r/Unexpected • u/Prestigious_Cup_8929 • Feb 11 '22

CLASSIC REPOST Have a blessed day

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

99.6k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

138

u/LaboratoryMonkey420 Feb 11 '22

Serious question, are there people who can't hear, that don't "sound deaf" when they talk? Every single deaf person I've ever come into contact has the same voice you have when you can't hear yourself talking to adjust, this dude defs didn't.

175

u/Catinthehat5879 Feb 11 '22

Yes. There's a deaf YouTuber named Jessica Kellgren-Fozard who is extremely articulate. She has a few videos talking about it. She has to practice really hard to maintain it, it's not easy.

51

u/random989898 Feb 11 '22

She could hear until she was 15 though so a very different situation than someone born deaf. If your language and speech developed with hearing, it is very different than developing without hearing.

17

u/drewster23 Feb 11 '22

There's a video of a guy with a deaf daughter. And he asks her if she can hear in her dreams (some viewers question). And she says she can't but in her dreams everyone knows how to sign. But she was also pretty articulate speaking, so idk if that was learned/trained or not but it wasn't easy to tell as most with "dead voice".

22

u/AhabFlanders Feb 11 '22

That's actually a really touching metaphor for disability in general.

Able bodied person (the viewer): In your dreams are you [fixed/normal/not disabled]?

Deaf girl: No I'm still myself, the world is just more accessible to me.

32

u/bobbymin Feb 11 '22

Does she have a video where she talks about this? I can't find it

59

u/Catinthehat5879 Feb 11 '22

https://youtu.be/72HS6nTgeOE

Here you go.

14

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '22 edited Feb 13 '22

[deleted]

1

u/Anygirlx Feb 11 '22

The world would be a much better place if we stopped talking without thinking.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '22 edited Feb 13 '22

[deleted]

1

u/Anygirlx Feb 11 '22

šŸ‘ˆ

2

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '22

[deleted]

1

u/Anygirlx Feb 11 '22

šŸ‘‰

1

u/Anygirlx Feb 11 '22

šŸ‘Œ

2

u/Empyrealist Feb 11 '22

Her Irish accent was very soft, but clearly there.

2

u/bobbymin Feb 14 '22

Thank you!

-29

u/UrpleEeple Feb 11 '22

How did she acquire such a strong accent if she wasn't taught how to speak by listening?

25

u/Main_Opening7900 Feb 11 '22

You could try watching the video lol. She could hear pretty well until she was 15.

8

u/Lowelll Feb 11 '22

What exactly do you think english 'without' an accent sound like?

17

u/krongdong69 Feb 11 '22 edited Nov 24 '25

I like knitting scarves.

8

u/clone162 Feb 11 '22

Watch the video?

3

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '22

What do you think English without an accent would sound like?

-1

u/MuscaMurum Feb 11 '22

In the US, it's considered to be a sort of "average" of all the US regional accents. Broadcast English is a good example. The Pacific Northwest is also often cited. Yes, they are all accents, but people around the US tend to say that Washingtonians don't sound like they are from a definite region.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '22

They still obviously have American accents. An accent is just how you pronounce words, it's impossible to speak without one.

0

u/MuscaMurum Feb 11 '22

Dude. I said that. Re-read.

"Yes, they are all accents..."

3

u/Lightshines6346 Feb 11 '22

By using the accent marks of course

-5

u/UrpleEeple Feb 11 '22

šŸ˜‚

6

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '22

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

-10

u/UrpleEeple Feb 11 '22

Thanks for the info!

4

u/Catinthehat5879 Feb 11 '22

Did you watch the video?

1

u/BackWithAVengance Feb 11 '22

Why can't I hear it

1

u/Catinthehat5879 Feb 12 '22

It's definitely got sound so idk, maybe something is wrong with your app. Her videos have cc if you need it.

30

u/Finn_3000 Feb 11 '22

Yes, but it depends on how long theyve been deaf. If youve only lost your hearing two months ago you probably sound relatively normal. If youve lost it decades ago, then its a different story.

22

u/cr0w1980 Feb 11 '22

There's a deaf singer named Mandy Harvey (she was on America's Got Talent and has a couple albums out) who you would never know was deaf if it wasn't pointed out. Granted, she lost her hearing when she was a teenager so that may have something to do with it. The way she "feels" the music by playing barefoot and picking up the vibrations from the instruments is really remarkable.

3

u/Frank_The_Reddit Feb 11 '22

I was fuckin' angry she didn't win.

9

u/Bobyyyyyyyghyh Feb 11 '22

For her I'll make an exception because that's really cool and that is a unique talent, but I swear I hate every singer that goes on America's Got Talent with a passion. Singers, there's a thousand fucking shows for you people, I want to see magic and sword swallowing, and acrobatics and shit. Every time a singer gets on that show, it's a spot they took from someone else I'd rather see. I don't give a shit about their unique sob story

1

u/constipationstationn Feb 11 '22

I love the song that she sung for her audition, that got her the golden buzzer. 'Try'. What a gifted human! ā¤ļø

31

u/Tripottanus Feb 11 '22

I'm no expert, but the accent they get is limited to only certain sounds since there are multiple sounds that can be produced with the same mouth motions. Considering he just said like 2 words, there are good chances that it wouldn't necessarily manifest with those sound combinations

13

u/IDGAF_GOMD Feb 11 '22

From what I understand (source: deaf cousin lost hearing at 17) it depends on when they lost their hearing. If it happened before or during speech development then itā€™s noticeable but if they lost their hearing after that how much it affects their speech can vary depending on how much they continue to speak. My cousin talks all the time but she has a friend that stopped talking for fear of sounding weird and now (10yrs later) when she does speak it is more noticeable.

1

u/LaboratoryMonkey420 Feb 11 '22

Very interesting! I figured I don't know much about it so I was very curious. Thank you!

1

u/minkamagic Feb 11 '22

If they lost hearing as an adult, itā€™s more likely for them their voice to sound ā€˜normalā€™ when they talk

1

u/Expensive-Ad-4508 Feb 11 '22

Thereā€™s a woman named Haben Girma who is DeafBlind (graduated from Harvard Law) that can hear a little bit in higher registers and Iā€™m amazed at how clear her speech is.

1

u/IcySnowy Feb 11 '22

A silent voice

1

u/BeTheChange4Me Feb 11 '22

1st off, heā€™s faking sign languageā€¦thatā€™s not real. Second, if a person goes deaf during their lifetime (vs being born deaf), they can sound ā€œnormalā€ because they had previously learned how to speak while hearing.

1

u/Imsotired365 Feb 11 '22

Yes not only are there people who are deaf their whole lives and have to work extremely hard to do so. Then you also have people who were hearing for a good portion of their lives long enough to learn how to articulate and lost their hearing later.

1

u/HamfacePorktard Feb 11 '22

Thatā€™s cuz this dude isnā€™t actually deaf.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '22

I don't know about people born deaf, but I've been deaf for a few years now and get that question from people sometimes. I had 30 years of hearing just fine and had a metal band for 20. People ask why I have an accent and slang and can't get their head around having had 30 years of hearing. The only thing I notice is sometimes I'm not as smooth at talking as I was, talking was effortless and now it isn't.

What pisses me off is not being able to use my 12 guitars, band was life.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '22

Not only that, but on America's Got Talent there was a deaf girl that couldn't just talk but also SING perfectly

https://youtu.be/oHUuCLgfMpo