AskReddit

Deaf people, whats something you thought made a sound that you then learned didn't?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1lvawsg/deaf_people_whats_something_you_thought_made_a/
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Discussion

sully_cookie

I volunteer to be an interpreter at a deaf school for events and I’ve worked with the same kid for over 2 years now and he recently got hearing aids. I yawned and he was very suprised it was quite silent. He imagined it would be an “AHHH” sound

15 hours ago
HueLord3000

omg i always wondered if deaf people just assumed yawning is screaming

13 hours ago
el3ph_nt

Generally, yes haha

12 hours ago
LetsTryAnal_ogy

I've also read they think the sun makes noise. Can you imagine a world where tired people walk around screaming and the sun buzzes like a jackhammer?

6 hours ago
Common_Vagrant

Well technically it does, but we’re lucky the vacuum of space doesn’t allow sound to travel or else it would be heard

5 hours ago
JeniJ1

TBF, some people do yawn loudly!

12 hours ago
aroaceautistic

I have a friend who fucking bellows all of his yawns

10 hours ago
JeniJ1

Is he my husband?

10 hours ago
environmental_damsel

Great, now you made me yawn!

10 hours ago
ChickenBeefOrFish

Watching flight attendants yawn must be interesting 🥹

11 hours ago
eagleface5

My cousin was one of those people that was absolutely sure the sun would make a sound. He was slightly relieved when he got his hearing aids, walked outside, and it was quiet lol

17 hours ago
Philthy42

https://youtu.be/Rvvsw21PgIk?si=l9u_p-Prdfuna2Mh

17 hours ago
Quaghan29

Knew what it was gonna be before opening it!!

16 hours ago
UlrichZauber

How about this one from NASA.

12 hours ago
HedgesLastCusser

Thought I knew what clip this was, I was not disappointed.

16 hours ago
wallaceant

Your cousin was correct, the sound of the sun would be deafening if the sound waves traveled through space. It is really loud, we just can't hear it due to the vacuum of space.

16 hours ago
DrQuestDFA

In space, no one can hear the sun scream.

15 hours ago
steel-souffle

It is, in fact, not the sound of a constant hydrogen bomb, but that of the Sun God being constantly tortured in the depth of the Sun while also being burned alive.

15 hours ago
SUPE-snow

And he likesit.

15 hours ago
J3OE

Ripley: "I can't find any milk for my coffee." Xenomorph: "In space, no one can. Here, use cream."

14 hours ago
Kymera_7

Technically, the Sun does make a sound, and a rather extremely loud one, too. We've just got some extremely highly effective soundproofing between us and it, in the form of a few hundred gigameters of extremely-low-density gas (the "vacuum" of space is never quite all the way perfect vacuum, having roughly 1 hydrogen atom worth of stuff per cubic meter in even the sparsest areas we can observe, and in the inner solar system is actually pretty far from perfect vacuum, but still plenty rarified enough to not conduct sound well).

16 hours ago
trubluevan

For me the sound of cicada calls is the sound of sun

13 hours ago
Willowed-Wisp

I actually thought it did as a kid and I'm not deaf. Turns out it was cicadas lol

But so many movies and shows have a shot of the blazing sun with cicadas in the background it just made sense!

9 hours ago
DottiePigs

Snow. I have a deaf friend who learnt rain and wind made sounds so just kind of assumed snow would too. She was shocked when we finally had snow and realised it didn’t make a sound falling. She did appreciate the sound stepping and crushing it makes at least!

17 hours ago
Mayhem370z

Funny enough when there is a ton of snow, outdoor ambience is all much quieter.

16 hours ago
Lathari

Heavy snowfall mimics sound insulation. Each individual snowflake saps a little bit of the energy in a sound wave and when the air is full of them the air itself turns cottony.

16 hours ago
AnneMarieWilkes

You describe this beautifully.

16 hours ago
iloveyourforeskin

Wow, that is so accurate! It does sound cottony. It's a very particular brand of silence.

8 hours ago
Missingpieceknight

This is my favorite part of snowy weather

12 hours ago
marmosetohmarmoset

Snow falling makes an anti-sound. Everything is quieter when it’s snowing. Somehow to me that means snow makes a sound— or at least there is a distinctive sound difference when snow is falling, if that makes sense?

