American Deaf Culture

American Hearing Culture

Farewell, prolonged farewells are considered polite. Short and abrupt departures are considered rude.

Farewell, short farewells are typical in hearing culture. Long farewells are not common.

Introductions, when introducing a person, it is considered acceptable and polite to provide background details and share personal stories.

Introduction, when introducing a person, information is often limited to the person’s name and relation to the person doing the introduction.

Eye contact, direct eye contact is considered polite. Lack of eye contact is considered rude and indicates a lack of listening.

Eye contact, direct eye contact is acceptable for short periods of time, but extensive eye contact is considered rude or appears as if one is staring.

Pointing, the use of pointing in ASL replaces pronouns. Pointing is also considered acceptable when discussing objects or people in the room.

Pointing, the use of pointing in hearing culture is considered rude, especially when pointing to people.

Food in mouth, communicating with food in one’s mouth is not considered rude.

Food in mouth, communicating with food in one’s mouth is considered rude.

Money, discussion of money and salaries are considered normal.

Money, discussion of money, salaries, and other financial information is considered private and is generally not shared with others.

Punctuality, punctuality is not typically expected. In fact, there is often a saying, Deaf Standard Time, to explain tardiness.

Punctuality, punctuality is expected.

Personal questions, Deaf culture tends to “overshare” as a means of getting information to understand the world around them and thus personal questions such as “how much weight have you gained”, “why did you get a divorce?” are considered normal.

Personal questions, Hearing culture involves keeping most information private. Questions about one’s personal life (e.g. marriage, divorce, weight gain) are considered rude.

Attention getting, Deaf culture relies on the visual modality, and thus attention getting behaviors cater to visual or kinetic sensory systems. Appropriate behaviors include tapping on shoulders, waving arms, stomping on the floor, banging on surfaces that create vibrations, and short loud verbal noises.

Attention, To get attention, hearing people use vocal methods such as calling one’s name. They often do not incorporate touch to get attention and avoid the use of touch for that purpose.