When
People Talk, Watch Completely
A
Chinese student at Zhejiang Forestry College
reportedly speaks five languages. So what –
you may don’t think much of it - plenty
people can do that. But how many hearing
impaired people can speak just one language?
Zuo
Li (左力) became deaf since he
was 8-month old, the result of the adverse
effects caused by medical treatment. He
learned to talk purely through observing and
imitating the mouth movement of other people,
which is a skill he acquired at a special
training class and mastered through his
diligent practice on his mum’s face. She
often had paper stripes adhered to her lips
by her son, just as what Zuo Li did to his
own lips. By comparing the movements of the
strips on his mother’s lips and on his own
while talking, Zuo learned a proper way to
speak, and makes himself very clear to
others.
Ernest
Hemingway once said, “When people talk,
listen completely. Most people never listen.”
Had he met Zuo Li, he might rephrase his line
to say something like, “When people talk,
watch completely. Most people never watch.”