16 hours ago
Souspi

I have always been able to tell when there's snow outside as soon as I wake up. The difference is sound with snow on the ground vs no snow is pretty distinct for me.

16 hours ago
amiritesofar

When enough snow falls, it does make sound! It’s a very soft ticking/popping that sounds like a muted step in “perfect for snowballs” snow.

It’s the snow compressing under the weight of what’s fallen.

(I understand that you mean it doesn’t make a “noise” but this is a neat little thing)

16 hours ago
NetDork

Sometimes you get that blizzard-y snow/sleet mix that sounds and feels like you're being sandblasted.

16 hours ago
TealTemptress

Wait until you get Wisconsin thunder snow. Fucking wild!

16 hours ago
Scoth42

Snow can definitely make a variety of sounds as it falls. Sometimes it's a sort of soft kind of white noise as it collects, sometimes it's a sort of ticking or brushing sound, sometimes it's almost a dull roar or rumble if it's hard enough. I've only gotten to experience it a few times but it's very peaceful.

16 hours ago
newmamamoon

My uncle is deaf. When he got his hearing aids for the first time he was shocked and confused that refrigerators make noise. He was also very shocked when he realised that Trees don't. He knew about wind and that wind made noise in the leaves, but he had thought that trees themselves made noise because he had read "sound of the trees" so many times. He said he had expected them to humm or vibrate.

20 hours ago
Missingsocks77

If you are in an old growth forest you will hear the trees sway and bend and crack.

19 hours ago
ferociouswhimper

I was hiking in the woods once and I heard what sounded like a huge round of fire crackers. It was so loud. It took me a second to realize it was the sound of a tree falling. I couldn't believe how much cracking and popping there was.

18 hours ago
Xanadu87

I had taken a family vacation to California’s Redwood Forest, and the sound of the little hard pinecones falling from 200 feet up make a startling loud pop when they hit the ground. I can’t imagine the sound of one of those falling over and smacking the ground

18 hours ago
Vetty81

At the trailer park we used to weekend at we were among very tall pine trees, and every year the green pinecones would become ballistic missiles dropping form 80ft up. They'd hit the roofs of the rvs or peoples sheds and it was a loud af BANG. First few times it was scary. You also learned to bring in anything you didn't want a hole in. They broke chairs and tiles and awnings. You also realize how assholish squirrels are.

15 hours ago
MatttheBruinsfan

You also realize how assholish squirrels are.

Trees with any kind of nut or seed pod in your yard will teach you this very quickly. Mine has a wide open space surrounded by trees and if I stand in it for very long walnuts or sweetgum balls will come "falling" into it regardless of wind direction.

14 hours ago
bluecrowned

We had an ice storm Jan 2024 which I didn't even know was a thing, everything got coated in an inch or more of ice and you could hear huge branches and even trees breaking all day long, it was honestly kind of terrifying

17 hours ago
bonaynay

oh yeah those storms fuck everything up, not many things hold up well with all that extra weight and torque

17 hours ago
OrangeDuckwebs

yes, I lived through one of these in Portland, OR (where it "DoEsN'T FrEeZe") and it sounded like World War I.

16 hours ago
Rdtackle82

But does it make a sound if you're not there!?

18 hours ago
Loo-Hoo-Zuh-Er

Right before the witch gets you.

18 hours ago
Analog0

Nonsense. There haven't been witches in these woods for a hundred y

17 hours ago
AgentChris101

Dear god....

17 hours ago
ten_tons_of_light

Serves him right. Everyone knows Reddit is no place for little 18th century german children to hang out

16 hours ago
Jestar342

I browse in dark mode specifically so I can't see people dressed in black on this site.

14 hours ago
steel-souffle

No, the Deer God is currently kept in a SCP facility.

15 hours ago
lnk_Eyes

They said witches, not Candle Jack. Witches wouldn't j

16 hours ago
eggs_erroneous

Oh my god. Fucking Candlejack. This is a meme that needs to d

15 hours ago
SerkalianCrow

This joke is so dumb, everyone knows Candlejack isn't r

14 hours ago
OneTripleZero

Classic blunder. You're supposed to say "his name", you know, like saying "He Who Must Not be Named" instead of Voldemort. If you actually say Candlejack you'll... oh shit wa

13 hours ago
Missingsocks77

Not if you are the witch! LOL

18 hours ago
upboat_consortium

There’s always a bigger…witch.

