Hongkongers told to learn basic sign language to help city get the best from its deaf residents
The Chinese University of Hong Kong offers a course on which deaf and hearing pupils learn together through a combination of signing and speech
Connie Lo Chu-yi did not have a conventional childhood. She was born deaf and enrolled in a school for the hearing-impaired, where she struggled with her early education because the teachers taught using spoken language.
She was consequently forced to acquire most of her knowledge by lip-reading. On the side, using her own slang of hand signs and facial expressions, she learned to fingerspell almost every word in the dictionary.
“We were not allowed to sign because the teachers wanted us to get used to speech reading, but my classmates and I would still communicate with signs behind her back,” the 39-year-old said.
“The public seemed to think that if you couldn’t improve your deafness, you should hide it. So even if you weren’t ashamed of it, you were taught to be.”
She was not alone. Many of Hong Kong’s hearing-impaired have spent a lifetime learning to do what couldn’t be more unnatural – pretending to hear well.
