S30: Nina Poersch

[Donny Ketchum]

Hi.  I'm the second-ever deaf contestant.

[cherrypj]

All right; I've got to root for Nina. Hope she's a little less naive than Christy.

[Special K]

Wow.  She seems like an actual, thoughtful person.

[cherrypj]

She sure didn't handle herself well in the second episode. That's too bad.

 

One thing to remember, she lost her hearing at 44. If she's now 51, she's only had seven years to get used to it. It's one thing to be born deaf, or lose your hearing at a very young age. It's another to be hearing all your life and then lose it. I can see why she's so sensitive about it. Survivor's not the game for it, though.

[Gianthambeast]

I wish the ladies had cut her a little more slack.  Hope this doesn't turn into another  Christi vs. mean girls situation. 

[Donny Ketchum]

And here I was thinking she'd be a better deaf contestant than Christy.  Silly me.

[kikaha]

Colossal screwup on Nina's part this episode.  Will was completely on her and Vince's side.  Now she is a sitting duck.  

[ratgirlagogo]

 

One thing to remember, she lost her hearing at 44. If she's now 51, she's only had seven years to get used to it.

I worked with two people who got cochlear implants in middle age and while they were both very glad to have the implant, both said it's really a difficult adjustment since what you hear SOUNDS very different than what you hear with your natural hearing.  Our brains just naturally sort out what we hear through our natural hearing, and can't make the same kind of sense out of the electronic hearing, so you spend a lot of time kind of consciously identifying what you're hearing through the implant.  I don't mean just filtering out ambient/background noise, but just identifying different voices, sounds etc.  Your lifetime of sound memories are not always helpful to you.

 

Living on a beach with a bunch of strangers would seem to be a pretty big challenge, I'd think.  I'd be stressed out too but agree she's not helping her game any by displaying her frustration.

 

Edited to add:  I'd also think that ocean swimming might be kind of iffy for her, plus she needs to be more careful than most about getting bumped in the head.

Edited March 5, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[Special K]

Does anyone know how she lost her hearing?

[RedheadZombie]

Having lost her hearing only seven years ago, Nina has advantages and disadvantages when compared to someone deaf since birth.  One of the advantages is her speech is perfect.  One of the disadvantages is she would have minimal lip reading abilities.  I think her biggest disadvantage has to be water challenges.  She has to do them with the cochlear implants out, and probably without her glasses.  So she'll be absent one sense, and diminished in another.

 

I have a cousin a little bit younger than Nina who was born deaf.  The deaf community is very tight and insular.  Americans born deaf collect social security for life, and some (like my cousin) live off of this income, rather than going out and working in the hearing world.  Cochlear implants are still somewhat controversial with older people in the deaf community.  They feel they were born perfect, and cochlear implants are considered almost disfiguring.  They don't feel they need to be fixed.  So Nina would not be a natural fit in this community.   And since it sounds like she's an advocate for cochlear implants, she might be unwelcome in that community.

 

I also have a deaf uncle, and very hard of hearing mother.  Like Nina, they often pretend to understand what's going on rather than repeatedly saying, "what, what did you say".  My mom is very sensitive to people impatient with her hearing, and I noticed Jenn practically rolling her eyes at Nina.  The hearing often feel like the deaf are selectively deaf.  But there are some voices that are easier to hear than others, as well as certain words.  They also have to remember that the implant doesn't just amplify the voice of the person talking to you.  It amplifies everything - birds chirping, waves in the water, the wind, as well as every other scraping, scratching, creaking, sound in the environment.  It can be overwhelming as well as over-stimulating.

[cherrypj]

Like Nina, they often pretend to understand what's going on rather than repeatedly saying, "what, what did you say".  My mom is very sensitive to people impatient with her hearing, and I noticed Jenn practically rolling her eyes at Nina.  The hearing often feel like the deaf are selectively deaf. But there are some voices that are easier to hear than others, as well as certain words. They also have to remember that the implant doesn't just amplify the voice of the person talking to you. It amplifies everything - birds chirping, waves in the water, the wind, as well as every other scraping, scratching, creaking, sound in the environment. It can be overwhelming as well as over-stimulating.

 

Absolutely true. It's hard to relay this information, however, to someone who's not deaf or hard of hearing. I wouldn't know what it's like to be blind, no matter how long someone tried to explain.

[Kromm]

Having lost her hearing only seven years ago, Nina has advantages and disadvantages when compared to someone deaf since birth.  One of the advantages is her speech is perfect.  One of the disadvantages is she would have minimal lip reading abilities.  I think her biggest disadvantage has to be water challenges.  She has to do them with the cochlear implants out, and probably without her glasses.  So she'll be absent one sense, and diminished in another.