18 hours ago
choleon

...is she single?

17 hours ago
colin_staples

Rhubarb can grow so fast you can hear it

18 hours ago
Witty_Commentator

That was cool! Thank you!

16 hours ago
Raznill

You’ll hear this in a new growth forest too.

18 hours ago
w0mbatina

Also medium growth forest.

18 hours ago
catflavoredsoup

The downside of being in the medium growth forest is that you're at high risk of running across Mindy St. Claire looking for cocaine.

18 hours ago
ultrahateful

Ah, the middle growth forest; so easily forgotten.

18 hours ago
baldguytoyourleft

It's always Old Growth, Old Growth, Old Growth!!!

18 hours ago
Masseyrati80

Visiting an actual old growth forest is pretty magical. The moss, old man's beard and other things create a unique atmosphere and there's minimal echo, and noise doesn't travel as far.

17 hours ago
GordaoPreguicoso

That’s them deciding if you are an orc.

18 hours ago
Sinnedangel8027

Wind's howling

17 hours ago
cantantantelope

I’ve heard of quite a few deaf people expressing surprise that trees don’t make noise and I realize it makes me sound like a nut but it does make me suspicious. What do they know

19 hours ago
blue_strat

If you put your ear to them you might hear the water going up the xylem.

18 hours ago
AcceptableBird3311

That’s actually kinda beautiful the idea of trees humming feels like something out of a storybook wild how language shapes our senses like that

19 hours ago
TheGrumpyre

Hrum, hoom

17 hours ago
Wulfwyn01

Not completely deaf, just extremely hard of hearing

My older brother had me convinced for almost 40 years that silence wasn't actually quiet. He kept repeating the phrases "The sound of silence" & "Silence is deafening" and I was solidly convinced that there was no such thing as a moment with no noise

When I finally got my hearing aids, I learned really quickly what those phrases actually meant and I felt very dumb

15 hours ago
Fxckmattt

Silence is never silent for me. I have tinnitus

14 hours ago
DiscotopiaACNH

Yes, for me the sound of silence is "yeeeeeeee"

13 hours ago
iamapizza

Is it a high pitched one? I thought that was normal silence. 

13 hours ago
pinklavalamp

Ahh, welcome to the torment that is finally having a name for what you hear all the time (tinnitus), and realizing that it’ll never go away.

11 hours ago
Deckardspuntedsheep

Some people can hear their heart beat in their pillows. Also, a hell on earth

4 hours ago
DarePatient2262

I'm just now learning that that's not normal. I often hear my heartbeat in my pillow, though it kind of depends on how my head is resting on it.

3 hours ago
demonchee

That's what I thought too

13 hours ago
boardin1

I’m trying to save my kids from damaging their ears. They just don’t understand how annoying it is to NEVER have an actual moment of silence. Luckily mine isn’t too bad, just a constant, soft whistle/hum. I think that’s the best way to describe it.

12 hours ago
PresidentRex

There's not really a true silence a human could "hear" to experience, even ignoring tinnitus. In very quiet rooms without external sources, even autonomous bodily functions become clearly audible. You will hear your own heartbeat and gastrointestinal gurgles.

A vacuum doesn't help there either since the sound waves transmit through your body. Plus, exposing your ears to near-perfect vacuum will really hurt and potentially lead to an injured ear drum.

13 hours ago
InternationalTip3302

Definitely not dumb. How could you know? Especially with your brother messing with you.

14 hours ago
Music_Is_My_Muse

When it's too quiet, my ears ring, so for my silence absolutely has a sound.

14 hours ago
Basic-Remote-1053

My sister is Deaf, and got cochlear implants a few years ago.

She's also a jogger. She was very surprised to learn that her breasts don't make bouncing noises when she runs.

17 hours ago
BS_plantsinpurple

This is my favorite one. I’m trying to imagine noisy boobs now.

16 hours ago
nico87ca

For some reason If I had to come up with the sound they make it would be like a "boink" noise. Like hitting a buoy.

