Having all five senses is a miracle. So many of us take all of what we view as the "smallest things" for granted. Not being able to hear is a gift many are given and some are are not. And the hearing impaired community has come such a long way in their ability to living extraordinary lives. And science has come quite the distance in giving the deaf the ability to hear. When one who has been without sound first hears, it's an astonishing moment.
Redditor u/appleraju wanted hear all the wonderful things people who can now hear experience by asking.... People who were born deaf but gained hearing later in life, what objects did you expect to make noise?
Shout!
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I had a child friend that gained hearing and she didn't realize you could control the volume of your voice.
So when I whispered to hear she said, hang on I think I need to adjust my hearing aid. At first I just thought oh it mustn't be working, until I realized what was going on. She whispered to me for about two weeks solid just to practice :D :D :D
Yes she also practiced shouting, but we did that in secluded woodlands.
X0AN
A Woof is Loud.
My cousin was born deaf and went through an operation to recover part of his hearing when he was 12. He sometimes uses hearing aids but can get by without them in general.
His family had a bunny, Tupu. Of course he had learned about cows mooing, cats meowing etc. before he had his surgery. He was very shocked when he came home and greeted his bunny that it made no sound. It took the longest time for him to understand that bunnies are pretty quiet animals in general.
He explained he thought all pets were loud.
RottenCactus
The radiators rattle...
My old roommate in NYC got implants at... I think he was 25 or 26... he was shocked that the radiators in the house didn't make noise... he could feel them, and was absolutely sure, given their shaking and vibrating from time to time, that they were going to be quite noisy.
On the flipside, he was deeply annoyed by the buzz of fluorescent lighting, which he did not expect to make noise.
firefly212
Blinks....
Well, after the cochlear implant, I started hearing a lot of things that I never knew existed. But, here are a few things I thought would make a noise, but NOPE. (edit to clarify this)
- I expected the light bulbs to hiss or flickering sound when you turn them on. I was so disappointed.
- I thought you could hear your eyes close, "blink" but there is no sound when you close your eye lids. No whoosh.
- You know how wind makes a noise going through trees? I thought it would make more noises going through hair. Nope.
- Now I could hear soft sounds, but I still get spooked when I see a bug crawling, and I don't hear it. They don't make a noise. at. all.
- Pooping does not make a sound, only the splash into the toilet. I thought the body makes a noise to push it out. I was disappointed. archcity
The Flower's Beauty....
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Seems like everyone is answering the reverse. My friend was got his hearing at age 6. He swears to this day that he thought flowers would make some sort of noise and that's what attracted bees.
Golden_Moth
Love Making....
A former coworker went to RIT, where they've got a school for the deaf. In the summer time, hearing all the deaf students loudly having sex with the windows open because they didn't realize how loud they were was one of the funniest things about going there accd to him.
nitsky416
Chew Quiet.
Not me, my good friend who's hard of hearing told me about how before he got hearing aids, he thought that all fridges made a beeping sound (like an alarm) when you open them so the house knows when you're getting something.
Turns out his mom just told him that to stop him from eating all their snacks.
stitchpuke
"secret noise."
My daughter suffered from recurring ear infections, that went on for over a year, before I could get the doctors to push for tubes in her ears. I felt that she was either unable to hear or that it was very muffled. The doctor that placed the tubes confirmed my suspicions in stating that she most likely heard noise as though she was "under water."
I cannot attest to what EXACTLY she expected to make noise, but I still tear up when I think about her face as she re-explored the entire house with renewed fascination. I can however, give my subjective opinion based on her facial expressions- the thing that sticks out the most is the refrigerator. She was in awe over the humming noise that it makes, a noise that we often tune out because we are so accustomed to it.
As she focused on that appliance for a bit, she made her way around to everything else that was large and stood in front of it, as if she was expecting everything to have its own "secret noise." I can't say for sure, but the amount of time that she stayed with her face pressed up against the inactive washing machine and dryer, leads me to believe with almost certainty, that she was expecting those to hum and whir as well. At her age, you wouldn't expect her to make a correlation between similarly sized appliances, but I'll be damned if it didn't appear that way.
mlball315
Damn Kids.
Hmmm, again obligatory not me but my dad progressively went deafer as life went on and was almost 100% deaf by around age twenty. He got a cochlear implant when I was around seven years old, put them in, asked my mom "are the kids always this damn loud?" and proceeded to take the cochlear implant off so he didn't have to listen to my little brother and I yelling. Always thought that was funny.
bojanglesround2
Choo-Choo....
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I couldn't hear until I was around 4ish. I remember being surprised trains were relatively quiet for their size.
MessageDarren
Most trains are loud as hell in my experience.
goombalsded
