Masks/Sainsburys

[jennyjoan]

Earlier on I was in Sainsburys - around 8.30pm or 9 so it was fairly empty. Picked up about 4 items and sorta went straight to a girl who didn't seem to have any customers. She was wearing a mask and I was too. As I was putting my items on the counter - the assistant said a man wanted me.

I turned and a foreign man wearing a mask was flailing his hands and obviously saying something behind the mask and pointing to his trolley. I was pretty like upset and asked the assistant did she know what he was saying - she said he was saying I jumped the queue.

Genuinely I never saw him but obviously he must have been up an aisle - out of sight of me - I loaded my items back to the basket and stood back.

Now this face covering is beginning to get me down, so I am going to have a badge saying I lipread. Even when the young lads (assistants) were helping me - they'd masks and one of them couldn't understand what I was saying - I had to apologise for having a speech impediment and then he was able to show me the item.

I came out very upset at something that wasn't even my doing.

[MartinMillar]

Can I ask a daft question?
How do you manage on the phone because previously you say you lip read but have long conversations with someone in Australia but the. Say you can’t phone your bank because you’re deaf.
Just curious tell me to mind my own if you want

[jennyjoan]

Martin - I only speak to friends on the phone so I can relax and feel free for them to repeat and repeat until I get the conversation right. Many minutes are used for them to try and spell words out for me.

That's also the reason I don't speak to the hierarchy as when I get very nervous my hearing goes down rapidly to nil. All I hear is "gibberish".

Last audiology test I went for - lady put headphones on and I was to repeat the words some gentleman was saying. So I started saying what I "heard". After the 10 words were up - I said how many did I get right - she said "none" and I am putting you down for a cochlear implant to which I refused.

I hope that helps with you understanding my "type" of deafness.

I get friends, neighbour and family to make those calls to banks.

At the moment I am trying to get a Post Office account (joint). I've got a wonderful lady who makes the calls to head office Post Office. I was so grateful to her and appreciate that she took the time off her job to make the calls at her place of work (PO). I hope the above satisfies you Martin. Please ask if you want to know more.

[jennyjoan]

martin - this is a reply from Sqad last year and a return post from myself.

Jenny....I have looked, but cannot find the one to which you are referring.
However....you need more than sound levels to understand what people are saying you need speech appreciation ( speech discrimination).....in simple terms, if you cannot understand what people are saying there is not much point in speech volume.Sound(noise)is mainly appreciated in the low tones, but speech discrimination (understanding) is usually provided by vowels, which are in the high tones.

NOW....many nerve deafness's are in the high tones much more than the lower tones which means that sound is fine, but discrimination (speech) is poor.

Simply put........you can hear them talking, but you cannot understand what they are saying.

Is that simple explanation helpful?

13:13 Tue 04th Jun 2019
Avatar Image jennyjoanQuestion Author
very well - thanks Sqad - I mean that's what I mean friends just simply cannot comprehend my deafness. I can't hear people in the car talking and friends are saying "sure I'm talking loud".

Only 2 very old friends understand. I am going to print out your post - thanks again.

[MartinMillar]

Jj thank you for the explanation I still don’t fully understand but perhaps that is my issue

[pixie374]

We have a client, where it's the tone she can't hear, rather than volume... so it takes some practice to get it right.

[Mamyalynne]

I think Sqad made an excellent point about the complexity of hearing, I have extremely good hearing perhaps as compensation for lack elsewhere.

If I am on the phone and something is going on in the background of the caller ,I seem to switch to that and the person speaking fades into the background - guess it's to do with pitch and tone.

[anneasquith]

The main issue is jj, she has difficulty hearing, made worse in this time where people are being advised to wear face coverings .