 

I have a cousin a little bit younger than Nina who was born deaf.  The deaf community is very tight and insular.  Americans born deaf collect social security for life, and some (like my cousin) live off of this income, rather than going out and working in the hearing world.  Cochlear implants are still somewhat controversial with older people in the deaf community.  They feel they were born perfect, and cochlear implants are considered almost disfiguring.  They don't feel they need to be fixed.  So Nina would not be a natural fit in this community.   And since it sounds like she's an advocate for cochlear implants, she might be unwelcome in that community.

 

I also have a deaf uncle, and very hard of hearing mother.  Like Nina, they often pretend to understand what's going on rather than repeatedly saying, "what, what did you say".  My mom is very sensitive to people impatient with her hearing, and I noticed Jenn practically rolling her eyes at Nina.  The hearing often feel like the deaf are selectively deaf.  But there are some voices that are easier to hear than others, as well as certain words.  They also have to remember that the implant doesn't just amplify the voice of the person talking to you.  It amplifies everything - birds chirping, waves in the water, the wind, as well as every other scraping, scratching, creaking, sound in the environment.  It can be overwhelming as well as over-stimulating.

You don't go into an inherently social game almost INSTANTLY (well a mere 4 days in) blaming others for not understanding the ins and outs of your medical condition.  Unless there were explanations we didn't see that came that had ALREADY come from her about how they should specifically deal with her (which those girls just ignored), then as much as it seems unfair, the burden was still on Nina's side to be patient, rather than on the other's side to (from their perspective) jump through hoops for her.

 

In other words, this isn't real life--although even in real life this situation might be echoed somewhat by someone in Nina's position entering a new workplace and in that environment expecting people there know exactly how to deal with her.  But especially in a game like this, if she was going to try to hang tribe-mates with "they're just ignoring/excluding me", she needed a lot more than 4 days of hurried tribe bonding, and what seemed (from the clips we DID see)--which admittedly could have been SUPER-selective to make her look bad) like they DID try and just got frustrated when she didn't ever react to them. 

[kikaha]

I'm wondering why she is considered 'no collar?'  What in her life makes her a free spirit? 

[NutMeg]

I think I understand the trauma of losing your hearing - two years ago I couldn't hear a thing from one ear and not much from the other, went to a highly recommended specialist who ordered a battery of (very costly) tests and told me I most likely had a degenerative desease that would end up in me being deaf without an operation. After two weeks of depression, I went to see my GP, who flushed out very small piece of wax that were near my thymphan and that the specialst had disregarded.

 

Personal story told just so I could explain how during the time I was deaf and thought it would be permanent I became a very angry person. Anyone wouldn't speak loud enough to me and I was angry. Even with the people I loved the most, I could lash out because I was so sure this was never going to get better that I resented them treating me as if I could function alright and not realizing that I was hearing almost nothing they were saying to me. Anyone in shops for instance assuming I had heard them and mentally (or actually, or in my mind) rolling their eyes at me, and I went ballistic and really abusive. I was so mad after going to a concert I had looked forward to for months and heard only from one (half an) ear that I was ready to attack the world. Luckily for me (and I know one person who went through what I thought I was going through and for whom it never got better), my hearing and sanity were restored, but I will forever feel for anyone who lost theirs (and for me the two were obviously closely linked).

 

So I tremendously feel for Nina in her daily life. But still, she's not good at the game of Survivor. Maybe she could have tried in a few years (but them again she would have been even more of an "older woman"), or at least waited until she had adjusted to her anger/frustration with not hearing, which I have good reason to believe is a terrible and life altering ordeal. 

[EC Amber]

Here's my unsolicited $0.02... 

I like Nina as an individual given the tiny window we get to watch her through. She seems like a genuinely good hearted person, thoughtful, empathetic, concerned about the welfare of others and a strong sense of justice and fairness. 

None of these things make for a contestant on a game where people are not trustworthy or reliable. 

And she has a kind of naivete about her where she expected the kind of treatment she should rightfully expect in the "real world" but NOT what we see in a competitive game of this kind. Does she not know this is a show where a prosthetic leg was thrown in the fire?? People actively use disabilities as weakness and exploit them to remove competition. 

If Survivor wants to have people with disabilities, that is great. But I'd like a season where everyone has some kind of disability just to see how that plays out. But putting one person in a large group of otherwise physically healthy people (Will and his asthma not withstanding) just seems unfair. Especially with someone who seems tender hearted like Nina. 