16 hours ago
aryablindgirl

In my head it’s a cartoon “bo-o-o—OING!” sound

14 hours ago
Satanic_Earmuff

Honestly, I'm surprised I haven't come across that as a subgenre online.

15 hours ago
madjic

There were these "sexy prank show" clips all over the internet 15 years ago

The "prank" was very often a womans breasts getting exposed and the lady acting as if nothing happened (while the pranked men didn't know how to handle the situation).

They used a common \boing** sound when the tits came out and I might have seen enough of those videos to associate that boing with boobies

15 hours ago
MooPig48

I remember a teacher of deaf students saying she had to get the class together and tell them people could hear them fart

16 hours ago
Flyingplaydoh

I was just thinking about that post

14 hours ago
heucrazy

You know why farts smell? So deaf people can think they are funny too.

11 hours ago
smedley89

Boing boing boing boing... lol

16 hours ago
PropagandaPagoda

It's so relateable that people with hearing also know the noise her boobs would make.

16 hours ago
Hexious

Depends on how much support you have, how big they are, and how fast you're jogging hahahaha

16 hours ago
Im__mad

slap, slap, slap, slap, slap

16 hours ago
grumpyoldbolos

You forgot the slightly mistimed one - slap, slap, slap, slorp, slap, slap

15 hours ago
lulugingerspice

ow ow ow ow ow MAH BOOBS

15 hours ago
Selmi_Cruz

I always thought butterflies made a fluttery sound when flying… turns out they’re silent little ninjas

10 hours ago
Quiet_Foot

I'm Deaf and while I have a lot of moments where I'm like, 'that makes noise?!' but I don't have a lot of moments that's the opposite.

However, just the other day, I was fiddling around with a printer's system, and I moved something, I figured it would make noise. I asked if it made noise. It did not. I was so confused.

I enjoy figuring what makes noise, what does not.

The conclusion? Y'all are living in a very noisy world.

14 hours ago
qat-21

But we grow accustomed to those “background” sounds and our brains have adjusted to tune them out. Something I’ve done since my early teens is to occasionally sit perfectly still and “stretch out” my hearing to count how many sounds I can hear. It’s amazing to find I’m filtering out distant traffic, a bird singing, or the hum of a fan.

11 hours ago
IZEDx

Unless you're autistic and that filter is weak, just randomly stops working sometimes or even doesn't work at all for some people.

10 hours ago
justlurkingnjudging

Lmao I was gonna say, my adhd ass does not do a very good job at filtering sound

7 hours ago
weelittlegoodstuff

My sister is deaf and a great lover of cats. One of my favorite things in the whole world is when she grabs my hand to place it on the ribs of a purring kitty. I don't know if she knows that a cat's purr can often be audible and honestly I'm not going to be the one to tell her; the joy she gets from the tactile sensation of a happy animal is absolute joy in it's purest form.

8 hours ago
BootsKingston

Beautiful. <3

3 hours ago
thelostandthefound

The variations in how loud cats purrs are always gets me. With my sister's cat you can't hear her purr unless you're quiet and listening for it. Whereas with my cat he sounds like a motor and you can hear him from the other room!

2 hours ago
dentalcrygienist

When I first got hearing aids I didn't realize I left my oven vent fan on for months at a time, also didn't realize my kitten was so talkative! 😭

14 hours ago
Schnauzermoon

Aww. That's so cute! I bet it was wonderful to hear your little companion!

12 hours ago
blarch

The cat was probably tired of hearing the fan

10 hours ago
ComeCloser2000

OMG I spit out my coffee reading this

10 hours ago
softpinkmanicure

This made me smile. I’m curious to know what you thought when you heard your kitty for the first time!

9 hours ago
PineappleOnPizzaWins

Did you kitten bat at you lots?

Cats only meow at humans because it gets our attention - otherwise they stop it once they grow out of being kittens (they meow for their mothers attention). I've seen a few videos of cats with deaf owners and they learn really quick to jump into their eyeline or use their paws to get their attention.

Of course my little void does the same thing if I'm not quick enough to respond to her vocal demands... nothing like watching a movie and saying "one sec I'll feed you after this ends" and getting a cat jumping onto your chest to block your view.

5 hours ago
FinePreference2590

I am deaf myself. I have been wearing hearing aids since I was 18 months old. Every time, I get new hearing aids I find a few things that I never knew they made a sound.

