Repeat your name please

One of the most frustrating things about hearing impairment is that you can't distinguish the consonants that are so important in speech intelligibility. It's not a big deal that I can't always tell whether the Wheel of Fortune contestant is asking Vanna to show them a T or P, N or M, S or F. But it gets irritating and stupid when I call somebody by the wrong name because I didn't hear the first letter clearly. For a long time I thought the name of the cute blonde on Star Trek was Tess, as in Dick Tracy's girlfriend. Remember Tess Trueheart? Nope, it's Kes. If you live or work with a hearing impaired person who seems slow to respond to you, it may be that they are trying to figure out what you said so they don't give a goofy response.