Complaining about Complaining

Before you laugh like my husband did, yes, I understand how ironic it is that I am complaining about complaining.

There is a girl in my sign language class who complains non-stop about everything. You name it! The teacher signed too fast. She only fingerspells the word once on the quiz. She spelled the word wrong. She won't tell us what our grade is (hey, genius, why don't you add up the points you've already gotten and divide it by the points available and multiply by 100?).

And it isn't just random whining or complaining. She gets adamant about it.

Mind you, we're not actually *in* the sign program yet. We've all applied and we're waiting to find out. We are in the last prerequisite sign class and we need a B or better to even be eligible for the program.

Last night, I almost told her to just stop whining already. My mouth was open and ready to fire when I stopped myself. If we both get into the program, we will spend the next four years together. FOUR YEARS.

That thought alone makes me debate waiting another year to apply. Four years is a long time.

And she complains right in front of the teacher which is unbelievably rude. Why is that rude? Because the teacher is Deaf. She can't hear what the girl is saying. But does this student even attempt to sign her concerns to the teacher or to communicate in some way? No. Of course not. That would take away her ability to whine.

Imagine if you are in a room of people. All of them know basic English. All of them are proficient in a language you do not understand. They all start speaking this language. That is rude enough. Now imagine they are speaking ill of you.

Even if she didn't whine and complain, the fact that she would speak about a Deaf person in her presence without signing (when she knows sign!) is enough to let me know I do not want to spend the next 4 years studying ASL and Deaf culture with her.

I'm done whining. For now.