A couple of examples:

When I was in my early 20’s, I didn’t know moving my hair away from my hearing aid made a sound. The wind whistling while driving or my dog’s tag hitting the car window.

When I was in my mid 20s, I got new hearing aids. I was shocked to discover air conditioning makes a noise when they start blowing. I never knew this.

13 hours ago
get_hi_on_life

I heard one where the person didn't realize ppl knocked on the front door. She just thought it was magic or crazy luck that someone would be there when her mom opened the front door.

18 hours ago
derpiotaku

About 10 years ago, I had a neighbor who was deaf. She showed my friend and I her doorbell setup.
She had a doorbell, but instead of making a sound, it flickered the lights in a certain pattern.

17 hours ago
xop293

My sister in law has a deaf pig at her pig rescue. She also found a dj light, the kind that spins with four different colored bulbs, at a thrift store. Now that light is the signal for Henry to come eat. It's pretty cute, he gets so excited it's like his song just came on at the club.

16 hours ago
unevolved_panda

I used to dogsit for a deaf Great Dane. His people had used signs (not ASL signs or anything, just specific gestures) to teach him commands. The gesture for "come here" was jazz hands.

15 hours ago
black-shepherd-333

The hand sign for my deaf dog to come here is the ASL sign for milk.

13 hours ago
passifloran

Are you saying your milk(hand)shake brings the boys to the yard?

12 hours ago
CatgutStitches

Brings the good boys in from the yard

12 hours ago
nom_of_your_business

This made me happy. Thanks

16 hours ago
TwistedDragon33

Growing up i had a friend who had a deaf father. Their doorbell made noise for everyone else in the house but it also triggered this weird mallet thing in a few areas that hit very hard on the floor a few times making a very muffled "thud". But it was hard enough and there were enough of them you could feel the thud from almost anywhere in the house. Thinking back a light probably would have worked much better.

16 hours ago
PropagandaPagoda

I kind of dig the thud. It just sounds so insane to invent/install.

16 hours ago
TwistedDragon33

It reminded me of a powered foot pedal for a drum set.

16 hours ago
SleepWouldBeNice

Reminds me of me: I grew up in a very rural area, no restaurants of any sort near by. The first time I was at a friend’s house in the city (I was about 6) and they had pizza delivered, kind of blew my mind.

17 hours ago
Pinkbeans1

I grew up poor. I didn’t have pizza delivered until my 20’s. It was amazing.

16 hours ago
aceshearts

She was never with someone who knocked on a door?

18 hours ago
get_hi_on_life

Might not know the knock made a noise, or was a door bell and just thought it was a button not stating a chime

17 hours ago
AntGood1704

But never seen a movie, tv show, video where someone knocks on a door and then the person inside reacts?

16 hours ago
mrshulgin

It's definitely the sort of thing that sounds baffling to adults, but I can totally see a kid not making that connection despite all of the information being there.

12 hours ago
little-billie

lol that’s kind of sweet

18 hours ago
No-Shape7764

My neighbour got an implant in his teens. Someone had previously told him that a fire makes a crackling sound, and for some reason he assumed that water would make the same sound. 

11 hours ago
SubAussie_

My older brother is deaf and once he got his hearing aids he called me freaking out because he had no idea that wind passing through the leaves on tree made noise of any kind so he assumed that he was having a problem with the hearing aids he was not obviously and it was hilarious having to tell him what the noise actually was

1 day ago
Sajiri

I find it interesting how the top two comments are about a deaf person who was surprised that trees dont make sound, and another deaf person surprised they do make sound.

I know one is about the wind passing through leaves, but still

18 hours ago
lightyearbuzz

I know what you meant, but you just wrote the same thing twice lol

17 hours ago
IAMA_Shark__AMA

As a person with significant hearing loss, I love "outside" mode on my hearing aids, because it dulls wind noise. Nature is so loud 😭

17 hours ago
Willing_Ear_7226

Fucking same! I just thought wind was an invisible thing we only noticed by its effects 😂

22 hours ago
ManyAreMyNames

In college there was a guy in my class who had been deaf and got implants, and was surprised that electric light bulbs don't make noise. He'd just assumed that they would.

