First Tip of 2011

Watch an action show without sounds or captions.

Here's a great way to practice gleaning information from only visual cues. Look for relationships and emotions. See how well you can figure out the point of the show. Later, play it back or watch the re-run and see what you missed.

A second reason to employ this tip is to understand a little more about the culture we serve. In the years before captioned media, the most popular movies among the Deaf community were action films. Dramas were poorly lit and had too much talking to lipread, even if one were good enough to lip read around the camera angles. Comedies had their moments, but also relied often upon verbal puns that were easy to miss. If it wasn't a slapstick comedy, most of my Deaf friends skipped it. Musicals were also hit and miss. The old MGM musicals had enough dancing to keep my friends interested, but later shows like Moulin Rouge were again dark and relied upon the words too much to make sense.

But action shows were a hoot. The dialogue was only as important as the plot. No one really cared why Harrison Ford was jumping off a train or a dam, my friends just though it was exciting to watch. Their parents would share the same feeling about Hitchcock thrillers. The intricacies of the storyline were lost but a plane chasing a man down in a corn field was exciting regardless!

So give it a try. You may understand your Deaf friends more - and have a great opportunity to improve your observation skills and by extension, your interpreting skills.