks on the mouth. That's it.

They don't know that B and P make different sounds because you can't see it on the lips. They look identical. Go ahead. Try it. The difference is in how you move the air in your mouth. And you can't see air. This is the same for T and D, Z and S, F and V.

So if Hubs asks me, "What took you so long." and I speak back to him, "I was stuck on the train," he could possible interpret that as "I was stuck in the drain." Huh? 

There are times though that I wish he could read my lips. You know, like when I am in the middle of changing a poopie diaper and I need him to grab more wipes. "Could you get more wipes? Please?"

But instead he sees, "Hood you ate mo why peas please."

Or when a child of mine has hit his head and is bleeding, I could say, "I need a wash cloth."

But instead, he hears, "I nee a was claw."

How about when I am nursing my newborn baby, which in my case requires two hands, I could tell him, "Look out! Your boys are killing each other."

But instead he only gets, "Lou ow! Yo bows ah gill eat otter."

Not great communication, if you ask me.

Probably the only thing that my husband can lipread it the phrase, "Can you read my lips?"

At which point he will sign back, "No. Can you read my hands?"