15 hours ago
Cheese_Pleasurer

Some do, the ambient bzzzzzzzzzzzz. God I hate that noise

11 hours ago
soup-creature

Fluorescent lighting :/

9 hours ago
MoonieNine

I didn't realize that birds were so goddamned noisy until I got hearing aids.

14 hours ago
GodotNeverCame

Fucking SAME. OH MY GOD.

13 hours ago
FuckThisShizzle

Erections don't creak??

17 hours ago
Broad-Ad-2938

They don’t creak at all. But you know those batons that you flip on way and it goes “euuuugh” and then flip the other way and it goes “eeeuuugh”? That’s what it sounds like when you switch positions during sex.

17 hours ago
Secret_Bees

Like a wombat swallowed a slide whistle

15 hours ago
DrDingsGaster

r/brandnewsentence

12 hours ago
VampireGirl99

I can hear this comment.

13 hours ago
MiIllIin

Feels like most people don’t understand the question 😭 

21 hours ago
IAMA_Shark__AMA

I just don't think there are a lot of good answers to this. I know what makes noise that I can't hear because I see other people react to noise. If something doesn't make noise and I can't hear it, why would I assume it makes noise if no one else indicates that? The question is coming from a hearing perspective that doesn't reflect the hearing impaired experience (for the most part). The first time I got hearing aids I didn't have a single "I thought that made noise, but it's silent" moment. I had countless "wait, that makes noise?!" moments.

17 hours ago
jcforbes

Holy shit why are so many people so bad at reading?

18 hours ago
Scyxurz

The opposite question gets asked a lot so I'm assuming people are jist reading the first 2 words and assuming it's the same question. Wild that not a single comment so far has actually responded to the question though.

18 hours ago
jcforbes

The top comment when I got here was the right way around, the uncle shocked that trees don't make noise

18 hours ago
YetMoreSpaceDust

"Literate people, what's something that you read and didn't pay attention to at all before you answered it?"

16 hours ago
ImportantBalls666

Deaf here (since birth). I had the opposite happen: when I got my most recent hearing aids a couple of years ago, I heard myself pee for the first time. I went 40-something years having zero clue that pee makes a sound when it comes out until that moment lol. 

16 hours ago
NicoBuilds

Not a deaf person, and this might be absolutely fake, its something I read some time ago. There was deaf guy that somehow got his hearing back, and he imagined the sun making noise.

Still, might be 100% false, but I think it was an interesting story.

1 day ago
Shape-Trend2648

Well it does in movies when people are lost in the desert

22 hours ago
MadMusicNerd

When I get heatstroke, there is this tingling in my ears. Heat induced Tinnitus.

I think the directors want to show this feeling when they let the sun make noise in the movies.

22 hours ago
Strovanoski

How often are you getting heatstroke?

19 hours ago
Bonkiousious OP

I heard this story too! its why i wanted to hear others storys of weird things like this.

1 day ago
-UltraFerret-

I mean... it probably does if you're close enough to it.

1 day ago
HellBlazer_NQ

I also remember reading this one, I believe it was a post similar to this one on reddit a few years back.

21 hours ago
Action-a-go-go-baby

I have ready every single comment at this point, 95 responses, and I believe a single one of them actually read what OP asked

Remarkable reading comprehension Reddit, truly exceptional

17 hours ago
BlackHawkKenny

Point me to the single one that really answers the question!

17 hours ago
hoffdog

It was the sun I believe

17 hours ago
Small_Stress6773

I (not in a weird way) like the one where his sister thought her boobs would make a bouncing noise as she ran😂 that and the sun is the only one I’ve seen😂😂

15 hours ago
Left-River-6582

Not deaf myself, but a deaf friend once told me they were shocked to learn that sunrises don’t make sound. They thought that, like in movies, the world plays music when something beautiful happens.

15 hours ago
baldinbaltimore

I’m not deaf, but I do have hearing loss. I lived with it for a long time before I finally got hearing aids, and I didn’t realize how much I was missing. What surprised me most was just how loud the world really is. Everyday sounds I’d forgotten or never fully heard before suddenly came alive. For example, when I went for a walk, I was amazed by how many birds were chirping all around me. Even the crunch of gravel under my shoes and the rustle of leaves in the breeze seemed almost overwhelming at first. It made me realize how much my brain had learned to filter out or simply accept as silence.