[methodwriter85]

I honestly didn't think the girls were excluding her because she's deaf. They're excluding her because she's old enough to be their mother and they don't seem to want a Mommy this year, as opposed to last year with Baylin and Natalie clinging to Baylin's mother.

Edited March 7, 2015 by methodwriter85

[CletusMusashi]

I wondered if maybe they kept her out of the way in the challenge because, unlike what Jeff thought, hearing did matter. People in that kind of challenge yell  suggestions at each all the time. Ultimately. though, what they ended up doing was accidentally throwing a challenge.

I get why they booted her. The passve-aggressiveness really grates, and from there you get social issues that just feed newer social issues. Someone doesn't want to eat a lizard? That's fine. More lizard for me. But when that person is constantly whining about being an outsider... yeah, I understand why it ended up feeling like a "rejection's a two way street" thing, even though maybe that particular example shouldn't have.

I think they should have kept her, though. Will is useless in challenges, plays the social/strategic part of the game well, and has a history as a bit of a wild card. Nina, with a little more effort by the tribe to coddle her feelings, could have been a useful beta player. Drag her along for numbers, and don't worry about her social game or spying ability... hell, she wouldn't even be a big threat in the individual challenges, since she'd be the only person who couldn't cheat by listening to Jeff give away everyone else's strategies.

Might be one hell of an angry juror, but nowadays who isn't?

[LadyChatts]

While I'm curious how Nina would have fared on another tribe, somehow I feel like she would have had the exact same issue.  Look at the BC tribe and the bubbling drama that's happening over there over 'your mama' jokes and work ethic.  I doubt she would have had a prayer there. She might have been okay on the WC tribe, but only as the weakest member of the alliance and being used for the sole purpose of her vote.  Once they didn't need her vote anymore, she'd probably be gone.  Listening to her Day After video, I just think adapting and understanding the social aspect of the game was going to be her downfall no matter what.  It seemed that everything that came at her was due to her hearing (according to her).  Maybe some instances were true, but I think that was just her fall back for every bad experience she had out there was to blame it on her disability.  Even the people in her tribe who were trying were over it.  Jeff seemed over it.  Next weeks challenge that relies on listening may have been a disaster for her.  I don't think she was as physically strong as she thinks.  Stronger than Will, but not by much.  When So targeted Carolyn over age and said she was weak, I thought she was crazy.  Carolyn didn't have a chance to prove herself and didn't cost them that first challenge.  While Nina didn't cost her a tribe a challenge, she still struggled in them.  She's had time to prove herself. It probably would have gotten worse, and likely having low tribe morale wouldn't have helped matters.  In interviews Vince gave after his boot, he kind of alluded to being responsible to some of the trouble between Nina, Hali, and Jenn.  I actually wonder if he filled her head with a bunch of crap about stuff they were allegedly saying about her, thus making her paranoid and unable to trust them or want to adapt to her tribe members that she thought were talking about her every time they turned their backs. 

 

Something else: tonight Nina seemed surprised when she learned why Joe was not having her help in the challenge.  When Jeff says "I'll give you a minute to strategize", didn't they bring this up among themselves?  And if so, was Nina on board with at the time?  Or did Joe just decide on a whim to have her run ahead and Nina went with it, since you don't really have a second to think or ask questions during those challenges.  None of the other tribes seemed to have trouble with all their people getting up the ladder, so I again wonder why they sent Nina ahead-especially when they were falling behind.  At any rate, Nina is someone I won't miss.  So far no one has been booted that I care for, though So and Vince likely would have been good drama down the road.

Edited March 12, 2015 by LadyChatts

[Special K]

She was far too needy for Survivor.  You can't constantly demand attention and emotional support from your tribe.  She even went so far as to practically demand victimization from them, and then demand they apologize for it.  It is a perfect demonstration of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

I think she is still trying to adapt and figure out her identity after having lost her hearing.  And the stupid "collar" construct this season didn't help that at all.

 

But even still, passive-aggressive neediness is not a good fit for Survivor.

[Jersey Guy 87]

I think she is still trying to adapt and figure out her identity after having lost her hearing.  And the stupid "collar" construct this season didn't help that at all.

 

I don't think the collar construct hurt her either, though.  Nina was not going to fit in on whatever tribe she was on.  She's got too many issues with her hearing loss to be able to play Survivor.

[Special K]

I don't think the collar construct hurt her either, though.  Nina was not going to fit in on whatever tribe she was on.  She's got too many issues with her hearing loss to be able to play Survivor.

 

I have to say, taking into account her post-boot interviews, that you are right.