18 hours ago
Beltalady

My mom has ADHD and hearing loss runs in the family. She refuses to get hearing aids because it's nice and peaceful for her. (She used to work in a very noisy environment.)

17 hours ago
funkybirdie

Absolutely this!! I’m not deaf but significantly impaired until I had a BAHA implant. I just forgot sounds for 29 years. Birds were the most beautiful sound to relearn! It was quite overwhelming at first and initially I only wore it a few hours at a time.

18 hours ago
Willing_Ear_7226

Heyyy! I have a BAHA too! The overwhelmingness of how loud the world is for about a week after you first start wearing it gave me constantly headaches.

17 hours ago
Bradddtheimpaler

Reminds me of when I got my glasses. I only have astigmatism, so my vision isn’t really debilitating, just can’t make out lots of detail and things are blurry, so when I was a kid I just decided not to wear them. Only things I had problems with were street signs or if they’d show someone’s text messages or an email or something in a tv show or movie. Getting glasses again in my twenties I felt like I was on mushrooms or something; I couldn’t stop staring at the texture of the wood on my fence when I got home. I probably just stared at it for like ten straight minutes.

17 hours ago
ruby--moon

This was me when I saw the night sky with my glasses for the first time!! I didn't get glasses until I was 17, just never knew that I needed them because I thought the way that I was seeing was normal. I never complained to my parents or anything like that, and like you said, it was mostly just blurry, so I just didn't realize that other people were seeing way more detail than I did. I could (obviously) see the moon and stars, but it was just never clear, edges were never crisp, everything was bright but blurry. The first time I saw the moon and stars with glasses on, my mind was absolutely blown. I didn't know that being able to see it that clearly was even a thing and really just never even put any thought into it because I didn't realize there was any problem with my sight. It was so nuts to me that I could like, see each individual star clearly instead of seeing them as just blurry blobs. I still think about it sometimes when I look up at night!

15 hours ago
belltrina

I don't wear my hearing aid because everything being so loud was stressing me the fuck out. It wasn't helping me hear things, because everything was loud, so i still couldn't differentiate.

I was told to wear it non stop to get used to the new sounds, my brain was learning to differentiate apparently. But my brain was also interpreting stuff as conversation or words, when it was just the fish tank or 3d printer sounds. I knew it was not worse or conversation, but it wouldn't stop and I couldn't handle it.

I do remember being amazed by how much birds sang. I do miss that.

17 hours ago
UnfortunateSyzygy

My gf is like this. We finally convinced her to get hearing aids bc while she thought her hearing was normal, she couldn't understand normal speaking voices (she's worked in middle/high schools for 20+ years so ... that level of noise is her default).

She haaaaaaates her hearing aids bc they don't discriminate against sounds. Everything is at basically the same level and it's more input than she wants. She wears them like 1/2 the time we're at home and recognizes their utility at work and when she's alone with the baby, but otherwise she absolutely will try to fake her way through understanding conversations w/ her hearing aids out haha

18 hours ago
fightshade

If you watch babies when they are outside or anywhere there is “ambient noise” you’ll start to realize how much noise you’ve been filtering out as you watch them react to the noises.

17 hours ago
tface23

I worked in a school for deaf kids. One of the teachers had to explain to her class of 10 year olds that yes, farts make noise.

19 hours ago
MamaDMZ

You know some of those kids were like 😳 thinking back on all the farts in front of people

18 hours ago
coffeecatmint

I’ve had a lot of deaf friends over the years. This is a common problem lol

18 hours ago
CaptainAwesome06

I have a friend that can't smell. When we were in college, we were in a busy study room, He got up, farts, and proceeds to walk around the room. I yelled out, "you're going to trail it around the room!" His response was, "they trail?!"

He went 20-something years without knowing this important info as he crop dusted everybody for the last 2 decades.

18 hours ago
eeviltwin

There was a friend years ago who I had a major crush on, until we were dared to make out one night at a party and they had really bad breath. 🤮

They’ve now been married many years to another friend from that group who has no sense of smell. I guess there really is someone for everyone…

17 hours ago
platinumarks

I think most of us have friends that can smell

17 hours ago
jcforbes

But that is the opposite of the question...

18 hours ago
Early_Yesterday443

Funny that not a single deaf person made it to the comment section

18 hours ago
nachosquid

I'm single & deaf 🤷🏼‍♀️

17 hours ago
bigtexasrob

no blind dates then?

16 hours ago
ThaOneGuyy

They probably didn't hear about it..

18 hours ago
nikkibic

There are a lot more discovered noises, than thinking something made a noise but didn't.

23 hours ago
plunfa

That's probably why OP asked this question, because we hear much more about what people found out make noises, so they are probably curious about the lesser-known stuff

18 hours ago
Action-a-go-go-baby

Literally no one read the question

18 hours ago
nogzila

I grew up with 2 deaf siblings . 1 of them went deaf when he was 13 from Scarlett fever so he knew the sounds but after 27 years he forgot.

He got bi-lateral cochlear implants after being 97 percent deaf for 27 years .

He didn’t know or forgot that cabinets make noises he opened and closed one squeaky cabinet for 10 mins .

He forgot about the birds chirping , he sit outside one morning in awe of all the sounds being made by the birds .

After getting them put in which is a process it wasn’t instant because they have to be tuned for months and it’s almost too much to take at first . He would wear them for a few hours then take them off . He said it sounded like a speak and spell from the 70s / 80s at first . After about 6 months he gained up to 85 percent word recognition and hearing .

I don’t think he ever said he thought something made a sound that didn’t , but he was able to hear for the first 13 years of his life .

It was more he forgot certain things made sounds because he didn’t have to deal with them for so long .

18 hours ago
stonedsand-_-

I've heard a lot of dead people think the sun has a sound.

17 hours ago
Gnomemann

Do you often speak with the dead?

16 hours ago
stonedsand-_-

On occasion

16 hours ago
BaconReceptacle

I hear dead people.

16 hours ago
HumpieDouglas

I remember reading a post years ago about how these guys when they were in junior high told their deaf buddy that your body made a sound when you get an erection and all the girls would hear it. He was freaked out. That's pretty messed up but still funny.

7 hours ago
MqAbillion

Not deaf, but worked with a deaf person (from birth) who had schizophrenia. They said they could hear their auditory hallucinations. What does that even mean?

Still blows my mind years later.

22 hours ago
nachosquid

I have profound hearing loss. I also have schizoeffective disorder. Whenever I'm not sure if what im hearing is real, I take off my hearing aids. If I still hear it, it's not real.

Being essentially deaf really does help with differentiating real from hallucinations. Prior to getting my hearing aids it was...scary.

17 hours ago
Willing_Ear_7226

It's actually not uncommon for deaf people. Especially after removing a hearing aid for the day, the lack of input in brain can cause auditory hallucinations.

He would've had more though being schizophrenic.

22 hours ago
curlofthesword

Actual deaf person, whose hearing aids were shit for a long time:

  • fingertips touching things (pressure doesn't always translate? Weird)

  • wind blowing through hedges or bushes (I thought it would be like, some kind of botanical screaming match. Not so!)

  • cats walking (they are actually really quiet?)

  • water pouring (it makes noise when it hits things, it doesn't itself)

  • buttons on the TV remote (may be model specific?)

  • that thing that holds flyscreen doors open, with the tube and the longer narrower tube, I always felt like I was announcing myself when the door opened because that thing made noise, and then I found out they were hearing the door ITSELF rattle

  • changing the channel on the TV (it looks like it SHOULD make a noise, like FLIP or THWIP or something)

  • stretching rubber bands, hair bands, etc (they look and feel like they should, but no? Weird)

  • rubbers/erasers don't make noise when you use them?? (I always felt like I was loudly announcing I MADE A MISTAKE when I used one in class, but no!)

  • plugging/unplugging things, when I discovered there really was no mechanical sound to indicate you'd successfully connected/seated a powerplug I was infuuuuuriated, how is there not a noise for that??

  • similarly, when plugs slipped out of jacks, like back in the modem days, or when my Ethernet slips loose enough to interfere with my connection. How is there no alert or something like 'beep beep check here first'? Baffling

  • braiding hair, I thought it would make a lot more noise than it actually did

I'll come back with more as I think of them.

2 hours ago